From Artist to Manager—Working Conditions, Career Satisfaction, and Professional Identity among Graduated Arts Management Students

Abstract

This paper examines the careers of artists and cultural workers who completed a one-year arts management graduate program. After the program, almost half of the participants were in positions with managerial responsibility, of which the majority combined artistic and administrative responsibility. The aim of the study was to fill a knowledge gap with regard to differences between managers and non-managers among graduated arts management students in terms of self-perceived working conditions and professional identity. The study was based on a survey of graduates (N = 73) from the six-year period 2012-2017. The results show that graduates with managerial responsibility view their working conditions significantly better than those without such responsibility. Managers experience more creative and interesting jobs and score higher on extrinsic conditions such as employment security and income level. They also experience higher career satisfaction and express a stronger leader identity, and notably, they retain an artistic identity to the same degree level as non-managers. Finally, leader identity is positively related to career satisfaction, whereas artistic identity implies a precarious working situation and lower career satisfaction.

Keywords:

• Arts management education
• career satisfaction
• working conditions
• professional identity

Introduction

In recent years, formal education in arts management has become widespread at universities in the United States as well as in Europe, Australia, and Asia. According to Ximena Varela (2013), the number of arts management graduate programs in the United States increased from five programs in 1973 to 82 programs in 2012. The programs vary in terms of duration, level, content, and students’ professional background. Programs and curricula have been researched from several angles, such as a critical overview of the teaching curricula in the field (Brkić 2009), the revision process of a curriculum (Hawkins et al. 2017), the need to adapt content to changing environments (Dewey 2004), and the importance of formal education in arts management training (Martin and Dennis Rich 1998). The Association of Arts and Administration Educators (AAAE) has developed and published standards for graduate and undergraduate curricula in arts administration programs. In Varela’s (2013) review of 46 arts management programs in the United States, the approach was a systematic curricular comparison.

There is an ongoing debate on which background is the most attractive for arts managers in terms of legitimacy and effectiveness. Although arts managers have a variety of profiles, it is common to recruit individuals with aesthetic background into managerial positions. This implies a persistent need for managerial competence among artists and cultural workers who aspire to become managers. For many arts management programs, a background as a professional artist or cultural worker is a prerequisite for admission.

In 2011, we developed a one-year arts management program at the Oslo Metropolitan University, which was designed for students with an art or aesthetic undergraduate degree to prepare them for managerial jobs with combined artistic and administrative responsibility. The admission requirement was at least a bachelor’s degree from artistic or cultural-related fields such as music, theater, dance, visual arts, design, architecture, film, television, and literature. After running the program for six years, we wanted to explore their careers after graduation. While previous research has included extensive curricular analysis of arts management programs as well as studies of artistic careers after graduation, we observed a knowledge gap when it comes to professional identities in connection with working situation and careers for graduated arts management students. In the present study, we focus on the transition from graduation to the job market, as seen from the students’ perspective. Specifically, we ask the following research questions:

1. What is the extent and nature of their managerial responsibility, and does managerial responsibility imply better jobs and higher career satisfaction?

2. To what degree have they developed a professional identity as a leader in combination with an identity as artist or cultural worker, and has the arts management program contributed to the formation of a leader identity?

3. To what extent and how are their professional identities related to career satisfaction?

Conditions for artistic careers in Norway

The education program is located in Oslo, Norway. The estimated number of artists admitted as member of professional artist organizations in Norway increased from 6,800 in 1994 to 17,700 in 2013 (Mangset et al. 2018; Heian, Løyland, and Kleppe 2015, 10). In the same period, the proportion of permanently employed Norwegian artists decreased from 18% to 12% (Mangset et al. 2018; Heian, Løyland, and Kleppe 2015, 110). Thus, most of Norwegian artists were in 2013 self-employed (60%), and/or freelancers (10%) (Heian, Løyland, and Kleppe 2015, 12). Although the total real income for Norwegian artists increased from 2006 to 2013, it increased less than for the rest of the workforce (Mangset et al. 2018). Furthermore, the real artistic income declined between 2006 and 2013. In contrast, increasing hours were spent on artistically related work (work that requires an artistic competence, without being primary art), and non-artistic work in the ordinary labor markets outside the arts field.

