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Personnel Review
Dealing with multiple incompatible work-related identities: the case of artists
Sophie Hennekam,
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artists", Personnel Review, Vol. 46 Issue: 5, pp.970-987, https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-02-2016-0025
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Dealing with multiple
incompatible work-related
identities: the case of artists
Sophie Hennekam
ESC La Rochelle School of Business, La Rochelle, France and
IRGO, University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine how artists deal with having multiple potentially
incompatible work-related identities as a result of a career transition from making a living exclusively as
artists to taking on additional work outside the creative industries.
Design/methodology/approach –In all, 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted by
telephone with artists in the Netherlands. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the findings.
Findings –Four different strategies for dealing with multiple potentially incompatible identities were
identified: integration, accumulation, separation and dis-identification. The findings suggest that the informal
social context, the support of rejection of important others, influenced the strategy adopted by the artists.
Invalidation from the environment often leads to stress and separation or dis-identification strategies, while
validation seems to lead to integration and accumulation strategies that are less psychologically straining.
Practical implications –The findings stress the importance of the external environment. While the workers
had to deal with their own psychological stress and regret about not succeeding at working exclusively as
artists, they also had to create a feasible story that allowed them to “sell”their transition to others.
Originality/value –Careers are becoming increasingly non-linear, and the number of workers who need to
juggle multiple (potentially conflicting) work-related identities is rising. However, how workers deal with this
has received only limited attention from researchers.
Keywords The Netherlands, Artists, Qualitative, Multiple identities, Career transition, Identity transition,
Informal social context
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the past, careers were perceived as linear pathways of individual development within one
stable employing organization (Schilling, 2012). Nowadays, the working lives of many
employees regularly meet interruptions, setbacks and downtime, as well as highlights, and
employees follow meandering career paths, often with a number of organizational and
thematic changes (Sabelis, 2010). Indeed, a shift toward increasing labor market flexibility
can be observed (Michie and Sheehan‐Quinn, 2001), leading to higher risks for
unemployment and more job changes. Individuals now have to find new ways to ensure
employment security, constantly update their skills and knowledge and be able to move
from one occupation to another. The volatility is exacerbated by the financial crisis of 2008
and the ongoing recessions in many European countries. Unemployment is increasing and
fewer and fewer people can rely on one full-time position. In the European Union (EU),
part-time work has been increasing from 16.7 percent in 2004 to 19.6 percent in 2014
(Eurostat, 2016) and atypical employment is on the rise. This leads to a less stable and less
secure situation for workers increasing precariousness among the employed population
(Panos et al., 2014). In order to cope with those changes in the labor market, an increasing
number of individuals are now holding multiple jobs (Bell et al., 1997; Neumark, 2000).
One consequence of the increasing moves in terms of positions, jobs, companies or sectors,
leads to changes in their work-related identities (Alvesson et al., 2008). Career transitions
and their impact on work-related identities have been studied extensively (Conroy and
O’Leary-Kelly, 2014; Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010). In the past, researchers focused their
Personnel Review
Vol. 46 No. 5, 2017
pp. 970-987
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-02-2016-0025
Received 14 February 2016
Revised 17 June 2016
Accepted 6 August 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
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attention on sequential identity transitions, for example, when an individual moves from one
position or occupation to another (Ashforth, 2001). In the light of the new economy, where
people are increasingly responsible for their own careers, individuals no longer move from
one full-time position to the next; they now have to juggle several part-time jobs
simultaneously. As a consequence, instead of having one identity, they have multiple
identities and need to find ways to construct one coherent identity from the mix of multiple
ones. However, dealing with potentially conflicting or incompatible identities has received
only limited attention from researchers (Pratt and Foreman, 2000). When several
work-related identities are coherent, all goes well. Problems arise, however, when those
identities are perceived as being incompatible, leading to stress and identity conflict.
Researchers have called for more studies on what sustains a creative identity as artists
move across diverse contexts and increasingly find themselves working in non-arts jobs
(Pachucki et al., 2010). In addition, researchers have stressed the need to incorporate a theory
of identity in the study of creativity (Glaveanu and Tanggaard, 2014). This paper tries to fill
this gap in the literature by providing more insights into how individuals cope with multiple,
conflicting, and/or ambiguous identities across multiple domains (Roccas et al., 2008).
This paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge in two ways. First, it presents a
qualitative in-depth examination of how artists who identify strongly with their occupation
juggle different activities, commitments and identities. We use a sample of artists in the
Netherlands who have moved from working exclusively as full-time artists to being workers
who continue to work as artists but are also employed outside the creative industries. Several
resolutions or realignments of their different identities and the strategies by which the artists
accomplished this are identified. Second, this paper explores the importance of one contextual
factor: the informal social context. This exploration takes into consideration the reactions of
other people with regard to artists’decisions to take on other professional activities outside the
artistic realm, and how these people’s validation or invalidation influences the strategy the
artists use in dealing with their multiple conflicting identities. Third, it provides an indication
of the psychological outcome of using those different strategies.
