Rationalizing Creativity—Rationalizing Public Service: Is Scheduling Management Fit for the Digital Era?

Abstract

In public broadcast organizations across Europe, scheduling has been transformed from a marginal, administrative activity to a highly strategic management tool (Hellman, 1999; Hujanen, 2002; Meier, 2003;Ytreberg, 2000) Ellis (2000)described it as “the locus of power in television,” organizing production and managing budgets (p. 26). The role of scheduling in public broadcast organizations today reflects the demands of increasing competition and political pressure for efficiency and accountability. However, new challenges have emerged in the transition from public service broadcasting to public service media (PSM). PSM providers must redefine their mission for the digital era and find new ways to engage audiences and enrich their societies. They also have to navigate a new competitive and regulatory environment, as they begin to compete in a cross-platform market with a range of media services. Adapting to this new arrangement will require creativity and innovation from content creators. However, as this article shows, scheduling management limits producer autonomy and inhibits creativity. Based on in-depth, qualitative interviews with key personnel from Radio Teilifís Eireann (RTÉ), Ireland's public broadcast organization, this article examines how rationalization of scheduling practices has enabled management to maximize competitiveness and cost efficiency. However, it argues that the schedule-led system curbs creative freedom and ultimately threatens to undermine the public service that RTÉ provides. It is timely then, at this critical juncture, to examine whether scheduling management has anything to offer PSM organizations in the digital era or if it should be abandoned in favor of a third model of management.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The research was supported by the School of Media, Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland.

Notes

1. In addition to the qualitative interview data, the study is based on an analysis of changes in program output and scheduling practices over a 15-year period, from 1990 to 2005, along with an examination of primary source documents, such as annual reports and corporate review documents (see Murray, 2011).

2. Interviewee (Int.) A is a television producer, who worked in Radio Teilifís Eireann (RTÉ) during the 1980s and 1990s as a series producer of current affairs and factual programming. Int. B works in a senior management position in RTÉ Television with responsibility for broadcast (including schedule planning, promotions, press, and publicity) and acquisitions. Int. C works at a senior management level in another major division within RTÉ. This individual worked in scheduling in the mid-1990s. Int. D has the responsibility for schedule planning in RTÉ Television and is a member of the PSG. Int. E works in a senior management position in the Programs Department of RTÉ Television. Int. F works in a senior management position in the Sales Division.

3. It has been argued that Weber's (1978) model of bureaucracy is not relevant in the current socioeconomic context (see Alvesson & Thompson, 2005, p. 486; Courpasson & Reed, 2004, p. 7; Höpfl, 2006, p. 8; McSweeney, 2006). However, despite significant changes in organizational structures and practices, particularly since the 1970s, Weber's bureaucracy model is still a relevant and valuable analytical tool. For example, although the hierarchical structure may have been adapted, control is achieved, although in different ways (Bagguley, 1991; Briand & Bellemare, 2006; Courpasson, 2000; Heckscher, 1994; Kärreman & Alvesson, 2004; Procter, 2005; Walton, 2005, p. 588). Therefore, although organizations today may be structured differently than in Weber's time, they do not operate according to a radically new “organizing rationality or logic” (Courpasson & Reed, 2004, p. 7). For further discussion of Weber's theory of rationalization as a framework for understanding scheduling management, see Murray (2011).