Page 186 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

174 Design Meets Business
tural conditions allowed for the credibility of drastic experimentation” (Jones et al. 2016: 756). Yet, whereas amphibians cross boundaries, inspire and switch roles to advance own innovations (Powell & Sandholtz 2012), morphing can occur within the same setting and is oriented at supporting others’ creative processes.
Hence, while the existing literature suggests that for ceremony masters it is risky to be liminal themselves (Czarniawska and Mazza 2003), as they do not have protection from other actors or structures, our study points at the opportunities it brings along. Creating liminality around their own roles, can give creative workers the flexibility to quickly adapt to the changing conditions in which they work, for example as a result of the introduction of new technologies (Yoo et al. 2010). Through adopting fluid roles, and being vague around their key roles and positions, Waag could engage in a wide variety of projects, claim expertise in diverse domains and achieve a broader impact in society. In arguing this, our study helps to enlighten the work of the emergent occupations that offer creativity as a service to their clients, such as service designers who increasingly help organizations to transform and move out of their comfort zone in co-crea- tion workshops (Fayard et al. 2017; Elsbach and Stigliani 2018).
4.5.3. Limitations and suggestions for future research
We recognize two limitations in our research that imply suggestions for future research. First, our data collection was restricted in time. Without having the option to follow what occurred after the projects ended, we could not see the long-term effects of liminality. Future research could explore the long-term consequences of experiencing liminality in innova- tion projects. Related to this, what is interesting in our case is that the third phase, that of incorporation, was the least developed phase at Waag. This means that there was not a real closure in projects. In such situations, it is even more unclear what the consequences of liminality are. This alludes to what scholars refer to as a situation of ‘permanent’ liminality (Johnsen and Sorensen 2015). Future research could conduct longitudinal qualitative research and further explore what are the outcomes of liminality, and what has been transformed or is transforming while undergoing liminality.
Second, the dynamics we observed may have been more pronounced because of the limited commercial interests of Waag as a nonprofit organi- zation. Creative workers with profit motives may have a stronger tendency to prove their value by delivering specific creative output themselves and be less inclined to focus on activating their clients to independently engage in creative processes. Yet, commercial design agencies who are currently