Context
First, this study focuses on artists. Over 130,000 individuals have been identified as being
active as artists in the Netherlands (Statistics Netherlands, 2011). Artists often occupy
several jobs: this is the case for 16 percent of all artists vs 7 percent in the total working
population (Schreven and De Rijk, 2011; Statistics Netherlands, 2011). This is true not only
in the Netherlands, but also in the EU as a whole. It has been estimated that in 2013
3.5 percent of the European working population held a second job, which is eight times more
than in 2002 (Eurostat, 2014). Moreover, artists are highly likely to experience career
transitions. Researchers have shown that 60-70 percent of relatively recently graduated
artists reported having stopped their artistic activities in the first four years after
graduation, for economic or familial reasons or because they had been discouraged by the
difficulties of accessing the creative sector (Schreven and De Rijk, 2011).
Literature review
Identity
Identity construction in organizations has been conceived as a mutually co-constructive
interaction between individuals and social structures (Ybema et al., 2009). Co-construction is
enacted in the interplay between individuals’self-identity (their own notion of who they are)
and their social identity (the notion of that person in external discourses, institutions and
culture) (Watson, 2009). Previous studies show that the two identities are sometimes in
conflict, individuals having an imposed work-related identity and also what they consider as
their authentic self (Costas and Fleming, 2009). This study adopts a commonly used
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definition of identity as a self-referential description that provides contextually appropriate
answers to the question “Who am I?”(Ashforth et al., 2008). Work-related identity has been
defined as “aspects of identity and self-definition that are tied to participation in the
activities of work […] or membership in work-related groups, organizations, occupations, or
professions”(Dutton et al., 2010, p. 266).
Multiple identities
Researchers are increasingly acknowledging that identities are momentary, fluid and that
multiple identities can co-exist in one person (Watson, 2008). In this study, artists reveal
several identities: they take on a non-artistic identity, but this does not imply the
abandonment of their artistic identity. It is important to note that the artists in this study
reported feeling “forced”or “pushed”to take on another job outside the creative industries.
While they objectively chose for themselves to take on another job outside the creative
industries while continuing their artistic activities, they felt that they did not have a choice
as a consequence of financial, physical or psychological difficulties. The accumulation of
identities is likely to generate a change in how one sees and experiences the self in an
already existing work-related identity. Having multiple identities is increasingly common
for artists, as they often have to cross over from their creative work as artists in order to
work in other fields, sometimes closely related to their artistic practice but at other times in
entirely different domains (Rabkin, 2013). This can lead to competing role demands, but
might also result in feelings of fragmentation because they have to make claims regarding
who they are and who they would like to become (Ibarra, 2003).
While people have many identities, some are more central to a person’s self-definition
and are more deeply embedded in his or her daily life, while others are only relevant in
specific contexts and situations (Ashforth and Johnson, 2001). There is agreement that these
multiple, mutable identities are socially constructed and negotiated but coexist within a self
that has some degree of continuity across time and situations (Baumeister, 1998). However,
it is sometimes difficult to keep a sense of continuity, such as when one has several
conflicting multiple identities.
Multiple incompatible identities
Multiple identities can trigger tensions, insecurity, anxiety, depression or ill health when
experienced as being contradictory or incompatible (Fitzsimmons, 2013). This can give rise
to identity conflict (Ibarra, 2003), defined as a “multiply-defined self, whose multiple
definitions are incompatible”(Baumeister, 1986 p. 199).
For artists, being part of a Bohemian milieu and sharing cultural, rather than materialistic
values lies at the core of their artistic self-perception (Eikhof and Haunschild, 2007).
However, they also have to make a living and often need additional sources of income,
sometimes from work outside the creative realm. As such, seeking to weave together
their artistic and non-artistic identities can generates friction through the juxtaposition
of conflicting values and expectations (Michlewski, 2008), leading to identity ambivalence
(Davis, 1994): contradictions between one’s self-image and the image and expectations that
society has of one.
Strategies for dealing with multiple potentially incompatible identities
Roccas and Brewer (2002) identify four strategies that individuals can pursue in managing
their multiple identities: intersection (e.g. a painter who only identifies with painters, but not
with all people working in the creative industry); dominance, also called dis-identification
(e.g. a consultant/writer who only identifies with other writers, but not with consultants),
whereby individuals dis-identify with one or several identities; compartmentalization, also
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called separation (e.g. a guitar player/biology teacher who identifies with other teachers or
other guitar players depending on the situation); and merger, also called integration
(e.g. a therapist/actor who identifies with both therapists and actors). Merger or identity
integration leads individuals to embrace disparate roles as synergistic, thereby coping with
their tensions. One way to achieve integration is the use of meta-identity (Gotsi et al., 2010).
In a study on product design firms (Gotsi et al., 2010), the interviewees explained that
they had to be artists and consultants. They expressed their concerns over each identity in
isolation, and they used both separation and integration strategies (Gotsi et al., 2010).
Meta-identity offers a superordinate self-categorization within which discrete identities can
relate (Pratt and Foreman, 2000). Contradictions between identities may also be reconciled
by emphasizing their interdependence; multiple identities can also be made explicit, thereby
enabling synergy (Pratt and Foreman, 2000). Others have argued that separation, also called
differentiation or compartmentalization, is the most commonly used technique when dealing
with multiple identities (Ashforth, 2001). Although this strategy is cognitively straining and
may lead to psychological tensions as it seeks to preserve distinct identities (Kuhn, 2006).
Finally, being ambiguous about one’s identity is another way of dealing with multiple
identities (Corley and Gioia, 2004).
The informal social context
Much of the research on identity has been influenced by the social constructionist paradigm
and the writings of Mead (1934) in which identity is seen as a construction created through
interactions between the self and the society in which we live. In line with the looking glass
self (Cooley, 1902), a person’s identity grows out of person’s social interactions with others.
