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SUCCESS IN THE PROTEAN CAREER: A PREDICTIVE STUDY OF PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS AND TERTIARY ARTS GRADUATES
Ruth Bridgstock
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2007
Centre for Learning Innovation, Faculty of Education
Queensland University of Technology
ii
KEYWORDS
Career success, protean career, boundaryless career, career development, career
transition, school to work transition, university to work transition, work experience,
higher education, career self-management, career management, career education,
artists, arts graduates, creative industries, creative workforce, graduate attributes,
employability, generic skills, transferable skills, scale development, confirmatory
factor analysis, structural equation modelling, content analysis, decision tree,
regression tree, CART.
iv
ABSTRACT
In the shift to a globalised creative economy where innovation and creativity
are increasingly prized, many studies have documented direct and indirect social and
economic benefits of the arts. In addition, arts workers have been argued to possess
capabilities which are of great benefit both within and outside the arts, including (in
addition to creativity) problem solving abilities, emotional intelligence, and team
working skills (ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation,
2007).
However, the labour force characteristics of professional artists in Australia
and elsewhere belie their importance. The average earnings of workers in the arts
sector are consistently less than other workers with similar educational backgrounds,
and their rates of unemployment and underemployment are much higher (Australian
Bureau of Statistics, 2005; Caves, 2000; Throsby & Hollister, 2003). Graduating
students in the arts appear to experience similar employment challenges and exhibit
similar patterns of work to artists in general. Many eventually obtain work unrelated
to the arts or go back to university to complete further tertiary study in fields
unrelated to arts (Graduate Careers Council of Australia, 2005a).
Recent developments in career development theory have involved discussion
of the rise of boundaryless careers amongst knowledge workers. Boundaryless
careers are characterised by non-linear career progression occurring outside the
bounds of a single organisation or field (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a, 1996b). The
protean career is an extreme form of the boundaryless career, where the careerist also
possesses strong internal career motivations and criteria for success (Baruch, 2004;
Hall, 2004; Hall & Mirvis, 1996). It involves a psychological contract with one’s self
rather than an organisation or organisations. The boundaryless and protean career
literature suggests competencies and dispositions for career self-management and
career success, but to date there has been minimal empirical work investigating the
predictive value of these competencies and dispositions to career success in the
boundaryless or protean career.
This program of research employed competencies and dispositions from
boundaryless and protean career theory to predict career success in professional
artists and tertiary arts graduates. These competencies and dispositions were placed
into context using individual and contextual career development influences suggested
by the Systems Theory Framework of career development (McMahon & Patton,
1995; Patton & McMahon, 1999, 2006a). Four substantive studies were conducted,
using online surveys with professional artists and tertiary arts students / graduates,
which were preceded by a pilot study for measure development.
A largely quantitative approach to the program of research was preferred, in
the interests of generalisability of findings. However, at the time of data collection,
there were no quantitative measures available which addressed the constructs of
interest. Brief scales of Career Management Competence based on the Australian
Blueprint for Career Development (Haines, Scott, & Lincoln, 2003), Protean Career
Success Orientation based on the underlying dispositions for career success
suggested by protean career theory, and Career Development Influences based on the
Systems Theory Framework of career development (McMahon & Patton, 1995;
Patton & McMahon, 1999, 2006a) were constructed and validated via a process of
pilot testing and exploratory factor analyses. This process was followed by
confirmatory factor analyses with data collected from two samples: 310 professional
artists, and 218 graduating arts students who participated at time 1 (i.e., at the point
of undergraduate course completion in October, 2005).
vi
Confirmatory factor analyses via Structural Equation Modelling conducted in
Study 1 revealed that the scales would benefit from some respecification, and so
modifications were made to the measures to enhance their validity and reliability.
The three scales modified and validated in Study 1 were then used in Studies 3 and 4
as potential predictors of career success for the two groups of artists under
investigation, along with relevant sociodemographic variables.
The aim of the Study 2 was to explore the construct of career success in the
two groups of artists studied. Each participant responded to an open-ended question
asking them to define career success. The responses for professional artists were
content analysed using emergent coding with two coders. The codebook was later
applied to the arts students’ definitions. The majority of the themes could be grouped
into four main categories: internal definitions; financial recognition definitions;
contribution definitions; and non-financial recognition definitions. Only one third of
the definition themes in the professional artists’ and arts graduates’ definitions of
career success were categorised as relating to financial recognition. Responses within
the financial recognition category also indicated that many of the artists aspired only
to a regular subsistence level of arts income (although a small number of the arts
graduates did aspire to fame and fortune).