Based on these observations, artists and cultural workers in Norway appear to face much of the same challenges that are commonly described internationally in terms of precarious work situations, with self-employment, freelancing, short-term project work, low artistic income, excess of supply of recruits, and portfolio careers (Bennett 2009; Bennett and Bridgstock 2015; Bridgstock et al. 2015; Hennekam 2017; Mangset et al. 2018). A portfolio career may include a variety of artistic, artistically related, and non-artistic tasks. For example, in a study of music students in Australia, as many as 97% expected to pursue a portfolio career consisting of, in addition to performance, teaching, librarianship, music therapy and arts management (Bennett and Stanberg 2006; Bennett 2009). Hence, managerial jobs seem be a key part of sustainable artistic careers.

Artists and cultural workers as managers

The managers of arts institutions are often recruited from the artistic field itself. The chief executive of a theater may be an active stage director and an art historian a museum director. We also find this in other sectors, where individuals with primary education and background from a profession hold managerial positions, such as doctors, nurses, teachers, layers, and engineers (Døving, Elstad, and Storvik 2016; Hill 2003; Joffe and MacKenzie-Davey 2012; Llewllyn 2001). Half a century ago, the majority of arts managers did not have any formal management education (Varela 2013), which changed with increasing professionalization of the management function (DiMaggio 1987). People with a professional background from an artistic field as well as a formal managerial education have therefore acquired a dual competence - in a potentially tensional relationship.

The tension between the administrative and the professional artistic staff is well known in arts organization (Auvinen 2001; Castañer 1997; DiMaggio 1987; Landry 2011; Røyseng 2008; Wennes 2006). In contrast, a recent study of Australian arts companies emphasizes the importance of collaborative leadership between the artistic directors and general managers (Reynolds, Tonks, and MacNeill 2017). They focus on relational aspects such as communication, shared visions, trust and respect. From this perspective, the graduates from arts management programs with artistic professional backgrounds should be well prepared for collaborative leadership models and to succeed in their jobs, coping with the dual rationalities of aesthetic judgment and organizational efficiency (Cray, Inglis, and Freeman 2007).

Managerial jobs vary across contexts, and a pertinent question in our study is what kind of jobs do the graduated students get? Because of their hybrid background, we expect they are well suited for managerial jobs with both administrative and artistic responsibility. Managerial jobs vary in terms of hierarchical level, and we are also interested in whether the students work at the top, middle, or lower levels of the organization.

Managerial responsibility – good or bad jobs?

Because the students enrolled in a management program, we can reasonably assume that they had some leadership ambitions. At the same time, the students had an arts-oriented career prior to entering the arts management program and the career transition may be involuntary because of excess of supply of artists and cultural workers (Hennekam and Bennett 2016). Hence, we do not know whether they experience managerial responsibility as unconditionally positive for their job situation and career. To study how former arts management students perceive managerial jobs, we will compare work values and job characteristics for those with and without managerial responsibility.

According to Arne Kalleberg (1977), the concept of work value “may be regarded as a special usage of the general concept of ‘value’ and may be defined as the conceptions of what is desirable that individuals hold with respect to their work activity”. The intrinsic dimension captures the characteristics of the job itself - whether it is interesting and allows the worker to be self-directive and use his/her abilities. It reflects the need to be stimulated and challenged by the work and be able to use acquired skills. The extrinsic dimension includes aspects of the job situation outside the work itself, such as pay, fringe benefits, and job security.

