PhD Graduate Kim de Laat published an article in Work and Occupations examining the work environment of professional songwriters and their methods of managing conflict and reward within an uncertain and inconsistent industry.
Kim de Laat obtained her PhD in Sociology from the University of Toronto in 2017 and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Gender + the Economy at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She studies the interplay between culture, work, and organizations.
We have posted the citation and abstract of the article below. The full text of the article is available through the University of Toronto Library Portal here.
de Laat, Kim. 2015. “'Write a Word, Get a Third': Managing Conflict and Rewards in Professional Songwriting Teams." Work and Occupations, 42(2):225-256.
This article examines the doubly uncertain work environment of professional songwriters: They are affected by wider events in the music industry, and their immediate work context is a team setting where the distribution of tasks varies from one project to the next. Interviews reveal that songwriters pursue professional interests by enhancing cooperation, rather than engaging in defensive tactics. The author identifies two conventions: equal authorship and professional conciliation. Such conventions elucidate how rewards are managed in a team context of task variation and underscore the mutually constitutive relationship between conflict and cooperation within post-bureaucratic forms of organizing.
Read the full article here.