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Structure

Interdisciplinary Conference Flex Work Research Centre Brussels, November 26-27, 2009 What supports the individualised employment relationship? Evidence from the creative industries Axel Haunschild University of Trier. Structure. Contractual Dimensions of the Employment Contract

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Structure

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  1. Interdisciplinary ConferenceFlex Work Research CentreBrussels, November 26-27, 2009What supports the individualised employment relationship? Evidence from the creative industriesAxel HaunschildUniversity of Trier

  2. Structure • Contractual Dimensions of the Employment Contract • Work Identities • Creative Industries • Theatre • VFX • Employment Systems in the ‘Network Economy’ • Workers’ Lifestyles • Conclusions Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 2

  3. The Employment Contract • Contract Perspective: • Exchange • Mutual expectations and obligations • Freedom of choice and acceptance • Dimensions • Legal • Economic • Psychological • ... • Current issues • Commitment, loyalty, stability • Uncertainty, short-termism, temporariness, precariousness • Flexicurity? Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 3

  4. The Constitution of Work Identities Society • Destiny / societal position by birth Organisation/Employer • Duties, commitment and loyalty (old psychological contract) • Workplace community • Social status / symbolic capital (e.g. career steps, ranks, privileges, uniforms, awards, medals) • Instrumentalism, clear boundary between work and life Transorganisational • Occupation / craftsmanship / profession / devotion • Solidarity and class consciousness • Inter-organisational community; reputation Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 4

  5. Creative Industries • Based on individual creativity / generation and exploitation of intellectual property • Cultural work / industries: music, theatre, fine arts, dance, opera, literature; film, publishing , broadcasting • Creative work / industries: design (fashion, web, advertising, software, games, perfumes, etc.), architecture, entertainment etc. • Properties (Caves 2000): uncertainty of demand, infinite variety of products, intrinsic motivation, A-/B - list, project work / motley crews, time flies • Challenge prevalent ideas about • Core-periphery structures / employment strategies • ‘Best‘ HRM practices • Precarious employment • Psychological contracts Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 5

  6. First Example: Theatre • Germany: repertoire theatreswith resident theatre companies • Project work(product, production process, repertoire, careers) • Highly competitive internal and external labour markets • Flexible work arrangementsensemble contracts (one or two years), ‘guests’ Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 6

  7. Second Example:Digital Visual Effects (VFX) • 8000-10000 employed worldwide • Local centres of production in London (Soho) and Los Angeles (Santa Monica & Burbank) + Canada and New Zealand • 400 – 3000 VFX shots per feature film (e.g. Harry Potter IV: 3000 shots with 12 companies collaborating) • Soho: 25-35 major feature films per year • Project-based employment • Project heterarchy:multiple shifting centres, overlap of organisational layers, loose coupling of practices, active rivalry between partially conflicting organisational logics … Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 7

  8. Project Heterarchy of VFX communality network #01 occupational community #01 VFX facility #02 project #01 project #02 Occupational community #03 VFX facility #01 VFX Supervisor connectivity network #01 occupational community #02 (Line) Producer Technical Director Source: Spelthann & Haunschild 2009 VFX Artists etc. Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 8

  9. Some Common Characteristics • Flexible work arrangements, project-based employment • Employment uncertainty, mobility (‘boundaryless’ careers) • Competitive (tight) labour market; pool of talents • Strive for interesting / cool projects • Neither institutionalized HR functions nor explicit HR strategiesHR as a loose aggregation of (latent) practices, dispersed across different organisational layers • Training, recruitment, incentives, compensation … • Authority based on ‘supervisors’ artistic/creative reputation and impact rather than formal hierarchies • But: What provides stability? Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 9

  10. Network Economy and Models of the Employment Contract • Employment System Perspective(Marsden 1999, 2004) inter-firm rules and institutions regulating the employment relationship • New / other legal, economic and psychological contracts • Social networks as bearers of 'psychological contracts'(reputation) • Deferred rewards (royalty-type incomes; stock options) • Employment stability and training within an occupational community • Representative institutions, credible commitments and contract enforcement Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 10

  11. BUT... • Why do (some) workers accept or better cope with flexible (precarious) forms of employment? • Where do expectations and preferences regarding work arrangements come from? How can they be explained? • Work identities based on lifestyles, fusion of ‘work’ and ‘life’ Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 11

  12. ‘Laddish’ Lifestyle of Digital Visual Effects Workers • Self-perception • Fascination for technology, entertainment and ‘cool’ projects • Creatives, not artists • Milieu • Mainly independent, mobile young men • Fairly working or middle class activities like playing pool or darts, watching football and ‘hanging out with your mates’ • Global clusters, work and mobility • Work as major part of lifestyle • Cool places • Sleeping, eating, drinking at work: hotel-like function of facilities, stylish (Pratt, Gill & Spelthann 2007; Eikhof, Haunschild & Spelthann 2008) Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 12

  13. Google: Zurich offices Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 13

  14. Pixar HQ, San Francisco – central atrium Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 14

  15. Songbird (Pioneers of the Inevitable) – office San Francisco Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 15

  16. Bohemian Lifestyle of Theatre Actors • Distinction from bourgeois + middle-class values • Devotion to ‘art for art’s sake’ • Communication in public spaces • Artistic perception of work (neglect of economic logics ) • Subordination of private life to work (Eikhof & Haunschild 2006) Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 16

  17. Lifestyles in VFX and Theatre help... • ... Workers • to accept a work-dominated life, mobility and transient relationships • to combine individualism (uniqueness) and collectivism (community) • to disguise economic rationales and market forces (self-marketing + self-perception as artist/creative) Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 17

  18. Lifestyles in VFX and Theatre help... • ...Organisations / the Industry • to keep work arrangements temporary and flexible • to delimit extrinsic incentives and paid training • to benefit from devotion and creativity • Social contract between workers and organisations Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 18

  19. Lifestyles as Social Contracts... • ...link collective (but group-specific) cognitive, perceptive and behavioural schemes and the resulting work and employment preferences to industry and labour market structures as well as HRM practices. • does NOT mean harmony and absence of conflicts • problematic for workers who cannot maintain lifestyle Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 19

  20. Conclusions • Non-standard employment not necessarily perceived as precarious • More complex relationship between work demands, work arrangements and work identities • Individualised / deregulated employment does not imply insignificance of collective phenomena  Social contracts • lifestyles are crucial for understanding work motivation, work-life boundaries and work practices of a growing group of creative workers • Limits to legal, economic and psychological explanations • However, often workers heterogeneous regardingqualifications, motives / aspirations, work identities and lifestyles • Mismatch problematic: e.g. TAWs Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009 20

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  22. Class, Milieus and Lifestyles • Class (Marx): Objective conditions (education, economic capital) • Style of Life (Simmel: Stil des Lebens; Weber: Lebensführung): Subjective values, conduct of life • Milieu (Bourdieu): Subgroups in social space, characterised by objective life conditions, habitus (incorporated life conditions) and style of life Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009

  23. Sinus Milieus Class Source: http://www.sinus-sociovision.de/ Values (traditional, modern, experimental) Axel Haunschild - Flexwork - Brussels 2009

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