It is a profound tradition to separate arts and economy in culture economics and sociology (Abbing 2008; Bourdieu 1996; Menger 1999; Ginsburgh and Throsby 2006). An ideal is that art should be independent from the economic sphere; it should be autonomous (Heian and Hjellbrekke 2017). This view is closely related to the nineteenth-century romantic ideology of creating art for art’s sake, where the creative, autonomous, and genius artist puts art above everything else. The artist has an inner drive to create (Jeffri and Throsby 1994). In this regard, we expect intrinsic work values such as job autonomy and the possibility to be creative and use one’s artistic skills to be very important for cultural workers and artists. In contrast, consistent with the romantic ideology of l’art pour l’art, other rewards than art itself such as monetary rewards are less important. According to this view, we expect that artists and cultural workers score lower on extrinsic work values such as income level and economic security. It is of great interest to understand what happens with the work values when artists and cultural workers become managers. Do the extrinsic values become relatively more important when gaining experience as a manager?

Kalleberg (2011) reviews the evidence of the growth of insecure and precarious work in the United States over the last thirty years, with emphasis on long-term trends that differentiate job attractiveness. He uses the terms good jobs and bad jobs to describe job quality in the United States, where many have a precarious work situation. Although Norway, as well as other Nordic countries, have a more extensive welfare system than the United States, the majority of Norwegian artists are freelancers and self-employed, funded by short-term project assignments. Kalleberg (2011) applies a multidimensional definition of job quality. The definition includes, amongst others, both extrinsic and intrinsic job characteristics. We will use these dimensions describing job quality. This allows us to investigate discrepancies between work values (ideals) and job characteristics (realities). This includes intrinsic job characteristics such as autonomy, interesting job, creative job, and with the possibility of using their professional artistic skills. The extrinsic factors include high income, financial security, employment security, and career opportunities. A key issue is to what degree managerial responsibility is associated with different intrinsic and extrinsic job values and job characteristics.

Professional identity as leader, cultural worker or artist

Identity is a complex construct that has been researched from a variety of angles. Identity related to the work sphere is labeled in different ways, such as career identity (Meijers 1998; Bennett and Bridgstock 2015), work-related identity (Dutton, Roberts, and Bednar 2010; Hennekam 2017), and professional identity. We use the term professional identity defined as one’s professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences (Ibarra 1999). Research on identity transition indicates that identity changes over time (Ibarra 1999, 2003), that multiple identities can co-exist (Whittle, Mueller, and Mangan 2009) and is therefore somewhat fluid within one person (Watson 2009). A professional identity may change due to socialization (Fine 1996; Hall 1987), career development and job change (Ibarra 1999; Nicholson 1984).

Identity “work” is going on when people engage in forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening, or revising their identities (Sveningsson and Alvesson 2003). Artists often hold several work roles and go through several career transitions during their work-life (Bennett and Bridgstock 2015). The transition from student to the world of work can be a period of vulnerability with significant personal and professional identity uncertainty (Bennett and Bridgstock 2015; Buckham 1998; Juuti and Littleton 2012; Nyström, Dahlgren, and Dahlgren 2008). Many hope to work full-time as artists. In reality, many of them become portfolio workers and work in creative industries and in other industries (Bridgstock et al. 2015) with artistic work, artistically related work, and non-artistic work (Mangset et al. 2018). Hence, they must deal with multiple professional identities (Hennekam 2017; Hennekam and Bennett 2016).

Some choose to explore the possibility of a managerial career and enroll in an arts management program. The arts management program lasts for one year, which is significantly shorter than the students’ prior education - minimum a bachelor’s degree from an artistic or cultural-related field. A pertinent question is therefore to what degree a one-year program impacts their leader identity? Also, how important is managerial experience after graduation for the formation of a leader identity? Finally, how prominent is a leader identity compared to the artistic-related identities after graduation from the arts management program?

Methodology

Sample and data collection

To address the research questions, 165 former student that graduated in the period 2012-2017 received a link to a questionnaire by e-mail and via the alumni closed Facebook group. The program started in 2011 with 30 students each year. The students had a bachelor or master’s degree from various arts fields, such as music, dance, theater, drama, visual, arts, design, architecture, literature, film, and television. We received 78 responses (47% of the invitees). We included only those who had completed the entire program (69 students) or five out of the six courses (4 students). The final sample consisted of 73 respondents. To address the question of representativeness, we compared the control variables for the sample against the total population of those who entered the program. Appendix A shows that there are minor differences between the two groups, and our judgment is that the sample is representative for those who have taken the program. We have no other indication that might cause a skewed sample, beyond the fact that survey respondents might have a stronger inclination to express their views than non-respondents.

