Exploring Human Resource Management Practices: An empirical study of the Performing Arts companies in Australia A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Stanley Chibuzo Opara Dip of Strategic Communication Management, Open Poly of New Zealand Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), Massey University, New Zealand Master of Management (HRM), Massey University, New Zealand School of Management College of Business RMIT University May 2016 i DECLARATION I, Stanley Opara, declare that the PhD thesis entitled Human Resource Management: An empirical study of the performing arts companies in Australia is my own account of my research and contains as its main content work which has not previously been submitted for any other academic award of degree at any tertiary institution. The content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the commencement of the approved research program; and, any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. RMIT University has permission to keep, to lend or to copy this thesis in whole or in part, on conditions that any such use of the material of the thesis be duly acknowledged. Opara School of Management RMIT University ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to acknowledge the energy and time from my principal supervisor, Professor Pauline Stanton, for her enormous input and dedication towards this thesis.
As a mentor and coach, she was invaluable throughout the entire process. Her tremendous intelligence, ability to see the big picture has been so much appreciated. I have learned so much from you as an admirable human being. I would also like to thank my two co-supervisors, Associate Professor David Fan and Associate Professor Cathy Brigden, who joined us at two different stages of the study.
Thanks to both of you for providing valuable comments and suggestions throughout the length of this thesis. Your knowledge, experience and insight have been wonderful and most appreciated. I would also like to extend my humble acknowledgment to Professor Alan Nankervis of Curtin Business School for taken his time to review this thesis. I would also like to thank my brother Distinguished Professor Umezuruike Linus Opara for his continued encouragement.
Despite his tight schedule he found time to read all the chapters and provided useful and helpful comments and suggestions. My thanks are also due to Dr Jeff Okpala, Dr Margaret Heffernan and Dr Raymond Trau both of School of Management RMIT, Eric Njoku, Julius Tiger Nwaokeoma, Leonard Okere, Okechukwu Opara, Chris Oparaigbo, Clifford Madufo, Azu Azubuike, Luke Iwunze and Yin Huey. Your moral support is invaluable in such an undertaking as the writing of a doctoral dissertation. Thank you for your persistent words of encouragement and love.
I also acknowledge the professional editing assistance of Dr Bradley Smith of Semiosmith Editing and Consulting Services. Lastly, I would also wish to extend my gratitude to my family, for without them, my mental state may have wavered. Thanks to my wife, Euphemia, for sticking with me through what seemed like a never-ending process. I also wish to thank my three children, Kelechi, Chichi and Uchenna, who have never known life without this thesis somewhere around the house.
Your steadfast love, encouragement, understanding and patience meant more to me than you will ever know to have your unconditional support throughout this process. iii ABSTRACT The purpose of this doctoral thesis is to explore human resource management systems and practices in the performing arts companies in Australia. This is in the context of the assumption that effective utilisation of HRM in an organisation can be a source of competitive advantage, provided that the policies and practices for managing people are integrated with the organisation’s strategic goals and objectives. Despite the growth of studies on strategic HRM in a range of industries and the economic contribution of the arts to the Australian economy, there has been no study available exploring how performing arts companies manage their human resources.
This study aims to fill that gap. This is a qualitative study comprised of two phases: the first phase was a set of semi- structured interviews with eight key industry stakeholders, designed to capture their perspectives in regard to the practice of HRM in the performing arts. Phase 2 investigated the HRM practices of three case organisations: a micro dance company, a medium-sized theatre company, and a large musical theatre company through key informant interviews and company documentation. The study suggests that there are considerable barriers to the effective adoption and implementation of HRM in the performing arts.
In particular, the research identified four major features that impact on HRM practices in the arts sector. These are: firstly, the precarious nature of employment, due to the short-term and project focused work. Secondly, the reliance on often limited government funding, supplemented by philanthropy, sponsorship and Box office takings, leading to short-term and long-term financial insecurity and limited capacity for long term planning. Thirdly, limited resources and high levels of casualisation which leads to low income, poor working conditions, lack of training and few opportunities for career development.
Fourthly, despite these difficult conditions, the sector appears to attract a highly motivated and committed workforce including not just performers but also managers and administrators and the sector appears to rely on their passion, commitment and shared endeavour. iv In relation to the practice of HRM, the findings suggest a personnel, administrative, cost focused and compliance-based approach, with little evidence of vertical or horizontal integration of HRM policies and no evidence of strategic HR practice. This was prevalent even in the large arts company suggesting that the sector context described above outweighs the usual advantage of organisational size and increased resources. Moreover, strategic HRM theory might be of less relevance in a sector where the nature of the work and the workforce leads to careers being seen in the context of the industry not the organisation.
The performing arts workforce moves in and out of arts companies sometimes as employees sometimes as independent contractors. This has implications for HRM practice in individual companies and HRM theory in that building commitment to the company through HR is more challenging as managing costs is paramount in this sector. This study also makes a theoretical contribution in that it challenges Lepak and Snell (1999) who argue that companies apply different HR strategies to different sections of the workforce by investing in employees who have strategic value and taking a cost focused approach to those employees that do not have strategic value. This study found that the very employees that provide the most strategic value to performing arts organisations i.
the performers themselves are often in the most precarious position receiving little if any investment. The study also extends the work of Bowen and Ostroff (2004) by demonstrating how confused and inconsistent management messages can undermine HRM practices even in micro organisations. v TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VI LIST OF TABLES. XI LIST OF FIGURES. XII LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS. XIII CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.2 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT OF THE STUDY .1 The creative industries .2 Defining the creative industries .3 The rise of the creative economy .4 Critique of the creative industries discourse .5 Employment in the creative industry: .3 STRUCTURE OF THE PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR IN AUSTRALIA .4 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM .6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY .7 OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS STRUCTURE.
