Overcoming Conflict Between Symmetric Occupations: How “Creatives” and “Suits” Use Gender Ordering in Advertising

Abstract

In knowledge-based organizations, conflict among interdependent occupations can be exacerbated by the absence of a clear hierarchical ordering of these occupations within the organization. Moreover, given women's inroads into some traditionally male-dominated occupations but not others, these workplaces are increasingly horizontally gender segregated. In this paper, we study how members of these symmetric and segregated occupations manage conflict in U.S. advertising agencies through the case of relationships between 'creatives' (copywriters, designers, and creative directors) and 'suits' or account practitioners (account executives, strategists, and managers). Creatives and suits are at the same organizational level in their agencies. While creatives are primarily men, suits, traditionally also men, are now primarily women. Drawing on participant observation in five different U.S. advertising agencies and over 100 interviews, we show how creatives and account practitioners use gender ordering to overcome jurisdictional conflict. These practices are grounded in enacting essentialist gender differences that transform symmetric occupational relationships into hierarchical ones by embedding the gender hierarchy. We find that while gender ordering helps women and men in cross-occupational pairs get work done, it also reinforces women's disadvantage because for women it involves low-status and emotionally taxing scut work that it does not involve for men.

How Idealized Professional Identities Can Persist through Client Interactions

“…When people commit to a profession before experiencing the work, their expected identity may be idealized—shaped by their imaginations and developed through exposure to media, popular culture, family member accounts, and myths. Related scholarship on occupational prototypes suggests that stereotypes, particularly gender stereotypes associated with ideal worker images, affect occupational gender segregation (Ashcraft, 2013; Bartel and Wiesenfeld, 2013; Seron et al, 2016) and gendered forms of collaboration (Cardador, Hill, and Salles, 2021; Koppman, Bechky, and Cohen, 2021). My study finds that occupational images or prototypes may also impact how professionals enact their roles with clients, even when their organizations and professions do not endorse such outdated depictions of the occupation or when their enactment results in negative outcomes.…”

Making Exceptions Exceptional: A Cross-Methodological Review and Future Research Agenda

“…We use these labels to organize and synthesize our review, as the present terminology used to discuss exceptions is diverse and potentially confusing. Table 2 identifies the frequency of our search terms, but in our text extraction and coding, we identified even more terms, such as “unique case” and “intensity case” (e.g., Durand & Vargas, 2003; Koppman, Bechky, & Cohen, 2022). We also found different terms used interchangeably to discuss exceptions.…”

Permanent scars, improvisation and new paths forward: communication agency leadership responses to COVID-19

“…Such efforts lead to increased trust, engagement and resilience among employees (Buzzanell and Houston, 2018). Autonomous respect is a recent theorization (LaGree et al ., 2023; Willett et al ., 2023) that highlights the importance of shifting responsibilities at home and work during the pandemic while reflecting the deep interdependency of multifaceted agency teams (Koppman et al ., 2022). In a professional services or consulting framework, there is even more value in demonstrating respect (e.g.…”