Page 215 - Design meets Business:An Ethnographic Study of the Changing Work and Occupations of Creatives

5. Discussion 203
Finally, craftsmanship is not only a principle or an attitude, but also a social consciousness in that it compels the importance of “doing good” for the greater community of the craft (Sennett 2008; Baer & Shaw 2017). This means that besides the importance of material practices, for craftsmen also the social nature of their work is important. Future research could explore what collective and social practices are enacting for curating a community of craftsmen. In his work, Sennett (2008) mentions the key role of rituals in sustaining the community feelings among craftsmen. My fieldwork at the design firm Fjord, also pointed at the importance of rituals among the designers. A designer said: “we have so many rituals. At Fjord, we love rituals. They help us do our work”. Indeed, at the design firm there were plenty of organizational rituals such as the weekly breakfast meetings in which designers shared project updates, design clinics in which they learned new knowledge and skills and the annual Equinox in which all the designers of Fjord globally gathered for off-site activities. Also, at Fjord there were numerous project-related rituals such as the going out to dinner with clients and celebrating with the design team members when a project finished.
I invite future researchers to adopt a ‘ritual’ lens to further reveal the role of rituals in creating feelings of community and societal welfare among craftsmen. Especially, in the context of Fjord, it is interesting to further explore what is the social function of rituals among designers in the larger context of the acquisition by Accenture. In a way, my fieldnotes seem to suggest that the rituals helped the designers to develop a different identity than those of consultants. Further, a ritual lens can offer interes- ting insights into how craftsmen that are spread over different locations globally, still form a cohesive and collective shared identity of the craft. As practice theory is an approach that allows to study people’s daily behaviors (Nicolini 2012), it offers interesting opportunities for better understanding craftsmanship in today’s society in which digital technologies are perva- sive and work communities are spread across the globe.
5.3 Practical Implications
5.3.1. Implications for creatives
This dissertation also has practical implications. In particular, it gives insights into the strange love affair between creatives and business. Also, it helps to better understand the professionalization of creative work and the challenges it has brought along. Among others, it is demonstrated that key changes include that some creatives now develop more abstract outcomes (Chapter 2 & 4), welcome new members to their occupational domain