Measurement

Variables concerning work values and job characteristics were based on questions from StudData. This is a longitudinal survey at the Centre for the Study of Professions at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway. It follows three student-cohorts in approximately 20 professional programs from the beginning of their studies until they are well established in the labor market. The question used to measure work values reads as follows: “How important are the following elements for you when considering new job opportunities in your career?” Following this question, different job facets were listed, where intrinsic and extrinsic values were mixed on the list. The answers were captured on a five-point scale (1 = not at all important; 5 = very important). Job characteristics were measured with the following question: “Finally, we want you to evaluate different aspects of your job situation. To what degree would you say that your current job situation is ….” The answers were captured on a five-point scale (1 = not at all; 5 = to a very large degree). The same job facets were listed here as for work values, and there could have been a risk that answers on work values would impact answers on job characteristics. To minimize the risk, 15 other questions, including control variables, appeared between the two potentially linked questions. We also constructed a summative index for all eight job characteristics as an indicator of overall job quality.

We applied global measures on both career and arts program satisfaction. The question to measure career satisfaction is based on one item in the career satisfaction scale developed by Greenhaus, Parasuraman, and Wormley (1990, in Fields 2002, 29), which reads as follows: “To what degree do you disagree or degree with the following statement: I am satisfied with what I have achieved so far in my career”. The question for overall satisfaction with the program is the same as in the StudData surveys with the following reframing:” If you in retrospect should give an overall evaluation of the arts management program, how satisfied are you?” The answers were captured on a five-point scale (1 = very dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied). The measurement tool for professional identity was developed specifically for this study: “To what degree do the following job roles describe how you usually perceive yourself?” Six labels were given, where answers on three of them are included for the purpose of the present article: “leader”, “artist”, and “cultural worker”. The answers were captured on a five-point scale (1 = to a very small degree to 5 = to a very large degree).

Managerial responsibility was measured by the question: “Do you have managerial responsibility?” Hierarchical level was measured by the question: “Mark the option that best describes your managerial position”, whereas managerial tasks were measured by the question:” Mark the option that best describes your work tasks in the organization”. The control variables are listed in Appendix A.

Results

Almost half of the sample (45.7%) report to have managerial responsibility in their current jobs, half of which have a combined artistic and administrative responsibility (53.1%). Smaller proportions have only artistic (21.9%) or administrative responsibility (18.8%). In terms of hierarchical level, about a third report top level management (32.2%) and a few more report project management (37.5%) (Table 1).

Table 1. Description of managerial responsibility.

Managerial responsibility	% (n)
Yes	45.7 (32)
No	54.3 (38)
Total	100.0 (70)
Managerial tasks
Artistic and administrative responsibility	53.1(17)
Artistic responsibility	21.9 (7)
Administrative responsibility	18.8 (6)
Technical responsibility/others	6.2 (2)
Total	100.0 (32)
Hierarchical level of management
Top level (1)	31.2 (10)
Middle level	18.8 (6)
Project manager	37.5 (12)
Lower level (2)	12.5 (4)
Total	100.0 (32)

(1) Top manager or reporting to the top manager

(2) Operative/lower level manager

Table 2 shows different job characteristics (JC) and the corresponding work values (WV) as mean scores on the five-point scale. In addition, the table shows means for the two sub-groups managers and non-managers.

Table 2. Work values (WV) and job characteristics (JC) by managerial responsibility, means, standard deviations, and significance of difference.

