Drawing on data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (N = 13,581) and the Teagle Study of double majors (N = 1,736), we examine how arts alumni and students view their creative skills as transferable across contexts. Based on these preliminary analyses, we find that people with similar training interpret the relationship between their creativity and their work differently. We postulate that variations in creative identity may be one compelling explanation for these differences, which are not attributable solely to job type or to workplace context. Our results suggest, furthermore, that creative identity has both “portable” and “salient” dimensions. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for future research on the identity dimensions of creativity.
AlbaR. D. (1990). Ethnic identity: The transformation of white America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
2.
AllportG. W.VernonP. E.LindzeyG. (1960). Manual: Study of values. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
3.
AmabileT. M. (1983). The social psychology of creativity: A componential conceptualization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45, 357-376.
4.
AmabileT. M. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. New York, NY: Westview Press.
5.
BarronF.HarringtonD. M. (1981). Creativity, intelligence, and personality. Annual Review of Psychology, 32, 439-476.
6.
BarthF. (1969). Ethnic groups and boundaries. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.
7.
BeckerH. S. (1982). Art worlds. Berkeley: University of California Press.
8.
BeckerH. S. (2017). Creativity is not a scarce commodity. American Behavioral Scientist, 61(12), 1579-1588.
9.
BiltonC. (2007). Management and creativity: From creative industries to creative management. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
10.
BourdieuP. (1984). Distinction: A social critique of the judgment of taste. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
11.
BrownD. (2002). The role of work and cultural values in occupational choice, satisfaction, and success: A theoretical statement. Journal of Counseling & Development, 80, 48-56.
12.
CalleroP. L. (2003). The sociology of the self. Annual Review of Sociology, 29, 115-133.
13.
CeruloK. A. (1997). Identity construction: New issues, new directions. Annual Review of Sociology, 23, 385-409.
14.
Committee on the Visual Arts at Harvard. (1956). Report of the Committee on the Visual Arts at Harvard University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University.
15.
CougerJ. D. (1988). Key human resource issues in the 1990s: Views of IS executives versus human resource executives. Information & Management, 14, 161-174.
16.
CraigA. (2007). Practicing poetry: A career without a job. In CalhounC.SennettR. (Eds.), Practicing culture (pp. 31-64). New York, NY: Routledge.
17.
CsikszentmihalyiM. (1988). Society, culture, and person: A systems view of creativity. In SternbergR. J. (Ed.), The nature of creativity (pp. 325-339). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
18.
CsikszentmihalyiM. (1997). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of invention and discovery. New York, NY: Harper.
19.
DavenportT. H. (1993). Process innovation: Reengineering work through information technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
20.
DowdE. T. (1989). The self and creativity: Several constructs in search of a theory. In RonningR. R.ReynoldsC. R. (Eds.), Handbook of creativity, perspectives on individual differences (pp. 233-242). New York, NY: Plenum Press.
21.
FarmerS. M.TierneyP.Kung-McIntyreK. (2003). Employee creativity in Taiwan: An application of role identity theory. Academy of Management Journal, 46, 618-630.
22.
FeldmanD. H. (1974). Universal to unique. In RosnerS.AbtL. E. (Eds.), Essays in creativity (pp. 45-85). Croton-on-Hudson, NY: North River Press.
23.
FloridaR. (2004). The rise of the creative class: And how it’s transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life. New York, NY: Basic Books.
24.
FrenetteA. (2013). Making the intern economy: Role and career challenges of the music industry intern. Work and Occupations, 40, 364-397.
25.
FrenetteA. (2016). Working at the candy factory: The limits of nonmonetary rewards in record industry careers. In HracsB. J.SemanM.ViraniT. E. (Eds.), The production and consumption of music in the digital age (pp. 85-98). New York, NY: Routledge.
26.
FrenetteA.TepperS. J. (2016). What difference does it make? Assessing the effects of arts-based training on career pathways. In ComunianR.GilmoreA. (Eds.), Beyond the campus: Higher education and the creative economy (pp. 83-101). New York, NY: Routledge.
27.
GecasV. (1982). The self-concept. Annual Review of Sociology, 8, 1-33.
GetzelsJ. W.CsikszentmihalyiM. (1968). On the roles, values and performance of future artists: A conceptual and empirical exploration. Sociological Quarterly, 9, 516-530.
30.
GoughH. G. (1979). A Creative Personality Scale for the Adjective Check List. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1398-1405.
31.
GruberH. E. (1989). The evolving systems approach to creative work. In WallaceD. B.GruberH. E. (Eds.), Creative people at work: Twelve cognitive case studies (pp. 3-24). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
32.
GruberH. E.BarrettP. H. (1974). Darwin on man: A psychological study of scientific creativity. New York, NY: E. P. Dutton.
33.
GruberH. E.WallaceD. B. (1999). The case study method and evolving systems approach for understanding unique creative people at work. In SternbergR. J. (Ed.), Handbook of creativity (pp. 93-115). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
34.
HackleyC.KoverA. J. (2007). The trouble with creatives: Negotiating creative identity in advertising agencies. International Journal of Advertising, 26, 63-78.
35.
HeslinP. A. (2005). Conceptualizing and evaluating career success. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, 113-136.
36.
HesmondhalghD.BakerS. (2010). “A very complicated version of freedom”: Conditions and experiences of creative labour in three cultural industries. Poetics, 38, 4-20.