The second section of the study investigated the statistical relationships
between the five different measures of career success for each career success
definitional category and overall. The professional artists’ and arts graduates’
surveys contained several measures of career success, including total earnings over
the previous 12 months, arts earnings over the previous 12 months, 1-6 self-rated
total employability, 1-6 self-rated arts employability, and 1-6 self-rated self-defined
career success. All of the measures were found to be statistically related to one
another, but a very strong statistical relationship was identified between each
employability measure and its corresponding earnings measure for both of the
samples. Consequently, it was decided to include only the earnings measures
(earnings from arts, and earnings overall) and the self-defined career success rating
measure in the later studies.
Study 3 used the career development constructs validated in Study 1,
sociodemographic variables, and the career success measures explored in Study 2 via
Classification and Regression Tree (CART - Breiman, Friedman, Olshen, & Stone,
1984) style decision trees with v-fold crossvalidation pruning using the 1 SE rule.
CART decision trees are a nonparametric analysis technique which can be used as an
alternative to OLS or hierarchical regression in the case of data which violates
parametric statistical assumptions.
The three optimal decision trees for total earnings, arts earnings and self
defined career success ratings explained a large proportion of the variance in their
respective target variables (R2 between 0.49 and 0.68). The Career building subscale
of the Career Management Competence scale, pertaining to the ability to manage the
external aspects of a career, was the most consistent predictor of all three career
success measures (and was the strongest predictor for two of the three trees),
indicating the importance of the artists’ abilities to secure work and build the external
aspects of a career. Other important predictors included the Self management
subscale of the Career Management Competence scale, Protean Career Success
Orientation, length of time working in the arts, and the positive role of interpersonal
influences, skills and abilities, and interests and beliefs from the Career Development
Influences scale. Slightly different patterns of predictors were found for the three
different career success measures.
viii
Study 4 also involved the career development constructs validated in Study 1,
sociodemographic variables, and the career success measures explored in Study 2 via
CART style decision trees. This study used a prospective repeated measures design
where the data for the attribute variables were gathered at the point of undergraduate
course completion, and the target variables were measured one year later. Data from
a total of 122 arts students were used, as 122 of the 218 students who responded to
the survey at time 1 (October 2005) also responded at time 2 (October 2006).
The resulting optimal decision trees had R2 values of between 0.33 and 0.46.
The values were lower than those for the professional artists’ decision trees, and the
trees themselves were smaller, but the R2 values nonetheless indicated that the arts
students’ trees possessed satisfactory explanatory power. The arts graduates’ Career
building scores at time 1 were strongly predictive of all three career success
measures at time 2, a similar finding to the professional artists’ trees. A further
similarity between the trees for the two samples was the strong statistical relationship
between Career building, Self management, and Protean Career Success
Orientation. However, the most important variable in the total earnings tree was arts
discipline category. Technical / design arts graduates consistently earned more
overall than arts graduates from other disciplines. Other key predictors in the arts
graduates’ trees were work experience in arts prior to course completion, positive
interpersonal influences, and the positive influence of skills and abilities and interests
and beliefs on career development.
The research program findings represent significant contributions to existing
knowledge about artists’ career development and success, and also the transition
from higher education to the world of work, with specific reference to arts and
creative industries programs. It also has implications for theory relating to career
success and protean / boundaryless careers.
x
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 1
Introduction to the Research 1
Background to the Research 1
The Importance of the Arts 1
Artists’ Working Lives 2
Tertiary Arts Graduates’ Transitions to the World of Work 3
Opportunities for Research into Artists’ Careers 5
Definitions of Key Terms 6
Artist 6
Arts Graduate 7
Boundaryless Career 8
Career 8
Career Development Influences 8
Career Management Competencies / Skills, Career Self-Management 9
Career Success 9
Employability 10
Graduate Attributes 10
Graduate Transition to the World of Work 10
Protean Career 11
Protean Career Success Orientation 11
Predictors of Artists’ and Arts Graduates’ Career Success 11
Career Self-Management Skills 12
Protean Career Success Orientation 13
Career Development Influences 14
Research Questions and Overview of the Studies 15
Study 1 16
Study 2 17
Study 3 18
Study 4 19
Research Significance and Contributions 19
Theoretical Contributions 20
Methodological Contributions 21
Substantive Contributions 22