	JC All sample (n = 69)	JC Managers (n = 32)	JC Non- managers (n = 37)	WV All sample (n = 70)	WV Managers (n = 32)	WV Non- managers (n = 38)
Job autonomy	4.20	4.31	4.11	3.97	4.06	3.89
	(.99)	(.82)	(1.12)	(.96)	(.98)	(.95)
Interesting job	4.01	4.28^†	3.78^†	4.65	4.72	4.59
	(1.09)	(1.05)	(1.08)	(.59)	(.63)	(.55)
Creative job	3.75	4.19***	3.38***	4.21	4.31	4.13
	(1.06)	(.97)	(1.01)	(.84)	(.82)	(.88)
Use of professional artistic skills	3.64	3.83	3.47	4.23	4.31	4.16
	(1.31)	(1.23)	(1.36)	(.82)	(.69)	(.92)
Financial security	3.59	3.66	3.54	4.27	4.25	4.29
	(1.24)	(1.26)	(1.24)	(.59)	(.62)	(.57)
Employment security	3.41	3.77**	3.11**	4.00	4.03	3.97
	(1.30)	(1.09)	(1.39)	(.85)	(.93)	(.79)
Career opportunities	3.07	3.48**	2.73**	3.64	3.69	3.61
	(1.18)	(1.09)	(1.15)	(.89)	(.82)	(.95)
High income	2.65	3.03**	2.32**	3.44	3.50	3.39
	(1.11)	(1.03)	(1.08)	(.63)	(.67)	(.60)
Overall mean	3.54	3.85**	3.31**	4.05	4.11	4.00
	(.83)	(.73)	(.83)	(.40)	(.41)	(.39)

^† = p < .10; * = p < .05; ** = p < .01; *** = p < .001 scale all variables: 1–5

Overall mean = ∑ (Mean of job characteristics)/8; ∑ (Mean of work values)/8

Intrinsic work values are overall more important than extrinsic work values. An interesting job is clearly most important (mean = 4.65), followed by the use of professional artistic skills (mean = 4.23), and a creative job (mean = 4.21). Extrinsic work values in terms of career opportunities (mean = 3.64) and high income (mean = 3.44) are least important. A notable exception is the extrinsic work value financial security, which is perceived as very important for the whole sample (mean = 4.27). Although respondents with managerial responsibility generally score somewhat higher on work values than non-managers, none of the differences are significant.

A notable pattern is that intrinsic job characteristics (job autonomy, interesting job, creative job, and the use of professional artistic skills) are perceived as overall better than extrinsic job characteristics (financial and employment security, career opportunities, and income level). Furthermore, managers score significantly higher compared to non-managers on both intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics such as interesting job, creative job, employment security, career opportunities, and high income. Consequently, respondents with managerial responsibility also score higher on the summative index of all job characteristics (overall mean =3.85; p<.01) compared to those without such responsibility (overall mean = 3.31; p<.01). Thus, respondents with managerial responsibility have better jobs regarding both intrinsic and extrinsic job characteristics.

Table 2 shows bivariate comparisons without any control variables. We subsequently conducted multiple regression for the significant relationship between managerial responsibility and job characteristics, controlling for age, gender, and artistic background (Table 3).

Table 3. Regression analyses with regard to importance of managerial responsibility on respondent self-assessed job characteristics and career satisfaction, standardized coefficients (b).

	Interesting job		Creative job		Career opportunity		Employment security		High income		Career satisfaction
	b	p	b	p	b	p	b	p	b	p	b	p
Managerial responsibility^d (1= yes; 0 = no)	.251	.043	.373	.002	.334	.005	.217	.086	.253	.036	.368	.003
Control variables
Artistic field (1 = performative; 0 = others)^d	−.196	.115	−.070	.541	−.218	.064	−.012	.924	.185	.124	−.136	.259
Gender(1 = female; 0 = male)^d	.125	.309	.250	.031	.139	.232	.133	.286	.070	.555	−.003	.981
Age	.025	.840	.088	.437	.172	.139	.114	.362	.183	.125	.015	.899
R^2	.116		.237		.222		.095		.173		.142

N = 68; d = dummy variables

The results remained significant after controlling for age, gender, and artistic background. Hence, respondents with managerial responsibility have significantly better jobs in terms of interesting job (b= .251; p= .043), creative job (b= .373; p= .002), career opportunities (b= .334; p= .005), employment security (b= .217; p= .086), and high income (b= .253; p= .036). Furthermore, there is a positive relationship between managerial responsibility and career satisfaction (b= .368; p= .003). Thus, graduates with managerial responsibility clearly experience their job situation and career as better than those without such responsibility.