We gain our identities partly by seeing reflections of what other people think of us.
Communicating effectively to others often happens in the form of telling a story. For the
artists in this study, who decided to start working simultaneously within and outside the
creative industries, the way they created their story was likely to influence how others
reacted to this decision (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010). More precisely, it was expected that
by “selling”their choice as something positive, they increased the chance of being validated
by the environment. A study by Oakland et al. (2013) explored the construction of an opera
singer identity and its fragmentation as a result of job loss. They highlighted the fragility of
artistic identity and its dependence on external validation, particularly from colleagues.
The current study examines the role of the informal social context in the form of social
interactions with others, such as colleagues within the artistic community, as well as friends
and family outside the creative industries. More precisely, the impact of the validation or
invalidation of those important individuals is taken into account when it comes to the way in
which artists deal with their multiple identities.
Methodology
This study used a grounded theory approach to gain a more nuanced understanding of how
artists deal with multiple conflicting identities. This method is commonly used to delve into
an unknown phenomenon and develop further understanding of existing theoretical
perspectives (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
Artists are a particular group of workers, since they strongly identify with their
profession “I am an artist”, although the same can be said of some other occupational groups
such as doctors. This study focuses on individuals who previously worked full time as
artists exclusively in the creative industries. However, for financial, physical or
psychological reasons, they felt forced to take on another job outside the creative sphere.
These artists moved from one professional identity (artist) to having two or multiple
identities (artist and driver, for example). Artists can be considered an extreme context
since 16 percent of all artists hold several jobs, against 7 percent of the total working
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population in the Netherlands, and because they are more likely to experience career
transitions (Schreven and De Rijk, 2011; Statistics Netherlands, 2011, 2014). This context
allows us to build a new theory on conflicting multiple work-related identity strategies.
It has been argued that theory building can best be examined in extreme contexts because
the dynamics being studied are more visible (Eisenhardt, 1989).
Sample
The sample in this study consisted of 40 artists, all of whom are members of the largest
trade union in the creative industry in the Netherlands. The researcher was given
permission to access the trade union’s membership database and then contacted the
interviewees directly in late 2013. The interviewees in the study were between 22 and
61 years old, with an average age of 32; 60 percent were male and 40 percent female, which is
fairly similar to the trade union database as a whole. The first selection criterion to be
included in the study was that the participants had to be working as artists. The second
criterion was that the artists had also to have taken another job outside the creative
industries for the first time in their professional life as artists.
Table I provides information regarding the background of the interviewees. Their age,
gender, educational background, a description of their arts practice and other job(s) are
provided. The last column indicates if the interviewees’new professional activity was
perceived to be related or unrelated to their arts practice by the interviewees themselves.
Procedure
After having removed those who were working exclusively as artists and those who had
previously worked both within and outside the creative industries, the researcher contacted
51 individuals randomly from the trade union database. The interviewees were contacted by
telephone and the purpose of the study was explained. In all, 40 individuals wished to
participate. This gave a response rate of 78 percent, which is considered high. The number
of interviews to be conducted was not determined beforehand. However, after 40 interviews,
a point of saturation was reached, beyond which little new information was obtained and
similar patterns recurred.
Semi-structured in-depth interviews were chosen as they provide an opportunity for
detailed investigation of the personal views and experiences of each interviewee.
An interview guide was used but additional questions were asked as the researchers
identified statements by the interviewees that were considered worthy of expansion.
The interview questions were open-ended, for example: How do you feel about both working
as an artist in the creative industry as well as in another occupation outside this industry?
Questions were asked about the interviewees’artistic and non-artistic activities, their
identity as an artist and their identity when performing other professional activities, the
transition from an artistic to a non-artistic identity and how they integrated (or not) these
two identities. The interviews were conducted by telephone and lasted for about one to
one-and-a-half hours. The interviews were conducted in Dutch and translated into English
using parallel translations by two native English-Dutch speakers.
Analysis
All of the interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed verbatim. The analysis was done
by hand, without the use of a software package. These data were coded as they were
collected and grounded theory techniques used to analyze them (Strauss and Corbin, 1990).