Organisation of the Thesis Document 23
CHAPTER 2 25
Literature Review: Career Development Theory 25
New Conceptions of Career 26
Boundaryless Careers and Employability 27
The Subjective Career 29
The Protean Career 30
Theoretical Understandings of Career Development 33
Structure Theories of Career: Traits and Types 34
Process Theories of Career: Development and the Individual 38
Theories Embracing Structure, Process and Context 43
Recent Developments in Career Theory 50
Calls for Theory Convergence and Integration 50
Systems Theory as an Integrative Theoretical Framework 51
The Development of the Systems Theory Framework of Career Development 53
Chapter Summary 55
CHAPTER 3 56
Literature Review: Career Success and Successful Tertiary Graduate Transitions to the
World of Work 56
Career Success 56
Objective Measures of Career Success 57
xii
Subjective Measures of Career Success 59
The Relationship between Subjective and Objective Measures of Career Success 62
Predictors of Career Success 63
Skills as Predictors of Career Success 67
Career Self-Management Skills as Predictors of Career Success 68
The Australian Blueprint for Career Development 75
Underlying Dispositions and Characteristics as Predictors of Career Success 79
The University to World-of-Work Transition 84
Graduate Attributes 85
Broadening the Concepts of Graduate Attributes and Employability 87
Predictors of Successful Graduate Transitions to the World of Work 90
Career Self-Management Skills and Underlying Dispositions and Characteristics as Predictors
of Successful Graduate Transitions 90
Contextual Predictors of Successful Transitions 93
Chapter Summary 95
CHAPTER 4 97
Literature Review: Artists’ Careers 97
Definitions of the Artist and the Arts 97
The Arts Sector in Australia 99
The Social and Economic Importance of the Arts 100
Artists’ Career Patterns: A Protean Career in Arts 101
Mobility, Occupational Roles and Sources of Income 103
Personal Responsibility For Career Development 104
Career Motivations and Measures of Success 105
The Protean Tertiary Arts Graduate 108
Predictors of Career Success for Professional Artists and Arts Graduates 110
The Present Program of Study 113
Study 1: Research Question 1 116
Study 2: Research Question 2 116
Study 3: Research Question 3 117
Study 4: Research Question 4 117
Chapter Summary 118
CHAPTER 5 120
Method and Methodological Considerations 120
Data Collection 120
Self-Report Surveys 121
Limitations of Survey Research 122
Online Surveys 124
Ethical Considerations 126
Sampling: Professional Artists 127
Defining ‘Professional Artist’ 127
Artist Categories 128
Current Professional Activity 132
Recruitment 133
Sample Characteristics 134
Sampling: Arts Students 137
Defining ‘Arts Student’ 137
Arts Student Categories 138
Recruitment 138
Sample Characteristics 140
Survey Composition 143
Protean Career Success Orientation 145
Career Management Competence 146
Career Development Influences 148
xiv
Career Success 152
Sociodemographic Variables 153
Analysis Design 157
Study 1 157
Study 2 159
Study 3 161
Study 4 163
Chapter Summary 164
CHAPTER 6 166
Study 1: Development and Validation of Career Development Influences, Protean Career
Success Orientation and Career Management Competence Scales 166
Data Analysis 166
Career Development Influences Scale 167
Data Screening Procedures 167
Confirmatory Factor Analyses: Six Factor Structure 174
Model Respecification 178
Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Respecified Five Factor Structure 184
Protean Career Success Orientation Scale 187
Data Screening Procedures 188
Confirmatory Factor Analyses: Single Factor Structure 191
Model Respecification 193
Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Respecified Single Factor Structure 196
Career Management Competence Scale 197
Data Screening Procedures 198
Confirmatory Factor Analyses: Three Factor Structure 201
Model Respecification 204
Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Two Factor Structure 205
Confirmatory Factor Analysis: Respecified Two Factor Structure 208
Discussion of Findings 210
Career Development Influences Scale 211
Protean Career Success Orientation Scale 213
Career Management Competence Scale 215
Chapter Summary 219
CHAPTER 7 220
Study 2: Definition and Exploration of the Career Success Construct in Professional
Artists and Arts Graduates 220
Content Analysis of Artists’ Definitions of Career Success 221
Content Analysis Procedure 221
Coding of Professional Artists’ Responses 221
Themes in Professional Artists’ Responses 222
Professional Artists’ Broad Career Success Definition Categories 224
Description of Professional Artists’ Definitions of Career Success 227
Internal Definitions 227
Financial Recognition Definitions 228
Non-Financial Recognition Definitions 229
Contribution Definitions 229
Coding of Arts Graduates’ Responses 230
Arts Graduates’ Response Theme Subcategories 230
Description of Arts Graduates’ Definitions of Career Success 232
Internal Definitions 232
Financial Recognition Definitions 233
Non-Financial Recognition Definitions 234
Contribution Definitions 234
Other Definitions 235
xvi
Relationships Between Measures of Career Success 235
Professional Artist Career Success Measure Correlations 236
Arts Graduate Career Success Measure Correlations 240
Discussion 244
Chapter Summary 249
CHAPTER 8 250
Study 3: Prediction of Professional Artists’ Career Success from Career Development
Measures 250
Decision Tree Method 250
Overview of the Decision Tree Method 251
Choice of Algorithms: CART 252
Decision Tree Results 254
