“Write a Word, Get a Third”

Abstract

This article examines the doubly uncertain work environment of professional songwriters: They are affected by wider events in the music industry, and their immediate work context is a team setting where the distribution of tasks varies from one project to the next. Interviews reveal that songwriters pursue professional interests by enhancing cooperation, rather than engaging in defensive tactics. The author identifies two conventions: equal authorship and professional conciliation. Such conventions elucidate how rewards are managed in a team context of task variation and underscore the mutually constitutive relationship between conflict and cooperation within postbureaucratic forms of organizing.

Devoted but Disconnected: Managing Role Conflict Through Interactional Control

“…This finding complements existing research that highlights how those with extensive caregiving roles may be devoted to work but cannot demonstrate this devotion through long hours (Stone 2007); we offer a description of how these workers show their devotion. This finding is in line with recent research that highlights how some workers are redefining what it means to achieve excellence in work in ways that are more compatible with maintaining time for family (Perlow and Kelly 2014, de Laat 2023, Heaphy and Trefalt 2023. Of course, the particular display of work devotion that we identified may or may not be accepted and praised among organizational members or society at large as "ideal" However, our data suggest that occupied workers might be more accepted in particular organizational contexts, including workplaces where performance is more easily discernable (see also Bailyn 2006) and more workers are involved in caregiving (past, present, or anticipated future).…”

Organizing Creativity With Constraints—Insights From Popular Music Songwriting Teams

“…Suitable collaborators can, in particular in popular songwriting, be chosen for each specific project, and a fresh combination of interesting songwriter profiles can leverage new and original products (Austin & Devin, 2003; de Vaan et al, 2015). For popular music songwriters, this means that they often have to deliver on the spot, that is, at short notice and in changing as well as in parallel projects (de Laat, 2015). Such contextual conditions, which call repeatedly for creative ideas and are characterized by professionalization as well as projectification, can be found in many industries, and we would argue that that is increasingly the case (Lundin et al, 2015).…”

“…These (output) constraints encompass, for example, a limited set of melodic scales, a focus on the chorus, a lyrical rhyming scheme, a 4/4 grid, a typical tempo and a 2–4 min duration (Bennett, 2012; McIntyre, 2008). Professional songwriting is also usually commissioned work, where the recording artist is a central (input) constraint that needs to be addressed (de Laat, 2015). With regard to other (i.e., process) constraints, songwriting in the field of pop music often has to follow strict timetables.…”

Marching to Her Own Beat: Asynchronous Teamwork and Gender Differences in Performance on Creative Projects

“…If a deliverable depends on multiple individuals who perform different functions but are working toward the same goal, they constitute a team; thus, asynchronous workers can still constitute a creative team. For example, song-writing can be accomplished by teams that work asynchronously (de Laat 2015; Skaggs 2019). Many “flexible work arrangements”—whether in creative industries or not—entail asynchronous teamwork (Choudhury, Foroughi, and Larson 2021; Majchrzak et al 2000); indeed, workers often appreciate such temporal flexibility (Moen, Kelly, and Hill 2011).…”