The goal was to build a new theory around how artists deal with multiple potentially
incompatible identities. A set of general questions guided the research, but more themes and
categories emerged from the data and were integrated. The researcher conducted all the
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Participants Age Gender Educational background Description of Other job(s)
Related to artists
practices
1 43 Male Conservatoire Piano player Consultant No
2 29 Female Theater School Actress Drama teacher Yes
3 33 Male Theater School Actor Creative therapist Yes
4 41 Male Design Web designer Garage No
5 39 Male Arts Academy Artist Driver No
6 53 Female Design Designer Consultant visual Yes
7 55 Female Dance Academy Choreographer Administrative
assistant
No
8 28 Female Conservatoire Musician Waitress No
9 47 Female Higher Voc. Circus Edu. Circus
performer
Call center No
10 22 Female Dance Academy Ballet dancer Administrative No
11 24 Male Journalism Poem writer Nurse No
12 31 Male Conservatory Song-writer Builder No
13 32 Male Arts Academy Painter Math teacher No
14 29 Female Conservatory Opera singer General arts
teacher
Yes
15 34 Male Dance Academy Dancer Cashier No
16 30 Male Arts Academy Sculptor Cleaner No
17 34 Female Arts Academy Painter Renovator No
18 29 Female Conservatory Pianist Administration No
19 27 Female Arts Academy Producer Drama teacher Yes
20 32 Male Ceramist School Potter Manual arts
teacher
Yes
21 22 Male Intermediate Technical
Ed.Instrument repairer
Receptionist No
22 23 Male Intermediate Technical
Ed.Hammersmith
Mail carrier No
23 29 Female Design School Decorator Administration No
24 41 Female Degree in Ceramics/
Glass
Glass maker Typist No
25 33 Male Intermediate Technical
Ed
Instrument
maker
Baker No
26 29 Male Conservatory Composer Music teacher Yes
27 29 Male Arts Academy Visual artist Gym teacher No
28 36 Female Design Academy Interior
designer
Interior consultant Yes
29 22 Male Arts Academy Photographer Call center No
30 61 Female Arts Academy Sculptor Nanny No
31 24 Male Media Academy Multimedia
designer
Printer No
32 26 Male Conservatory Flutist Machinery
assembler
No
33 28 Male Dance Academy Dancer Fitness coach No
34 28 Male Restaurator Degree Restaurator of
paintings
Physiotherapist No
35 30 Male Design Web designer ICT teacher Yes
36 26 Female Film Academy Documentary
producer
Waitress No
37 32 Male Conservatory Composer/
singer
Music teacher Yes
38 25 Male Arts Academy Painter Curator Yes
39 23 Female Theater School Film maker Childcare No
40 21 Male Design Multimedia
designer
Pre-press
technician
No Table I.
Sample characteristics
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interviewees, but two researchers took part in the data analysis. It is important to
acknowledge our own role as researchers, since we were active in the selection and
construction of the data presented.
The analysis was inductive in nature. However, various steps were interrelated and
going back and forth through the different stages was necessary to explore and analyze the
data set fully. This approach is similar to that taken by other qualitative researchers in the
area of identity (Kreiner et al., 2009). The methods were consistent with recommendations
for establishing the credibility of findings (Lincoln and Guba, 1985): we provided extensive
quotations from the data; we used multiple investigators to analyze data, who continually
compared and refined this process; we relied on peer examination to corroborate our
findings; and we checked with the interviewees for confirmation of the categories,
interpretations and conclusions.
First, the interviews were transcribed and initial themes identified, such as the perceived
incompatibility of several identities, the need to present a coherent self to others, the
negative reaction of the artistic community and the different ways in which the interviewees
dealt with this. The next step involved coding. Some categories were expected based on
previous studies, such as the use of a separation strategy to deal with multiple incompatible
identities, while others were not anticipated, such as the important role of the artistic
community. Two coders were used to reduce error and bias in coding the transcripts
(Mays and Pope, 2000) and inter-coder reliability (Cohen, 1960) was established. Six rounds
of discussion between the coders, modification of the codebook and recoding were necessary
to obtain reliabilities of 0.86 to 0.95. An inter-coder reliability of 0.80 was used as the cut-off
point (Miles and Huberman, 1994). The analysis moved gradually to a higher level of
abstraction and we were able to identify two main themes: problems with multiple
incompatible identities and strategies for dealing with multiple identities. Finally, the overall
theme being discussed was formulated as dealing with multiple potentially incompatible
identities, combining the two sub-themes, which, in turn, consisted of a number of
categories. These themes are discussed in detail below.
The analysis is displayed in Figure 1. A conceptual framework is presented in the
following section based on this coding process.
Findings
Our findings show how artists experience a career transition from working exclusively as
artists to having multiple jobs or activities both within and outside the creative industries.
We show that this career transition has a strong impact on their work-related identity and
we have built a framework illustrating how they deal with having multiple conflicting
work-related identities and the role the reaction of others plays in this. Table II provides an
overview of the number of interviewees who used the different strategies.
The process starts with several triggers that prompted the artists to feel that they had to
look for another job outside the creative industries. The trigger was most often financial,
since the artists needed additional sources of income, but feelings that they could no longer
perform their job physically or that it was too emotionally/psychologically straining also
pushed them to start working outside the creative industries. Sometimes, it was a mix of
these three push factors (financial, physical and psychological). All the interviewees felt
“pushed”in the sense that they felt they had no choice:
In the past two years the sales of my piano performances have decreased drastically. Financially,
things were getting difficult, so I’ve started to look for another way to earn money. The problem is,
however, that because I’m working quite a bit now, I have no time to rehearse, no time to learn new
songs and therefore my performances are less good, less innovative, which has decreased in turn
the bookings, leading to even less income from my performance and thus an increased reliance on
my engineering jobs (Piano player, male, aged 43).
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(In)compatibility of multiple identities
This trigger then led to the adoption of multiple identities: one as a creative worker and one
as a worker outside the creative sector. Individuals had to determine the degree of
incompatibility of these identities, which led to different feelings and attitudes about having
First-order concepts Second-order themes Aggregate dimensions
• Perception that the work-related
identities are incompatible
• Having to juggle with own multiple
demands
• Having to present a coherent sense of
self to the world
• Dis-identification with non-artistic
identity
• Sticking to artistic identity
• Instrumental attitude towards non-
artistic activities and identity
• Other ways to express their artistic
identities and activities
Problems with
multiple
incompatible
identities
Dis-identification
Dealing with
multiple
incompatible
identities
Separation
Integration
Strategies of
dealing with
multiple
identities
• Trying to integrate the identities by
stressing commonalities and
interdependence
• Use of meta-identity to which both
identities can relate
• Perception of incompatibility of
identities
• Reliance on non-artistic work to
build up artistic activities
• Keeping the identities separate
• Perception of psychological strain
• Creating synergy between identities
• Stressing the transferability of skills,
knowledge and experiences
• Stressing inter-dependence
• Focus on personal challenge and
growth enhancing creativity
Accumulation
Importance of
social informal
context
• Selling the link between the different
activities to the outside world
• Rejection of arts community
• Encouraged by family/friends outside
creative industries
Note: This way of presenting the coding process and data structure is based on Corley and
Gioia (2004)
Figure 1.