Table 4 shows to what degree the graduates have developed a leader identity compared to the identity as an artist or cultural worker, and whether the different identities are correlated.

Table 4. Means, standard deviations, and correlations of professional identities and other relevant variables.

	Mean	SD	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
(1) Leader	2.97	1.093	.
(2) Cultural worker	3.90	1.157	.284*	.
(3) Artist	2.73	1.397	.232*	.130	.
(4) Overall program satisfaction	4.03	.687	.408***	.143	-.093	.
(5) Overall career satisfaction	3.49	1.345	.435***	.129	-.282*	.436***	.
(6) Overall job quality^jq	3.52	0.835	.490***	.230†	-.055	.607***	.628***	.
(7) Full-time employment^d	.52	.503	.228†	.087	-.348**	.119	.334**	.306*	.
(8) Managerial responsibility^d	.46	.502	.600***	.128	-.016	.357**	.361**	.330**	.209†	.

†= p <.10; *= p <.05; **= p <.01: ***= p <.001; n = 73 for all variables except for Overall job quality (n = 64), and Managerial responsibility (n = 70); scale: 1-5 for the variables (1),(2),(3)(4),(5), and (6); d = dummy (1= yes, 0 =no); jq (Overall mean job quality) = ∑ (Mean of job characteristics)/8.

The most prominent professional identity is cultural worker (mean = 3.90), followed by leader (mean = 2.97). Least important is artist (mean = 2.73). The professional identity as a leader is significantly related to both cultural worker (r = .284*) and artist (r = .232*), indicating that they to some degree have multiple identities as both leader and artist or leader and cultural worker. The correlation between artist and cultural worker is weaker and not significant (r = .130), implying that these identities co-exist to a more limited degree.

The correlations matrix also indicates that a leader identity is significantly and positively related to overall satisfaction with the arts management program (r = .408***), whereas as this relationship is weaker and not significant for cultural worker (r = .143) and very small for artist (r = −.093). As expected, a professional identity as a leader is strongly related to managerial responsibility (r = .600***), while this correlation is smaller and not significant for cultural worker (r = .128). Notably, the correlation between managerial responsibility and artist is close to zero (r= −.016), indicating that a professional artistic identity is equally prominent for managers (mean = 2.72) and non-managers (mean = 2.76). In general, leader identity is positively related to favorable outcomes such as career satisfaction (r = .435***), overall job quality (r= .490***), and full-time employment (r = .228†). In contrast, professional identity as an artist is negatively related to career satisfaction (r = .−282**), and full-time employment (r = −.348**).

We conducted multiple regression to investigate the relative importance of overall satisfaction with the education program and managerial responsibility for leader identity, controlling for age, gender, and artistic background. We also analyzed whether the bivariate relationship between professional identity and career satisfaction remained significant when including control variables.

Table 5 indicates that the higher overall satisfaction with the arts management program, the stronger professional identity as a leader (b=.196; p= .064). Hence, those who are satisfied with the program seem to a larger degree to integrate leader into their identity profile. As expected, managerial experience strengthens the professional identity as a leader (b= .505; p=.000). In sum, both management education and practice are important in fostering a leader identity, where experience is clearly most important.

Table 5. Regression analyses with regard to professional identity as a leader and career satisfaction, standardized coefficients (b).

	Leader identity (n = 69)			Career satisfaction (n = 71)
	b	p		b	p
Managerial responsibility (1= yes; 0 = no)^d	.505	.000	Professional identity as a: Leader	.519	.000
Overall program satisfaction	.196	.064	Cultural worker	.023	.832
			Artist	−.435	.000
Control variables			Control variables
Artistic field (1 = performative; 0 = others)^d	.036	.719	Artistic field (1= performative; 0= others)^d	−.009	.937
Gender (1 = female; 0 = male)^d	.120	.233	Gender (1 = female; 0 = male)^d	−.126	.235
Age	.073	.462	Age	.052	.611
R^2	.416		R^2	.354

d = dummy variables.

