Managing creatives: Paradoxical approaches to identity regulation

TLDR

Creative workers face identity tensions between a distinctive, expressive self and a business‑oriented identity demanded by budgets, deadlines, and market pressures. The study aims to explicate how New Product Design consultancies manage identity tensions among creative workers, drawing on paradox theory. The authors conduct a comparative case study of New Product Design consultancies to analyze identity regulation practices. Case evidence shows firms use paradoxical approaches, combining differentiation and integration strategies; differentiation separates roles temporally and spatially, while integration fosters a synergistic meta‑identity of “practical artists.”.

Abstract

Creative workers often experience identity tensions. On the one hand, ‘creatives’ desire to see themselves as distinctive in their artistry, passion, and self-expression, nurturing an identity that energizes their innovative efforts. Yet daily pressures to meet budgets, deadlines and market demands encourage a more business-like identity that supports firm performance. Through a comparative case study of New Product Design (NPD) consultancies, we explicate the potential management of such identity tensions. Case evidence illustrates overarching, paradoxical approaches to identity regulation as the firms emphasized both differentiation and integration strategies. Differentiation practices promoted disparate identities by segregating related roles in time and space, while integration efforts encouraged a more synergistic meta-identity as ‘practical artists’. Leveraging paradox literature, we discuss how these strategies may accommodate creative workers’ needs to cope with multiple identities, as well as their aversion to sanctioned subjectivities.