Descriptive Statistics for Variables Included in the Analyses 254
Total Earnings Decision Tree Results 262
Arts Earnings Decision Tree Results 264
Self Defined Career Success Rating Decision Tree Results 267
Discussion 270
Total Earnings 273
Arts Earnings 274
Self Defined Career Success Rating 275
Links Between Decision Tree Findings and Extant Literature 276
Chapter Summary 279
CHAPTER 9 281
Study 4: Prediction of Arts Students’ Successful Transitions to Work from Career
Development Influences and Constructs 281
Decision Tree Method 282
Decision Tree Results 283
Descriptive Statistics for Variables Included in the Analyses 283
Total Earnings Decision Tree Results 291
Arts Earnings Decision Tree Results 293
Self Defined Career Success Rating Decision Tree Results 296
Discussion 298
Total Earnings 301
Arts Earnings 302
Self Defined Career Success Rating 303
Links Between Decision Tree Findings and Extant Literature 304
Chapter Summary 310
CHAPTER 10 312
Discussion and Conclusion of the Research Program 312
Overview of the Research Program 312
Study 1 314
Study 2 316
Study 3 318
Study 4 321
Implications for Artists’ Careers 324
Implications for Artists’ Employers / Clients 326
Implications for Universities and Tertiary Students 327
Theoretical Contributions of the Program of Study 329
Factorial Structure of Scales 329
Career Success 332
Predictors of Artists’ and Arts Graduates’ Career Success 333
Graduate Attributes 334
Methodological Contributions of the Program of Study 335
xviii
Scale Development 335
Decision Trees 336
A Prospective Approach to the Study of Tertiary Graduate Outcomes 336
Limitations of the Research Program 337
Recommendations for Future Research 339
Conclusion 341
REFERENCES 343
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 The Systems Theory Framework of career development 52
6.1 Path diagram for the hypothesised six factor model of the CDI 168
6.2 Standardised estimates and SMCs for the six factor model:
Professional artists sample
175
6.3 Standardised estimates and SMCs for the six factor model: Arts
students sample
176
6.4 Path diagram for the respecified five factor model of the CDI 181
6.5 Standardised estimates and SMCs for five-factor model of CDI:
Professional artists sample (N = 310)
183
6.6 Standardised estimates and SMCs for five factor model of CDI:
Arts students sample (N = 218)
185
6.7 Path diagram for the hypothesised single factor model of PCSO 188
6.8 Standardised estimates and SMCs for single-factor model of
PCSO: Professional artists sample (N = 310)
191
6.9 Standardised estimates and SMCs for single-factor model of
PCSO: Arts students sample (N = 218)
192
6.10 Path diagram for respecified single factor model of the PCSO 195
6.11 Standardised estimates and SMCs for respecified single-factor
model of the PCSO: Arts students sample (N = 218)
196
6.12 Standardised estimates and SMCs for respecified single-factor
model of the PCSO: Professional artists sample (N = 310)
196
xx
6.13 Path diagram for the hypothesised three factor model of CMC 198
6.14 Standardised estimates and SMCs for three factor model of
CMC: Professional artists sample (N = 310)
202
6.15 Standardised estimates and SMCs for three factor model of
CMC: Arts students sample (N = 218)
203
6.16 Path diagram for the respecified two factor model of CMC 205
6.17 Standardised estimates and SMCs for respecified two factor
model of the CMC: Professional artists sample (N = 310)
207
6.18 Standardised estimates and SMCs for respecified two factor
model of the CMC: Arts students sample (N = 218)
209
8.1 Optimal decision tree for total earnings 262
8.2 Optimal decision tree for earnings from arts 265
8.3 Optimal decision tree for self defined career success rating 268
9.1 Optimal decision tree for total earnings 291
9.2 Optimal decision tree for earnings from arts 294
9.3 Optimal decision tree for self defined career success rating 296
LIST OF TABLES
1.1 The Program of Study By Research Question 17
2.1 Key Attributes of Traditional vs Protean Careers 31
3.1 Significant Predictors of Objective and Subjective Career
Success From 140 Studies
65
3.2 Significant Career Competency Predictors of Marketability and
Career Success in Eby et al.'s (2003) Study
73
3.3 Top-Level Structure of the Australian Blueprint for Career
Development
76
3.4 The Relationship Between ABCD Competencies, Performance
Indicators and Learning Stages: Sample For One Competency
77
4.1 Employment Status of Australian Artists Working From Within
Their Principal Artistic Occupation Versus The General Working
Population
104
5.1 Professional Artist Categories 130
5.2 Professional Artist Sample Sizes by Category 135
5.3 Professional Artist Characteristics: Sample and Population
Statistics
136
5.4 Arts Student Categories by Discipline of Program of Study 138
5.5 Arts Student Characteristics: Sample and Population Statistics 142
5.6 Substantive Research Measures Used to Address Research 144
xxii
Questions in the Present Investigation
5.7 Sociodemographic Research Measures Used in the Present
Investigation
156
5.8 Study 1 Analysis Design 158
5.9 Study 2 Analysis Design 160
5.10 Study 3 Analysis Design 162
5.11 Study 4 Analysis Design 164
6.1 Item Means and Standard Deviations: CDI in Professional Artists
Sample and Arts Students Sample
170
6.2 Inter-item Correlations: CDI in Professional Artists Sample, N =
310
172
6.3 Inter-item Correlations: CDI in Arts Students Sample, N = 218 173
6.4 Fit Indices for Six Factor Model of CDI Using Two Data Sets 178
6.5 Fit Indices for Six Factor Model of CDI and Respecifications:
