How artistic directors motivate the consistency of artists’ performance

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivation strategies live-entertainment artistic directors (ADs) use to increase consistency in their employees’ performances.

Design/methodology/approach

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the research question: what motivation strategies do live-entertainment ADs use to improve consistency in employee performance? Semistructured face-to-face interviews with artistic and senior ADs of a large international live-entertainment company’s US division participated in the study. In addition to the interviews, a further analysis of archival records of artists’ evaluations, and written company documents regarding performance evaluation to understand the ADs’ strategies were completed. Finally, self-reported interview data compared to AD evaluations of artists from randomly selected prior years verified the ADs practices.

Findings

The finding indicated ADs use multiple techniques geared at improving employee well-being and technical competence, thereby creating an environment conducive to the employees self-determining their consistent behavior in performance.

Practical implications

These findings may offer managers across multiple industries a variety of strategies and techniques to use to improve consistency for their workers.

Originality/value

This study is the one of few that studies manager influence on the motivation of those employees whose job is to entertain others regardless of the employee’s emotional state. From these findings, ADs may determine how to implement workplace safety improvements, expanding employee well-being, which in turn can improve performance consistency.

Citation

Ricotta, A.G., Fan, S.K. and Dwyer, R.J. (2019), "How artistic directors motivate the consistency of artists’ performance", Arts and the Market, Vol. 9 No. 2, pp. 162-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAM-05-2019-0019