The bivariate relationships between career satisfaction and professional identity as a leader and as an artist remain significant after controlling for age, gender and artistic field. Thus, leader is positively related to career satisfaction (b= .519; p >.000) whereas artist is negatively related to career satisfaction (b= −.435; p >.000). Possible explanations of these findings are found in the correlation matrix (Table 4), which indicates that leader identity is strongly related to high overall job quality (r = .490***) and full-time employment (r = .228†). At the opposite end, high scores on artistic identity are significantly and negatively related to full-time employment (r = −.348**) and not related to overall job quality (r = −.055).

Discussion, conclusions, and further research

The study shows that graduates from the one-year arts management program experience interesting, autonomous, and creative jobs. They are somewhat less satisfied with their extrinsic working conditions. Almost half of the graduates have managerial responsibility after graduation. The program is run in Oslo, where most of the country’s large arts institutions and creative industries are located. Unsurprisingly, the majority of creative workers live in the Oslo area (Gran, Torp, and Theie 2015), where there are also more opportunities for managerial jobs. Nonetheless, it is a competitive labor market, and not everyone is able to attain a management position after the program. It is also likely that some students after graduation from the program want to continue as artists or cultural workers without managerial responsibility.

Projects are the most pervasive work format in the arts sector and, as expected, many of the respondents are project managers. Many project managers and those with top- or middle management positions have both artistic and administrative responsibility (see Appendix C). Thus, a majority of graduated students with managerial responsibility have both artistic and administrative responsibility. Drawing on their hybrid background, this probably increases their ability to manage the dual rationalities of aesthetic judgements and organizational effectiveness and to develop collaborative leadership relations (Cray, Inglis, and Freeman 2007; Reynolds, Tonks, and MacNeill 2017).

Our study shows that graduated students with managerial responsibility clearly experience their job situation as better than those without managerial responsibility. This is not only the case for extrinsic job factors such as pay, employment security, and career opportunities. It also applies for job facets that are important for artists and cultural workers, such as creative and interesting jobs. They are also more satisfied with their career. Thus, managerial responsibility is perceived as an overall good working situation. Many of the graduates have background as freelance artists and cultural workers and continue a combination of part-time employment, freelance work, and self-employment after graduation. In our sample, 34% of those without full-time employment have managerial responsibility (see Appendix B). This is consistent with the large proportion of project managers in our study, and that many have managerial responsibility as part of their total work portfolio.

Professional identity as a leader is overall related to positive outcomes such as higher overall career satisfaction, job quality, full-time employment, and managerial responsibility. Thus, it seems that graduates with managerial responsibility and a strong leader identity find themselves in an attractive career situation. Graduated students who are overall satisfied with the arts management program also have to larger degree integrated leader into their identity profile. Although it is a one-year program, it nonetheless seems to have some impact on leader identity formation. At the opposite end, professional identity as an artist is negatively related to full-time employment. Thus, a strong artistic identity seems to involve a precarious job situation. This is consistent with earlier research on creative careers, and this is widespread among creative graduates (see for example Bridgstock et al. 2015; Bennett and Bridgstock 2015; Bridgstock and Cunningham 2016). Graduates in our study with a strong artistic identity are also less satisfied with their career. Has participation in the program increased their career aspirations, and thereby created disappointment with their work situation when not attaining full-time employment? Would it be better for some of the students with a strong artistic professional identity that managerial topics had been integrated in their curricula during their arts education? A study of curricula of 154 arts educations in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland showed that art programs to a limited degree integrate knowledge about leadership and running your own business (Bauer, Viola, and Strauss 2011).

The professional identity as a leader is related to cultural worker and artist, indicating that they have multiple identities as both leader and artist or as leader and cultural worker. Thus, consistent with their dual artistic and managerial skills, they also experience elements from both spheres in their identity profile. It would be interesting to know more about their identity transitions over time, and how they cope with multiple identities. Studies of career transition amongst artists indicate that the transition may involve challenges dealing with potentially incompatible work-related or career identities (Bennett and Bridgstock 2015; Hennekam and Bennett 2016; Hennekam 2017). The data in our study is cross-sectional and studying transition over time will require data from before entering the program, at the end of the program, and at different times after graduation. In addition to surveys, in-depth interviews would give more rich, detailed, and varied knowledge about such identity transition processes.