Professional Artists Sample (N = 310)
182
6.6 Internal Consistency of the Respecified CDI Five Factor Model:
Professional Artists Sample (N = 310)
184
6.7 Fit Indices for Respecified Five Factor Model of CDI with Arts
Students (N = 218)
186
6.8 Internal Consistency of the Respecified CDI Five Factor Model:
Arts Students Sample (N = 218)
187
6.9 Item Means and Standard Deviations: PCSO in Professional 189
Artists Sample and Arts Students Sample
6.10 Inter-item Correlations: PCSO in Professional Artists Sample, N
= 310
190
6.11 Inter-item Correlations: PCSO in Arts Students Sample, N = 218 190
6.12 Fit Indices for Single Factor Model of PCSO 193
6.13 Fit Indices for Single Factor Model of PCSO and
Respecification: Arts Students Sample (N = 218)
195
6.14 Fit Indices for Single Factor Model of PCSO and
Respecification: Professional Artists (N = 310)
197
6.15 Item Means and Standard Deviations: CMC in Professional
Artists Sample and Arts Students Sample
199
6.16 Inter-item Correlations: CMC in Professional Artists Sample, N
= 310
200
6.17 Inter-item Correlations: CMC in Arts Students Sample, N = 218 201
6.18 Fit Indices for Three Factor Model of CMC 204
6.19 Fit Indices for Three Factor Model of CMC and
Respecifications: Professional Artists (N = 310)
206
6.20 Internal Consistency of the Respecified CMC Two Factor
Model: Professional Artists Sample (N = 310)
208
6.21 Fit Indices for Respecified Two Factor Model of CMC with Arts
Students (N = 218)
210
6.22 Internal Consistency of the Respecified CMC Two Factor 210
xxiv
Model: Arts Students Sample (N = 218)
6.23 Final Career Development Influences Scale Items and Factors 211
6.24 Final Protean Career Success Orientation Scale Items and
Factors
214
6.25 Final Career Management Competence Scale Items and Factors 217
7.1 Themes Identified in Professional Artists’ Definitions of Career
Success
224
7.2 Categories of Professional Artists Definitions of Career Success
Themes
225
7.3 Major Elements of Professional Artists’ Definitions of Career
Success
226
7.4 Major Elements of Arts Graduates’ Definitions of Career
Success
232
7.5 Descriptive statistics for professional artists’ success measures 237
7.6 Spearman’s ρ correlation coefficients for professional artists’
success measures
239
7.7 Descriptive statistics for arts graduates’ success measures 241
7.8 Spearman’s ρ Correlation Coefficients for Arts Graduates’
Success Measures
243
8.1 Descriptive Statistics for Target Variables Included in the
Decision Tree Analysis
254
8.2 Descriptive Statistics for Career Development Measure Attribute 256
Variables Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
8.3 Descriptive Statistics for Sociodemographic Attribute Variables
Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
257
8.4 Target Variable Means, Standard Deviations and Nonparametric
Tests of Difference by Categorical Variable Levels
259
8.5 Spearman’s Bivariate Correlation Coefficients for Continuous
and Ordinal Variables Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
260
8.6 Attribute Variables Included in the Decision Trees 261
8.7. Relative Importance Of Variables In Constructing The Optimal
Total Earnings Decision Tree
264
8.8. Relative Importance of Variables in Constructing the Optimal
Earnings from Arts Decision Tree
267
8.9. Relative Importance Of Variables In Constructing The Optimal
Self Defined Career Success Rating Decision Tree
270
8.10 Summary of Attribute Variable Roles in the Decision Trees 272
9.1 Descriptive Statistics for Target Variables Included in the
Decision Tree Analysis
284
9.2 Descriptive Statistics for Career Development Measure Attribute
Variables Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
285
9.3 Descriptive Statistics for Sociodemographic Attribute Variables
Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
286
9.4 Target Variable Means, Standard Deviations and Nonparametric 288
xxvi
Tests of Difference by Categorical Variable Levels
9.5 Spearman’s Bivariate Correlation Coefficients for Continuous
and Ordinal Variables Included in the Decision Tree Analysis
289
9.6 Attribute Variables Included in the Decision Trees 290
9.7. Relative Importance Of Variables In Constructing The Optimal
Total Earnings Decision Tree
293
9.8. Relative Importance of Variables in Constructing the Optimal
Earnings from Arts Decision Tree
295
9.9. Relative Importance Of Variables In Constructing The Optimal
Self Defined Career Success Rating Decision Tree
298
9.10 Summary of Attribute Variable Roles in the Decision Trees 300
LIST OF APPENDICES ON CD
APPENDIX A Online Survey Instruments
APPENDIX B Ethical Clearances
APPENDIX C Participating Artists’ Professional Organisations and Networks
APPENDIX D Pilot Study Information and Exploratory Factor Analyses
xxviii
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ACCI Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry
BCA Business Council of Australia
CART Classification and Regression Tree
CCI ARC Centre for Excellence in Creative Industries and Innovation
CDI Career Development Influences
CMC Career Management Competence
OLS Ordinary Least Squares
PCSO Protean Career Success Orientation
SEM Structural Equation Modelling
STF Systems Theory Framework of career development
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ARISING FROM THIS RESEARCH
Journal Articles
Bridgstock, R. (2005). Australian artists, starving and well-nourished: What can we
learn from the prototypical protean career? Australian Journal of Career
Development, 14(3), 40-48.