Coding process and
structure of the date
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multiple identities. More precisely, in the case of the perceived incompatibility, feelings of
confusion and anger and questions about how one should deal with the situation emerged.
However, these negative emotions were absent when the artists’identities were perceived as
compatible. Their own perception of (in)compatibility and related emotions, as well as the
reaction in their environment from friends, family and the artistic community, influenced the
strategy used to deal with their multiple conflicting work-related identities, as explained
below. It is important to note that the strategies used are not a rational choice, but more
likely to be the outcomes of an unconscious interplay of many factors.
For some (27.5 percent), their activities were perceived as highly compatible, which was
mainly the case for teachers who were now teaching in their area of art. In that case, the link
between them was emphasized, trying to present a coherent picture to the outside world.
Although they explained they would have preferred to work exclusively in their artistic
field, they stated that they “sold”their decision to work outside this area in a different way
to the people around them. They reported to others that “diversifying was interesting and
challenging”and that “one activity strengthened the other.”Thus, while the interviewee
below explained that she felt sad about having to work as a drama teacher, she did not want
to threaten her identity as a “successful artist”and, therefore, explained her situation as a
choice, rather than one into which she had been forced:
I’m trained to be an actress, not to be a drama teacher, that’s clear. Everyone’s dream is to be on
stage, but we all know reality is different. However, acknowledging this is difficult, it feels like a
failure. A failure to reach the ultimate dream. So instead of presenting it as a failure, you rather
present it as a personal choice right? That’s what we all do. I tell others that it’s interesting to do
different activities, that I like the interaction with students or that I learn and develop, but that’s not
true. Deep inside we don’t want it, but we do it out of necessity (Actress, female, aged 29).
However, for most of the interviewees (72.5 percent), their different activities were not
related at all, so integration was not feasible. When any link between the artistic activities
and their “other”activities was absent, they often kept their two work-related identities
separate. This group reported working in other jobs to support their artistic activities.
Interestingly, they often reported that this would be temporary, indicating that they still
hoped once again to work exclusively as an artist, as highlighted below:
Theater is not my occupation, it’s me, it’s who I am you see? I’m becoming what I am already.
Not being able to play or write is just like removing all the air, you die. It’s a vital need for me.
OK, I might have to do some other activities in order to have enough income to live from, but just
a minimum really, and in the future I won’t need it anymore, it’s a temporary solution to get to
my dream (Actor, male, aged 33).
Based on the artists’perception of the (in)compatibility of their identities, four main
strategies were identified: dis-identification, separation, integration and accumulation.
When the interviewees perceived their identities as compatible, they mainly used
integration and accumulation strategies. However, when they considered their professional
identities as being in conflict, they most often used a strategy of dis-identification or
separation. The four strategies are explained below.
Strategy Number %
Dis-identification 5 12.5
Separation 24 60
Accumulation 4 10
Integration 7 17.5
Table II.
overview of the
number of interviews
who used the four
strategies
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Dis-identification strategy
Despite working outside the creative industries, 24 (60 percent) of the 40 interviewees
explained that their identity as an artist continued to be the predominant one. This identity
was a central part of who they are and of how they defined themselves. Their “other”
identity, as they often referred to it themselves, was much less salient and they had a more
distant attitude toward it. This strategy is called dis-identification. Here, people dis-identify
with or even deny one or several identities. The non-artistic work-related identity was
perceived as a means, not as an end in itself. The artists had rather an instrumental attitude
toward their other activities and explained that their “real self,”their creative, artistic self,
found expression elsewhere, either in the form of a hobby, but mainly as semi-professionals
or professionals. This idea is highlighted below:
I love doing it. When I’m working in the garage, my “other”occupation, I can’t wait to get out and
get behind my computer. Working in this garage allows me to pay for all my expenses while during
the night I’m working on setting up my own business as a web designer. Even if I don’t succeed, I’ll
always feel much more affinity with this, than with any other job I’ve had, it’s more than a job, it’s
my passion (Web designer, male, aged 41).
Separation strategy
In all, 60 percent of the interviewees kept their different work-related identities separate,
whichisinlinewithpreviousstudiesthatshow that this is indeed the most commonly
used technique (Ashforth, 2001). This process was considered psychologically
straining in previous studies (Kuhn, 2006), and this effect seems to be supported by the
findings of this study. However, due to the small sample in this study, no inferences can be
made regarding the success of the different strategies identified, since psychological
strain and stress were not measured directly. The psychologically straining nature of
having multiple incompatible identities emerged from the data, however, and
was mentioned by ten interviewees, as illustrated in the following statement by one
of them:
It’s not easy to switch. Creativity doesn’t come just like that, it needs time to ripen in my head.
Going from one to the other has a negative effect on my ideas for scripts. It’s mentally hard to go
and sit behind my computer after a whole day at the daycare and psychologically it’s even worse.