37.
HumlumM. K.KleinjansK. J.NielsenH. S. (2012). An economic analysis of identity and career choice. Economic Inquiry, 50(1), 39-61.
38.
JaussiK. S.RandelA. E.DionneS. D. (2007). I am, I think I can, and I do: The role of personal identity, self-efficacy, and cross-application of experiences in creativity at work. Creativity Research Journal, 19, 247-258.
39.
KoppmanS. (2014). Making art work: Creative assessment as boundary work. Poetics, 46, 1-21.
40.
KoppmanS. (2016). Different like me: Why cultural omnivores get creative jobs. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61, 291-331.
41.
KundaG. (2009). Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
42.
LeidnerR. (2016). Work identity without steady work: Lessons from stage actors. In VallasS. (Ed.), Research in the sociology of work (pp. 3-35). Bingley, England: Emerald.
43.
LenaJ. C.LindemannD. J. (2014). Who is an artist? New data for an old question. Poetics, 43, 70-85.
44.
LernerA. M. (1999). Law and lawyering in the work place: Building better lawyers by teaching students to exercise critical judgment as creative problem solver. Akron Law Review, 32, 107-150.
45.
LindemannD. J.TepperS. J. (2012). Painting with broader strokes: Reassessing the value of an arts degree. Bloomington, IN: Strategic National Arts Alumni Project. Retrieved from http://snaap.indiana.edu/pdf/SNAAP_Special%20Report_1.pdf
46.
LloydR. (2010). Neo-bohemia: Art and commerce in the postindustrial city. New York, NY: Routledge.
47.
McRobbieA. (2016). Be creative: Making a living in the new culture industries. Malden, MA: Polity Press.
48.
MengerP. M. (1999). Artistic labor markets and careers. Annual Review of Sociology, 25, 541-574.
49.
MengerP. M. (2006). Artistic labor markets: Contingent work, excess supply and occupational risk management. In GinsburghV. A.ThrosbyD. (Eds.), Handbook of the economics of art and culture (pp. 765-806). Amsterdam, Netherlands: North-Holland.
50.
NagelJ. (1994). Constructing ethnicity: Creating and recreating ethnic identity and culture. Social Problems, 41, 152-176.
OcejoR. E. (2010). What’ll it be? Cocktail bartenders and the redefinition of service in the creative economy. City, Culture and Society, 1, 179-184.
54.
PachuckiM. A.LenaJ. C.TepperS. J. (2010). Creativity narratives among college students: Sociability and everyday creativity. Sociological Quarterly, 51, 122-149.
55.
PittR. (2012). Divine callings: Understanding the call to ministry in Black Pentecostalism. New York: New York University Press.
56.
PittR.TepperS. (2012). Double majors: Influences, identities, and impacts. Nashville, TN: Curb Center at Vanderbilt University.
57.
RichardsR. E. (2007). Everyday creativity and new views of human nature: Psychological, social, and spiritual perspectives. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
58.
RosenbergM. (1979). Conceiving the self. New York, NY: Basic Books.
59.
RossA. (2007). Nice work if you can get it: The mercurial career of creative industries policy. Work Organisation, Labour & Globalisation, 1(1), 13-30.
60.
SawyerK. (2013). Zig zag: The surprising path to greater creativity. New York, NY: Jossey-Bass.
61.
SchlesingerP. (2007). Creativity: From discourse to doctrine. Screen, 48, 399-387.
62.
SicilianoM. (2016). Disappearing into the object: Aesthetic subjectivities and organizational control in routine cultural work. Organization Studies, 37, 687-708.
63.
SilviaP.KaufmanJ.PretzJ. (2009). Is creativity domain-specific? Latent class models of creative accomplishments and creative self-descriptions. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 3, 139-148.
64.
SomersM. R. (1994). The narrative constitution of identity: A relational and network approach. Theory and Society, 23, 605-649.
65.
SongM.HashemF. (2010). What does “white” mean? Interpreting the choice of “race” by mixed race young people in Britain. Sociological Perspectives, 53, 287-292.
66.
SøreideG. E. (2006). Narrative construction of teacher identity: Positioning and negotiation. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12, 527-447.
StoltzfusG.NibbelinkB. L.VredenburgD.HyrumE. (2011). Gender, gender role, and creativity. Social Behavior and Personality, 39, 425-432.
69.
StritikusT.NguyenD. (2007). Strategic transformation: Cultural and gender identity negotiation in first-generation Vietnamese youth. American Educational Research Journal, 44, 853-895.
70.
SunderlandJ. (2004). Gendered discourses. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
71.
SwidlerA. (1986). Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. American Sociological Review, 51, 273-286.
72.
TavoryI.WinchesterD. (2012). Experiential careers: The routinization and de-routinization of religious life. Theory and Society, 41, 351-373.
73.
TaylorS.LittletonK. (2012). Contemporary identities of creativity and creative work. Farnham, England: Ashgate.
TierneyP.FarmerS. M. (2002). Creative self-efficacy: Potential antecedents and relationship to creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 1137-1148.
76.
WatersM. C. (1990). Ethnic options: Choosing identities in America. Berkeley: University of California Press.
77.
WeiJ. (2012). Dealing with reality: Market demands, artistic integrity, and identity work in reality television production. Poetics, 40, 444-466.
78.
WoodmanR. W.SawyerJ. E.GriffinR. W. (1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18, 293-321.
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