17 CHAPTER TWO: THE PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR .2 ECONOMIC CONTRIBUTION OF THE ARTS. The Performing Arts in Australia .3 THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT IN THE PERFORMING ARTS .1 Government as Policy maker .2 Government as funder .3 Other sources of funding .4 Government as a regulator.1 Australian Industrial Relations Framework .3 Enterprise Bargaining Agreements .4 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN THE PERFORMING ARTS SECTOR .5 PERFORMING ARTS ORGANISATIONS .6 The Performing Arts Sector Workforce .3 Employees, Self-employed contractors or creative entrepreneurs .4 Passion and commitment to the organisation, the industry or the art? .7 RETURN TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS. 49 CHAPTER THREE: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES .2 EVOLUTION OF STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (SHRM) .1 Early trends in personnel management .2 The evolution of HRM .3 The emergence of Strategic HRM .3 THEORETICAL MODELS OF STRATEGIC HRM .1 The Michigan model of SHRM .2 The Harvard model of SHRM .4 EMPIRICAL RESEARCH IN HRM .1 SHRM challenges and organisational performance .2 Universal perspective on SHRM.3 Contingency or best fit perspective on SHRM .5 COMPLIANCE VERSUS COMMITMENT HRM SYSTEMS .1 Compliance-based HRM Systems.2 The commitment-orientated HRM system .6 THE HR ARCHITECTURE MODEL .7 A PROCESS FOCUS - THE STRENGTH OF THE HRM SYSTEMS.8 THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT .1 HRM and organisational size .9 THE RISE OF PROJECT-BASED ORGANISATIONS .1 Characteristics of project-based organisation .2 HRM challenges in the project-based organisation. 96 CHAPTER FOUR: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND DESIGN .2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY .1 Research Methodology Selected: Qualitative Research Approach .2 Justification for Qualitative Research Approach in this Study .4 RESEARCH DESIGN: QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY APPROACH .1 Multiple Case Study Design .2 The Selection of Cases .3 Data Collection Process .2 Reliability and Validity .7 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH METHODS.
119 CHAPTER FIVE: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE KEY STAKEHOLDERS .2 PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS.3 KEY EMERGING THEMES .2 The issue of funding and resources in the sector .3 Pay and conditions.4 HRM practices and organisational size .4 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. 137 CHAPTER SIX: CASE STUDY ONE-DANCE COMPANY .2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY.4 PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS .5 MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCES IN DANCE COMPANY .1 The Artistic Director’s story .2 The Company Manager’s story .3 The Chair of the Board’s story .4 The Choreographer’s story .1 Nature and structure of HRM in the company .2 HRM policies and practices .3 Communication in the company .4 Funding and resources issues .5 Nature of the industry and impact on the workforce. 165 CHAPTER SEVEN: CASE STUDY TWO - THEATRE COMPANY .2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY.4 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN THE CASE COMPANY.5 PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS .6 KEY FINDINGS FROM THE PERSPECTIVES OF THE FUNCTIONAL/ADMINISTRATION TEAM .1 The Finance Manager .2 The Finance Assistant’s story .3 The Marketing Coordinator’s story .4 The Box Office Assistant’s story .5 Summary findings from the Functional/ Administrative team .7 THE CREATIVE/MANAGEMENT TEAM .1 The Executive Producer.2 The Company Manager .3 The Associate Artistic Director .4 The Freelance Artist .5 Summary findings from the Creative/Management team .8 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS .1 The nature and structure of HRM in the company .2 HRM policies and practices in the company .3 Nature of HRM and communication in the company .4 Funding and resources issues .5 Nature of the industry and impact on the workforce. 201 CHAPTER EIGHT: CASE STUDY THREE: MUSICAL PERFORMING ARTS COMPANY .2 AN OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY.4 HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN THE CASE COMPANY .5 PROFILE OF THE PARTICIPANTS .6 KEY FINDINGS IN THE CASE COMPANY .1 The HR Director’s story .2 The General Manager Orchestra’s story .3 Senior Artistic Manager’s story .4 The Company Manager’s story .7 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS .1 Nature and structure of HRM in the Company .2 HRM systems, policies and practices in the company .3 HRM and communication in the company .4 Funding and resources in the arts industry .5 Nature of the industry and impact on the workforce.
226 CHAPTER NINE: ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION .2 CROSS-CASE COMPARISON AND ANALYSIS OF EMERGING THEMES .1 The structure and understanding of HRM in the case companies .2 HRM policies and practices in the case companies .3 HRM and communication practices in the companies .4 Funding and resource issues in the arts industry .5 Nature of the workforce and impact on HRM practices.3 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. 240 CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS .2 SUMMARY OF KEY STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVES.3 CASE STUDIES COMPARISON .4 UNDERSTANDING THE FINDINGS.5 THEORETICAL CONTRIBUTION OF THIS THESIS .6 PRACTICAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE THESIS .7 LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH STUDY. 314 x LIST OF TABLES TABLE 1.