I feel I’m a loser, that I’m going nowhere, that I’m messing up my life, that I lack talent to become
what I want to be (Film maker, female, aged 23).
Moreover, juggling these identities was perceived as so stressful by four of the interviewees
that they tried to conceal their other occupation. They went as far as lying to friends and
colleagues in order not to lose face, as illustrated in the following excerpt:
I hide my assembling job. Gosh, no one knows about it, apart from my parents and partner. I’d feel
so ashamed to tell them I need to do a shitty job like that in order to make ends meet. But it’s not
always easy, friends wonder why I don’t pick up the phone, colleagues ask me what I’m busy with,
it’s like a secret and you’re scared that others find out (Flutist, male, 26 years).
Integration strategy
Other strategies for realigning identities were identified in the data. One approach consisted
of using meta-identity, a strategy previously identified in the literature (Gotsi et al., 2010).
It has been argued that meta-identity offers a superordinate self-categorization within which
discrete identities can relate (Pratt and Foreman, 2000). One technique was to emphasize the
interdependence of the contradictory identities. Pratt and Foreman (2000) state that this
strategy could enable synergy. Chasserio et al. (2014) also observe positive intersections
between identities that are perceived to be incompatible. They state that social identities do
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not exist separately from each other, but intersect and interact with each other continuously.
The following excerpt illustrates this:
I’m a designer and also a (visual) consultant. One can be seen as more artistic, but they are strongly
linked. They cannot stand alone, but seem to go together. I discover things in my consultancy job
that I use for my work as a designer and vice versa. Working with other people allows me to see
things from a different angle and this inspires me for my own work. It’s a continuous process where
both aspects of my identity are enriched (Designer, female, 53 years).
Accumulation strategy
In using an accumulation strategy, artists stressed the transferability of the skills obtained
in different types of activities. These artists perceived their different projects and jobs as
accumulative and felt that they always gained something from this: meeting new people and
thus increasing their network, learning to work with new technologies or acquiring new
skills, discovering a new industry, drawing inspiration from a different workplace and new
colleagues, and so on. Having multiple activities and identities can actually be perceived as a
strength, rather than a weakness or threat, as explained by the artist below:
It’s not static. I continuously develop myself. I’ve done many different jobs, worked on many
different projects, both within and outside the creative industry. Each time I gain something, no
matter how small. It’s the accumulation, the addition of all this knowledge, those experiences, those
meetings and skills that create who I am and what I can do. Plurality and adaptability are definitely
strengths (Choreographer, female, aged 55).
Another aspect of the accumulation strategy relates to the focus on challenge and growth.
The interviewees explained that having to deal with multiple identities made them, for
example, “richer, broader, more complex and interesting.”They explained that they felt
growth, that they had become increasingly open-minded, flexible and adaptable as a result
of this constant need to juggle several identities. Similar findings were obtained by Tadmor
et al. (2009). The interviewees also explained that this actually increased their creativity, so
that having to deal with conflicting multiple work-related identities brought them many
positive things:
It’s not always easy, but looking back I think struggling as an artist made me a better person. It’sa
lonely process, you only have yourself to rely on and through introspection and reflection I feel
I have become more tolerant and open-minded. And this new, open attitude has actually been the
key to creativity for me. I managed to remove all boundaries, imposed by myself, by society or by
the arts community. I’m now working at full power and produce more and better work than ever
before (Musician, female, aged 28).
Informal social context
The artists’feelings and attitudes, as well as their strategy for dealing with potentially
incompatible multiple identities, were all influenced by their informal social context.
This refers to the subtle validations and invalidations the artists received in interactions
with others at work (Ladge et al., 2012). To be validated meant that others appeared to
approve of their decision to work outside the creative industries. Invalidating interactions
felt unsupportive and signaled that others disapproved of this decision. It was found that
while individuals outside the creative industries strongly encouraged the artists to get
“a proper job,”the artist community strongly rejected the decision to find other sources of
income beyond the creative field, as can be seen in the excerpt below:
My family was very supportive when I told them I could no longer do this job physically. They fully
understood and helped me find another job that I could do until retirement. However, when I told
my colleagues in the circus, they were quite hostile really. They told me that leaving the creative
arena was something bad and insincere, that I should just keep on going or get an administrative
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position at the circus. But still, I would have to travel and that’s tiring, so I just didn’t want it.
After all those years of working together I was sad to see how little comprehension they showed
(Circus performer, female, aged 47).
The interviewees also explained that they used their observation of others who had
transitioned to jobs outside the creative industries to predict how their own situation
would be perceived. Reflecting upon others’experiences and reading or listening to stories
shaped their ideas on the judgments they would have to deal with and the challenge
of balancing their changing identities. This functioned as an indirect source of validation
or invalidation:
I knew people wouldn’t be keen to see me start working as a sports coach. I’ve seen it happening
before and those dancers were highly criticized by the community. These previous experiences
prepared me for the negative reactions I got (Dancer, male, aged 28).
However, while three interviewees held negative perceptions of “colleagues”leaving the
creative industries, one-third of the interviewees had a more nuanced attitude or at least
seemed to understand the reactions of others, as the following two excerpts show:
I do understand the reaction of others. Being an artist is not a job, it’s your life. Leaving it is
not possible, unless you’ve never been a true artist anyway. It’s like a betrayal. There are
some rules if you want to be an artist and leaving the creative industries is definitely not done
(Composer/singer, male, aged 32).