Bridgstock, R. (2007). Development of a brief measure of career development
influences based on the Systems Theory Framework of Career Development.
Australian Journal of Career Development, 16(3), 19-30.
Bridgstock, R. (2008). The graduate attributes we’ve overlooked: Enhancing tertiary
graduate employability through career management skills. Higher Education
Research and Development, in press.
Refereed Conference Papers
Bridgstock, R. (2005). What influences the decision to teach? A quantitative
application of the Systems Theory Framework of career development. Paper
presented at the New Researchers for New Times Conference, Brisbane.
Bridgstock, R. (2006). Follow your (employable) bliss: The challenge of the
Australian creative / performing arts graduate. Paper presented at the
Australian Association of Career Counsellors Conference, Sydney.
Bridgstock, R. (2007). Human capital predictors of career success in the Creative
Industries: A regression tree approach. Paper presented at the EIDOS
EMERGE Conference, Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane.
xxx
Bridgstock, R. (2007). Self-motivated and self-managing: Predicting tertiary arts
graduate career success using a prospective regression tree approach. Paper
presented at the AIC Partnership for World Graduates Conference,
Melbourne, November 2007.
Brow, J., Hearn, G., & Bridgstock, R. (2007). 60Sox and the 2bobmob: Mentoring in
an online learning community for Creative Industries graduates. Paper
presented at the AIC Partnership for World Graduates Conference,
Melbourne, November 2007.
Non-Refereed Conference Presentations
Bridgstock, R. (2006). Influences on artists’ career development and success. Poster
presentation at the Institute for Creative Industries and Innovation Research
Symposium, Brisbane.
Bridgstock, R. (2007). Creative workforce: Building a creative capacity. Creative
Workforce Symposium presentation at Digital Literacy and Creative
Innovation in a Knowledge Economy Research Symposium, Brisbane.
STATEMENT OF ORIGINAL AUTHORSHIP
The work contained in this thesis has not previously been submitted for a degree or
diploma at any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and
belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another
person except where due reference is made.
Signed: ......................................................................
Date: .........................................................................
xxxii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although PhD study is often seen as a solitary journey, numerous people
contributed in meaningful ways to the completion of this project – not to mention
regularly reminding me of the joys in learning to be a researcher. First I would like to
thank my principal supervisor Wendy Patton, who throughout my candidature
encouraged and nurtured my academic growth in the development of this thesis, and
more broadly – providing timely career counselling when necessary!
Many people were instrumental to the data collection process. Dean Bensted
(PHP programmer extraordinaire), the QUT Student Information Systems staff, and
the residents of B Block 5th floor (who participated uncomplainingly in recruitment
material envelope-stuffing parties) spring particularly to mind. Also, without the
timely action of Stephen Towers and the academic staff of the Creative Industries
Faculty at QUT, and also the managers of the participating professional arts
organisations, my sample sizes would have been considerably smaller. Many thanks.
I would also like to thank Erica McWilliam, who kindly provided scholarship
support, part-time research employment, academic mentoring, annual song-and-
dance acts, and reminders when needed that, “girls can do anything!”
Thanks must also go to some of my fellow doctoral candidates. Drs Shane
Dawson, Amanda Mergler, Lee Tennent and Lyndal O’Gorman, and almost-Drs
Jennifer Puay Leng Tan and David Emmett provided invaluable inspiration, support,
advice and numerous cappuccinos during my many long days and nights of PhD
candidature. Finally, I would like to acknowledge the support of my family and
friends outside QUT, without whom this PhD would never have been completed.
This document is dedicated to Michael and approximately 299,999 other
Australian artists, in appreciation of your important creative work.
