Exploring Meaning through Organizing in Musicking

1. Exploring Meaning through Organizing in Musicking John Paul StephensMay Meaning Meeting2008

2. Presentation ‘Score’ • Theoretical background: Coordination • Conceptualization: Musicking • Methods & Data • Places of Meaning in Choir • Framing attempt • Questions for MMMMembers May Meaning Meeting 2008

3. Introduction • Dissertation work: Understanding the experience of successful coordination • Context: • Complex, interdependent group task • Musicking (Small, 1998) as coordination and organizing May Meaning Meeting 2008

4. Theory on Coordination • Coordination in Psychology • Synchrony (Bernieri, Reznick, & Rosenthal, 1988) • Coordination in Organizational Studies • Organizational Design (Galbraith, 1977; Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967) • Contingency theories (Thompson, 1967; Van de Ven et al., 1976) May Meaning Meeting 2008

5. Theory on Coordination (cont’d) • Coordination between individuals at work: • Relational coordination (Gittell 2001; 2002) • Energy-in-conversation (Quinn & Dutton, 2005) • Heedful interrelating (Weick & Roberts, 1993) May Meaning Meeting 2008

6. Central Problem: What we (don’t) know about coordination • We know ways of “managing” coordination • But how is it actually experienced or enacted? • Coordination depends on mindfulness of interdependencies (Dougherty, 1992; Heath & Staudenmayer, 2000; Weick & Roberts, 1993) • Mindful of what exactly? Where is attention focused? • Coordination also involves the emergence of a new, holistic form (Fleck, 1979; Weick & Roberts, 1993) • Where does a sense of “being group” come from? How is it related to coordination? May Meaning Meeting 2008

7. Research Focus • The psychological experience of coordination • A dual characterization • Attention (to self-in-relation-to-other) • Feeling (of “being group”) • A multi-modal communicative achievement May Meaning Meeting 2008

8. Conceptual Framework • (Successful) Coordination involves: • Individuals interrelating action mindfully, attending to the relationship between self- and other- produced actions (cf. Weick & Roberts, 1993). • Individuals apprehending being of a group, a “whole” that is greater than the sum of its parts (Sandelands, 1998; 2003). May Meaning Meeting 2008

9. What I mean by “work” • A broad view of organizing • Interrelated action to achieve collective purpose (Weick, 1979) • Interest in the phenomenology (the in-the-moment-experience) of interrelating action as a collective May Meaning Meeting 2008

10. Music as context • Chorus as organizational form • Singing in choir is most popular public arts activity (NEA survey, 1998) • Almost 200-strong, community choir in Midwestern town • “Best Choral Performance” Grammy winners • Conductor prepares choir for other conductors, performance with symphony orchestras May Meaning Meeting 2008

11. Motivation of Research • Novice to choral singing and musical performance • Sensitive to issues of attention and coordination; concurrent interest in organizational cognition • Ethnographic methods used given my insider status and the performative nature of task. May Meaning Meeting 2008

12. Research Goals • Ethnography = representation of a culture [and its meanings] (Van Maanen, 1988) • Cognitive ethnography = how those meanings are created; how action embodies mind; how context shapes action and action renews context (cf. Hutchins, 1995) May Meaning Meeting 2008

13. Meaning in the choir How do I link meaning with my core interests of attention and feeling? May Meaning Meeting 2008

14. Methods • Insider/Outsider research (Bartunek & Louis, 1996; Evered & Louis, 1981) • Participant-observation • Semi-structured (collective) interviewing (cf. Fontana & Frey, 1994; Morgan & Spanish, 1984) May Meaning Meeting 2008

15. Data • Fieldnotes (8 months; 57 hours of rehearsals; 18 hours of dress rehearsals; 21 hours of public performance = 187 single-spaced pages of notes) • Interviews (27 individuals, 7 paired interviews) • Video (one rehearsal) May Meaning Meeting 2008

16. Where to begin? • What are people saying is important to them? • Attention (demonstrated in fieldnotes and interviews) • Feeling (demonstrated in fieldnotes and interviews) • Explicit testimony of meaning in interviews May Meaning Meeting 2008

17. Where is meaning in the choir? • “Places” of meaning • In performance/action • In context of action May Meaning Meeting 2008

18. Meaning in Performance May Meaning Meeting 2008

19. Meaning in Performance • Harmony: Meaning in “togetherness” of sound • Focus on technical elements vs. engagement in emotion: Linked to performance quality • Repair: Can’t “re-sing”; music comprised of related notes; obligation to audience May Meaning Meeting 2008

20. Meaning in Performance • Connecting with conductor: his facial expression signals performance quality; eye contact creates “shared moment” • Physicality: co-located physical action; discomfort; gesturing in section self-correction; seating arrangement May Meaning Meeting 2008

21. Meaning in Context of Action • Role & identity: Sopranos vs. altos; Basses & sopranos vs. altos & tenors; “job” vs. choir • Music as meaning-laden communication: Connection with entire story of musical work; connecting text content to spirituality/religion May Meaning Meeting 2008

22. Meaning in Context of Action • Social connection: making friends and being able to sing next to them; responding to conductor as coordinating center; transferral of significance of piece from conductor to singer; socializing vs. “work” of singing; getting married • Seating arrangement preference and neighbor’s expertise • Singer --> singer vs. Conductor --> singer correction May Meaning Meeting 2008

23. An attempt at a framing… May Meaning Meeting 2008

24. “Meaning of work” framing • Meaning as created in interpersonal encounters (Wrzesniewski, Dutton & Debebe, 2003) • In the case of the choir…meaning as created in apprehending place in collective, one’s role in coordination • Similar to Quinn & Dutton (2005), where conversation helps clarify one’s place in the [narrative about] the collective. May Meaning Meeting 2008

25. What is work meaning? • Work meaning = employees’ understanding of what they do [at work] as well as the significance of what they do (Wrzesniewski, Dutton & Debebe, 2003). • In the case of intragroup coordination, “understanding” in terms of attention and feeling. May Meaning Meeting 2008

26. Construct of “work meaning” • Meaning of task: unpaid, amateur, publicly performing, choral singer • Meaning of role: soprano, alto, tenor, bass, manager, librarian, section leader • Meaning of self in work: I can do more than my day job, I am musically “expert” or am “learner”, I can influence others May Meaning Meeting 2008

27. Potential Contributions • Richer, more specific views of how coordination gets done • Furthering relational view of how work is done • Focus on both attention (cognitive) and feeling (affect) May Meaning Meeting 2008

28. Questions to MMMMembers • Other views of coordination, or ways of interpreting these situations? • More to “meaning” in the choir than simply “this is what is fun”? • What literatures would be useful to look into now, considering the early stage of work? May Meaning Meeting 2008

29. Thank You!! May Meaning Meeting 2008