The findings seem to suggest that the reaction of others plays a role in the artists’strategy for
dealing with multiple conflicting identities, in the sense that invalidation by the arts community
led to the separation of their artistic and non-artistic identities or dis-identification with their
non-artistic identity, while validation usually led to integration or accumulation. The two
excerpts below provide an example of, respectively, the invalidation-separation/dis-identification
pattern and the tendency toward validation/integration-accumulation:
The fact that my colleagues rejected the idea of working elsewhere part time in order to earn
enough income made me feel even stronger about myself as a musician. I do some admin work to
pay the bills, but my heart and soul are in music (Pianist, female, aged 29).
Everyone was happy for me. It was a logical step to start working as a teacher. People understood I
needed a stable income. It made things easier and also helped me to feel good about myself. I am
still a creative worker and teaching is now for me an extension of my own work, it’s different but
reinforces my creativity, the two are complementary (Web designer, male, aged 30).
Based on the findings presented above, the model that emerged from the analysis of the data
is displayed in Figure 2.
Financial, physical or
psychological triggers
for feelings of being
forced to start working
outside creative
industries
Perception of
(in)compatibility
of multiple
identities
Strategies to deal with
multiple potentially
incompatible
identities: dis-
identification,
separation, integration
and accumulation
Informal social context:
validation or invalidation
Feelings/attitudes
towards having
multiple identities
Figure 2.
Dealing with
multiple potentially
incompatible identities
in the light of a
career transition
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Discussion
This study examined artists who felt they had been forced to start working outside the
creative industries and how this resulted in their having to deal with multiple potentially
incompatible work-related identities. The interviewees experienced a career transition
from working exclusively as artists to operating both within and outside the creative
industries, which they perceived as emotionally straining, giving rise to several,
sometimes conflicting, feelings and attitudes. These attitudes, together with the reaction
from their environment, then determined their strategy for dealing with their multiple
conflicting work-related identities.
While it has been argued that artists increasingly accept moving across sectors
(Ellmeier, 2003), in this study, 29 out of the 40 interviewees perceived their identities as
incompatible. They might accept work more easily outside the creative industries, possibly
because they understand they cannot do without it, but their attitude toward doing so still
seems negative. When the artists felt their identities to be highly incompatible, they reported
keeping their identities separate and dis-identified with their activities and identity
outside the artistic arena. For these interviewees, their identity as artists was found to be
predominant and the artists perceived their other activities as inferior and simply a way to
earn money. Our findings are in line with previous studies that found that subjective
identity is important and that artists continue to see themselves as artists despite
working most of their time outside the creative industries (Costas and Fleming, 2009).
Furthermore, this perception of incompatibility was perceived as stressful, which is in
accordance with Fitzsimmons (2013), who argued that stress increases when identities are
perceived as inconsistent.
The interviewees who perceived a certain degree of compatibility between their identities
dealt with it by stressing the interdependence of those identities, using meta-identity,
emphasizing the need for growth and challenge that enhances their creativity and, finally,
focusing on the accumulation of experience and the idea of gaining something from each
project or job. This strategy can be related to having a learning orientation, which can be
defined as a concern for, and dedication to, developing one’s competence (Dweck, 1986) and
can have a positive impact on one’s career as one broadens one’s competences.
This confirms a study by Glaveanu and Tanggaard (2014), who state that a creative identity
can be fostered by one or several roles, since every role is expressed in a particular context,
such as being a teacher in a school but an independent artist in one’s studio. However, in
contrast with Throsby and Zednik (2011), who found that artists see themselves
increasingly as educators and workers who want above all to be connected to society, the
artists in this study found the other roles interesting but still pursued an artistic career with
individual creativity being perceived as the highest good.
The artists also had to deal with the reactions of their environment. Although individuals
“outside”the arts community were positive about someone’s choice to work both within and
outside the creative industries, members of the arts community often rejected this decision.
A move away from the arts industries is badly perceived by this closed community
(Eikhof and Haunschild, 2006). Social identities are socially defined and contain prescribed
norms that individuals must adopt in order to be recognized and accepted by others
(Chasserio et al., 2014). By adopting those related norms, one “takes on”a social identity
(Ashforth, 2001). Since each social identity has its own norms, social identities can be
incompatible with each other, leading to conflict. This is what happened in our study, where
the norms of the artistic community –do not mix arts with business and work exclusively in
the artistic sector –were violated by the interviewees and thus led the community to reject
them. In order to avoid this rejection by the community, some artists tried to create a
“good story”so that their artistic colleagues would validate it, preventing the psychological
stress related to the rejection of their decision, such as the actress who “sold”her decision to
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work as a drama teacher as a “personal choice.”Although they were often dissatisfied
about not being able to work exclusively as artists, they “sold”this in a more positive way to
the outside world in order to maintain a coherent identity. However, only a few artists
who took part in the study were able to create such a story in order to reduce the chance
of invalidation.
Although career transitions that are “upward,”such as moving from being an employee
to a managerial position are unlikely to be problematic and have received a great deal of
attention from researchers, discontinuous trajectories or socially unacceptable ones have
only been investigated to a limited extent (Ashforth, 2001). While an increasing number of
artists work simultaneously as artists and in other sectors (Rabkin, 2013), this study shows
that such unacceptable transitions, even if they are partial in that the artists also continued
to work as artists, are highly stigmatized. The arts sector is small and is often referred to as
a community. A move away from the arts industries is badly perceived by this closed
community (Eikhof and Haunschild, 2006).