1
CHAPTER 1
Introduction to the Research
The first chapter of this document provides an overview of the research at
hand, the central aim of which was to explore the value of a number of career
development constructs and influences in predicting career success in artists. Using
samples of professional artists and graduating tertiary arts students, this program of
doctoral research involved a comprehensive exploration of conceptions of career
success held by the samples of artists, and also an investigation of the statistical
relationships between the participants’ definitions and commonly accepted measures
of career success such as earnings. Nonparametric techniques were then employed to
determine the predictive value of a number of constructs suggested by career
development literature to the measures of artistic career success.
This first chapter commences by positioning the present research within the
arts and career development theory milieux. It also provides concise definitions for
specialised terms used in this document.
Background to the Research
The Importance of the Arts
Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (United Nations,
1948) affirms the right of every human being to freely participate in the cultural life
of the community and to enjoy the arts. The value of artistic participation (both
expression and reception) to individuals is agreed be wide ranging, from enhanced
development of learning skills and academic performance, to improved
psychological and physical health, to greater individual receptivity to new
2
perspectives and tolerance for others (Belfiore & Bennett, 2007; Bryce, Mendelovits,
Beavis, McQueen, & Adama, 2004; McCarthy, Ondaatje, Zakaras, & Brooks, 2004b)
In addition, it is now widely acknowledged that the arts plays a vital role in
contributing to broad social and economic goals, particularly in the worldwide shift
to innovation and knowledge-based economies where creativity and innovation are
increasingly prized (Budd, 1995; Czikszentmihalyi, 1997; Radich, 1992; Stone,
Bikson, Moini, & McArthur, 1999). Many studies document the direct and indirect
economic benefits of the arts to communities, including employment and spending,
and attraction of organisations and people to areas where the arts are available
(Florida, 2003; Heilbrun & Gray, 2001; Myerscough, 1988). In the last few years, the
economic value of creative workers has also increasingly been emphasised. In this
era of the ‘creative workforce’ (ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries
and Innovation, 2007; Florida, 2003), which is often located within the ‘creative
industries’ (Caves, 2000; Cunningham, 2002), and in the broader context of the
‘creative economy’ (Howkins, 2002), artists are argued to possess capabilities which
are of great economic benefit both within and outside the arts, including, in addition
to creativity, problem solving abilities, emotional intelligence, and team working
skills (ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation, 2007;
Moga, Burger, Hetland, & Winner, 1999).
Artists’ Working Lives
Despite ongoing rhetoric regarding the importance of the arts to individuals,
society and the economy, the cultural sector continues to struggle against intense
economic pressures. Very few artistic ventures are profitable, and it is difficult to
predict whether an artistic product or service will become a ‘hit’ (Hodsoll, 2002).
Demand for artistic products appears to be strongly affected by the potential
3
audience’s disposable income levels and previous experience with the arts, and the
political / social forces at play (Levy-Garboua & Montmarquette, 2003; Throsby,
1994a). The sector is highly dependant upon public funding and subsidies, which are
argued to favour certain groups of recipients over others (e.g., opera and ballet as
opposed to orchestras; more conservative works as opposed to experimental ones)
and are also strongly affected by the government’s wider objectives, which vary
markedly by government ideology and over time (Frey, 2003).
The arts sector displays labour force characteristics which have been
described as ‘exceptional’ (Abbing, 2002). The average earnings of workers in the
arts sector are consistently less than other workers with comparable educational and
demographic profiles, and artists also experience much higher rates of
unemployment and underemployment (Australia Council for the Arts, 2005b;
Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2005; Caves, 2000; Throsby & Hollister, 2003).
Artists may be prepared to undertake poorly paid casual or part-time work in an
unrelated field while unemployed or underemployed as an artist in order to sustain
their practice (Papandrea, 2004). Further, economic studies suggest that if artists
receive extra income from any source, they will tend to use this income to work more
hours in arts rather than spend fewer hours working. Faced with the prospect of
additional income, they may even reduce hours at supplementary jobs in order to
maximise time working in their arts practice, resulting in a similar level of income to
before the new income was introduced (Abbing, 2002; Throsby, 1994b).
Tertiary Arts Graduates’ Transitions to the World of Work
There have been fewer studies of the working lives of tertiary arts graduates
than of professional artists, but evidence suggests that graduating arts students
experience similar employment challenges and exhibit similar patterns of work to
4
more established artists. Tertiary courses in the arts and creative industries attract
large and increasing numbers of students, yet arts graduates reaching the world of
work seem to experience very high levels of underemployment and very low
incomes, and many eventually obtain work unrelated to their degrees or go back to
university in order to complete further tertiary study in fields unrelated to arts
(Graduate Careers Council of Australia, 2005a). Other arts graduates persevere,
perhaps willing to sacrifice earnings and career stability in order to continue work in
the arts for non-economic reasons (Throsby, 1994b), or mindful of the very few who
have a big break into arts ‘superstardom’ (Benhamou, 2003; Rengers, 2002).