There are several studies of the content of arts management programs (Brkić 2009; Dewey 2004; Hawkins et al. 2017; Varela 2013), but this is outside the scope of our study where we were particularly interested in working situations and identities after graduation. It should be noted, though, that there are significant correlations between overall satisfaction with the arts management program and positive outcomes such as managerial responsibility (r = .357**), overall job quality (r= .607***), and overall career satisfaction (r= .463***) (see Table 4). This indicates that student satisfaction with the program is correlated to positive career outcomes. Future studies should focus on the content of different arts management programs and different career outcomes. Analyses may take different perspectives such as managerial competence, leadership development, and teaching approaches.

We chose to focus on extrinsic and intrinsic work values and job facets because these represent an important distinction in the discussion of artists’ identity and working conditions. Consequently, work values and job facets that do not map directly into the extrinsic/intrinsic dichotomy, such as work-life balance, were not explicitly addressed. Hesmondhalgh and Baker (2011, 39) included work-life balance when describing good work and bad work in their study of creative labor in television, music recording, and magazine publishing in England, and further studies of other work values and job characteristics than those included in our study should be considered.

Finally, we have not analyzed whether the graduates’ managerial jobs are in larger or smaller organizations or in which sub-sectors, and future studies should also look into the context of the managerial jobs. In general, there is a need for further research on the relationship between education in arts management and subsequent career trajectories. Our study is based on a relatively small sample, coming from one program. Comparison of different arts management programs and career trajectories across national contexts would be of great interest in overall enhancement of our knowledge about the change process from a professional artist to becoming a professional manager.

Declaration of conflict of interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Appendix A. Sample descriptives.

 

Table

		Answered the survey		All students*
		n	%	N	%
Gender	Male Female	14 59	19 81	38 187	17 83
		73	100	225	100
Age	20-25 years 26-30 years 31-35 years 36-40 years 41-45 years 46-50 years More than 50 years Missing	3 23 22 11 8 2 3 1	4 32 30 15 11 3 4 1	6 78 59 36 22 9 15 0	3 35 26 16 10 4 7 0
		73	100	225	100
Artistic backgrounds	Music Dance Theater/drama/scenography Visual art Design/architecture Literature Film/television Other	19 3 18 12 7 6 3 5	26 4 25 17 10 8 4 6	43 13 25 39 21 10 13 15	24 7 13 21 12 6 7 8
		73	100	179	100

* Gender and age are based on available statistics of how many said yes to participate in the program (n = 225). Artistic background is based on those who confirmed that they would start the program at the start of the semester (n = 179). There is also some dropout during the course of study, so we eventually sent the questionnaire to 165 students who graduated in the period 2012-2017. Seventy-eight former students responded to the survey. We only wanted to include those who had completed the entire program (69 students) or 5 of 6 courses (4 students). The program consisted of six courses: arts management, project management, leadership and strategy, entrepreneurship and marketing, media and communication, and economics.

Appendix B. Differences in full time employment for graduated students with and without managerial responsibility (n = 70).

 

Table

		Managerial responsibility
		Yes (n)	No (n)	Total (n)
Full time employment	Yes (n)	55 % (21)	45 % (17)	100 % (38)
	No (n)	34 % (11)	66 % (21)	100 % (32)

Appendix C. Differences in job content for various managerial levels.

 

Table

	Artistic and administrative	Artistic	Administrative	Total (n)
Top manager	80%	20%	0%	100% (5)
Report to top manager	40%	20%	40%*	100% (5)
Middle manager	67%	16.5%	16.5%	100% (6)
Project manager	58%	25%	17%	100% (12)
Operative manager	0%	25%	75%**	100% (4)

* = administrative and technical responsibility

**= administrative and other responsibility