This reaction from the artists’environment also influenced the strategy to deal with
those multiple conflicting identities. In general, when the artists’stories were not
supported by the environment, they separated their work-related identities or used a
dis-identification strategy. In that case, they continued to feel strongly attached to their
identity as an artist and took an instrumental attitude toward their non-artistic activities.
This allowed them to remain member of the arts community. Their creativity was often
expressed elsewhere, as a hobby in some cases, but most often in the form of
(semi)-professionalism. When their stories about career transition were easily accepted by
the environment, the artists usually tried to integrate their identities as much as possible
or used an accumulation strategy.
Theoretical and practical implications
First, starting with the theoretical implications, while most research has focused on
sequential transitions (Ashforth, 2001), this study shows the importance of multiple
identities. In the light of the new economy and the tendency toward increasing numbers of
career transitions throughout one’s professional life, more research needs to be conducted on
this matter. Sequential career transitions are less complex than transitions where
individuals add another identity to an already existing work-related one (Hennekam, 2016).
This phenomenon has therefore implications beyond the artist population as it provides
insights in a broader labor market trend. Indeed, there is a rise of atypical employment and
an increasing number of people is likely to juggle with multiple jobs.
Second, the findings stress the importance of the external environment, or, more
precisely, the support or rejection of important others. While the workers had to deal with
their own psychological stress and regret about not succeeding at working exclusively as
artists (Hennekam and Bennett, 2016), they also had to create a feasible story that allowed
them to “sell”their transition to others. This study supports the notion that identity
management and negotiation between two competing identities are socially constructed
through contextual cues (Kreiner et al., 2009).
Thesefindingshavesomeimplicationsfor individual workers. First, artistic
career developments are often considered to be ahead of larger trends
(McRobbie, 2004). Indeed, the number of individuals with protean careers is increasing
and there is a trend toward conducting multiple professional activities in different sectors
(Statistics Netherlands, 2014). This study examines strategies for dealing with potentially
incompatible multiple identities. While the strategies identified are similar to those
strategies identified by Roccas and Brewer (2002), we add to the existing body
of knowledge by showing that their own perception of (in)compatibility and the
(in)validation of their environment determine which strategy they use. In addition, the
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findings suggest that those strategies lead to different psychological outcomes.
More precisely, we found that when professional identities were perceived as fairly
compatible, individuals were more likely to use integration and accumulation strategies.
These two strategies led to less stress than separation and dis-identification, which were
perceived as more psychologically straining. For individuals who have to deal with
multiple jobs and thus possibly multiple work-related identities, the findings indicate that
creating a “story”for their environment can be helpful in “selling”their decision or
situation. Having others validate one’s story or decision seems to lead to more positive
psychological outcomes.
The implications for organizations or managers are that they should be aware of the
determinants and outcomes of how individuals deal with multiple work-related identities.
For managers, more insights in their workers perceptions and feelings regarding their
different jobs are helpful. Knowing if workers perceive their different jobs as compatible or
not and how their different jobs are perceived both within the organization and on a
personal level can help them to predict the possible emotional and psychological outcomes.
A worker who experiences confusion, anger or stress obviously does not perform optimally.
However, while multiple jobs that are being perceived as incompatible and that are
condemned by the environment of an individual can lead to psychological stress and strain,
multiple identities are not only a source of conflict but can also be a strength for
organizations. It has been argued that multiple inconsistent identities allow for more
complex cognitive schemas, since individuals with such identities have to put more effort
into coping with the perceived incompatibility of those identities (Tadmor et al., 2009). It has
been found that skills such as adaptability, flexibility and analytical abilities were highest
among workers with several conflicting identities, since they have to deal with the
dissonance of integrating multiple identities (Tadmor et al., 2009). In addition, behavioral
competence, academic achievement, career success and creativity (Nguyen and
Benet-Martínez, 2012) were found to be higher among individuals with multicultural
identities. This suggests that individuals with multiple incompatible identities might
actually benefit from this and present some advantages for organizations, compared to
individuals who are not used to juggling multiple identities.
Limitations and avenues for future research
Although this study provides some insights into how artists deal with multiple potentially
incompatible work-related identities, it also has shortcomings.
First, while the use of an extreme context is useful for studying certain topics because
patterns become visible and variation is reduced, the population under study is also a
limitation. We encourage future studies to include other workers that identify strongly with
their occupation, as well as those who do not in order to examine if differences exist.
In addition, future studies could investigate differences within sub-groups of creative
workers or sub-fields within the creative industries.
Second, it has been argued that a multidimensional approach is needed to understand the
reaction to coping strategies and subsequent results. Research shows that individual factors,
such as coping style, social and economic assets, emotional factors, personal factors, as well as
self-efficacy and outcome expectations, influence success in career transition (Brewington
et al., 2004). Although the present study examined the informal social context, many other
contextual factors need to be explored and should be the subjects of future studies.
Third, a model including different strategies to deal with multiple identities emerged
from the data. This model could be tested in a quantitative manner in future studies.
Moreover, while different strategies were identified in the data, it is suggested that
subsequent studies try to distinguish the successful from the less successful ones by
measuring the levels of psychological strain and stress relating to each.
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Corresponding author
Sophie Hennekam can be contacted at: hennekamso@esc-larochelle.fr
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