Kim Goodwin

Leadership in the Australian arts and cultural sector has become, in recent decades, a prominent topic of discussion. On one hand, there is increased corporatisation in the arts that promotes leaders with strong business orientations, on the other, questions asked about the role arts leaders play in shaping our cultural and intellectual life. In these debates, we are left wondering what constitutes effective arts and cultural leadership, and how we develop it. While there is substantial research on leadership in arts and cultural organisations, it focuses predominantly on established leaders and often neglects large sections of the industry where leadership is practiced in flexible, often precarious, labour markets. We know little of how arts and cultural leaders are developed in the context of sole traders, casual workers and volunteers who are unlikely to access leadership development through traditional channels discussed in management literature. This research explores the devel...

Academic approaches to arts and cultural leadership have focused predominantly on established leaders in the organizational context. Taking an alternative approach, this paper considers the identity development of emerging leaders within disciplinary-based communities. It argues that leadership is both socially constructed and not universally embraced, analyzing 41 interviews with Australian arts and cultural practitioners to demonstrate that emerging arts and cultural leaders are often reluctant to identify as leaders. The paper explores reasons for this reluctance and discusses implications for the sector. The research contributes to theoretical knowledge of arts and cultural leadership and of the development of emerging leader identity.

Building a sustainable career in the creative industries is a challenging proposition. Creative workers face high levels of employment insecurity and limited career development opportunity. Those working in the sector must build discipline-oriented career self-management skills, while also finding ways to cope with the psychologically demanding nature of precarious work. Two competencies that contribute to creative career success are self-efficacy and career optimism, both of which support resilience and persistence in the face of career obstacles. This study used narrative data from 28 interviews across six creative disciplines to examine how creative workers who work within communities of practice build self-efficacy and career optimism. The findings suggested that, by participating in communities of practice, creative practitioners not only build professional skills that align with their discipline but also gain psychosocial support that promotes resilience. There is an opportunity, therefore, to enhance understanding of communities of practice with creative career development offerings.

Understanding what constitutes successful leadership development for creative practitioners helps provide guidance for individuals building careers, supports organisational success and fosters effective funding for sector development. Given the labour market environment of the arts sector facilitated learning or organisational development may not be the most available or efficient methods to develop leadership capability.  This paper explores social learning, examining how it influences the emerging leader development in the arts sector. Data from art forms are compared demonstrating how legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice may support building leadership capability and construction of leadership identity, and how industry environment may reduce the potential learning opportunities. By understanding social learning individuals are able to inexpensively develop leadership learning, whilst at an industry and organisational level utilisation and support of social learning practices may build collaborative leadership capacity in ways currently not realised.

The intersection of leadership and creativity is often portrayed as a magic bullet for organisational success. This research is an investigation into the concepts of leadership, development and identity within Australian creative industries. There has been a recent increase in focus into the managerial practices within the cultural and creative economic sectors, driven by development of the arts management academic discipline, the increased importance of the creative industries as a contributor to GDP and the perception of the creative sector as a potential incubator for the development of management practices and leadership capability.  Little research has been undertaken, however, into the how leadership skills have been developed by those working within industry, how consciously those skills have been developed and how emerging leaders in this field relate to the concept of leadership.

The study consists of interviews with emerging leaders  and those who have helped shape their career, from a variety of disciplines across the Australian creative industries and is supported by a literature review examining leadership, development and identity theory. These interviews form a process of collecting, and validating, information around career and leadership development activity but also capturing narrative from the subjects around their leadership ‘life story’, construction of their leadership identity and how they relate to the concept of leadership itself.

This paper explores the intersection of leadership and identity development in small, professional groups across the Australian arts and cultural sector. Using constructionist concepts of identity and social learning approaches it investigates the often-complex relationship arts and cultural practitioners have with leadership. Case studies from six disciplines are considered to demonstrate that, in the face of identity regulation, or intentional social processes that impact identity construction and reconstruction, some arts and cultural emerging leaders exhibit resistance to identifying as a leader, even when engaged in leadership practices. The paper argues communities of practice play an important role in facilitating the construction of positive leadership identity that supports individual creative practice.