Recent moves towards making public funding for universities contingent on
positive graduate outcomes (Department of Education Science and Training, 2007b;
Higher Education Funding Council for England, 2002) have meant that universities
are under significant pressure to demonstrate that their students are employable.
Providers of tertiary arts courses are at a disadvantage in this because of the arts
labour market characteristics just described. This disadvantage is compounded by
several issues. First, governments have chosen to define ‘positive graduate
outcomes’ restrictively, as the proportion of graduates in full-time employment four
months after course completion, when the Graduate Destination Survey is
administered (Graduate Careers Council of Australia, 2006b).
Second, universities have approached the issue of graduate employability in a
narrow and limited way, choosing to emphasise in their students the development of
generic / transferable skills (e.g., verbal communication, working with technology)
that might appeal to the widest variety of employers (Australian Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, 2002; Bennett, 2002; Bowden, Hart, King, Trigwell, &
Watts, 2000; Kearns, 2001). While these generic / transferable skills are important, in
5
all probability they only represent a fraction of the influences on graduate
employability (Brown, Hesketh, & Williams, 2003) and other positive graduate
outcomes. Based on this information, the outlook for tertiary arts graduates,
providers of arts education, providers of higher education in general, and the future
creative economy, appears somewhat uncertain.
Opportunities for Research into Artists’ Careers
The preceding descriptions of artists’ and tertiary arts graduates’ careers lead
to a number of questions that are insufficiently addressed by the extant literature.
Some of these questions are: Why do so many artists pursue careers in a profession
where the economic conditions are so unfavourable? Why do many artists invest
heavily in their artistic educations and the creation of works of art when the financial
returns are usually low and unpredictable? Do artists choose arts because they aspire
to a ‘holy grail’ of fame and fortune in arts, or are they motivated by factors
unrelated to financial or non-financial recognition? Is success in the arts just a matter
of being talented and getting a ‘lucky break’, or are there aspects of the artist and
their social or environmental context that systematically predict career success in the
arts? What should universities’ priorities be in supporting their arts students to
achieve positive outcomes?
The program of research presented in this document investigates two
substantive research inquiries emerging from these questions, across four key
research questions. The first inquiry relates to career success in the arts. It
investigates artists’ and arts graduates’ definitions of career success, and explores
how their ratings of self-defined career success relate to established measures of
career success such as earnings and self-assessments of employability. The second
inquiry uses constructs and influences suggested by career development theory to
6
predict career success (using several of the measures explored in the first inquiry) in
the two groups of artists studied. As the result of the findings of the second inquiry,
several key recommendations are able to be made regarding key ways to support and
develop tertiary arts students and professional artists in their careers.
Definitions of Key Terms
The terms presented in this section are frequently used in this thesis, and have
specific meanings which have arisen from the literature (e.g., ‘boundaryless career’)
or have been created by the researcher for the purposes of this study (e.g., ‘protean
career success orientation’). It is therefore worthwhile to define these terms in the
introduction. The terms are presented in alphabetical order for ease of reference.
Each of the terms is clarified further in Chapters 2 through 5 of this document.
Artist
The present program of study uses a definition of ‘artist’ based on previous
work undertaken by: the Australia Council for the Arts (2005b); the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (1997); and, Throsby and Hollister (2003). For the purposes of
the present study, there are four conditions necessary for an individual to meet the
definition of ‘professional artist’, two of which pertain to the nature of artistic
activities undertaken, and two of which pertain to professional practice. They are:
1. The artist is engaged in one or more of the following fields:
(i) creative arts (where the emphasis is on creation of original cultural
expression);
(ii) performing arts (where the emphasis is on creative interpretation of an
existing piece of creative artwork, e.g.. musicians, actors);
7
(iii) community cultural development (where the emphasis is on building a
cultural community through art - Flood, 1998); and
(iv) technical or design arts (where the emphasis is on technical expertise as
well as creative output, e.g., multimedia or fashion design).
2. The artist engages in creative work in at least one of these fields (not only
performing support, administrative, managerial or educational functions).
3. During the last 5 years the artist has created a professional work of art (sold,
performed, exhibited, published, filmed, broadcast or otherwise produced a
professional work), or has received a government or similar grant to produce
a professional artistic work.
4. The artist regards themselves as being engaged in creating a serious and
substantial body of artistic work.
Arts Graduate
Arts graduates in the present study were recruited at the point of course
completion (October, 2005) from relevant Bachelor of Fine Arts, Bachelor of
Creative Industries or Graduate Certificate / Graduate Diploma programs at
Queensland University of Technology. They were eligible to participate at time 1
providing that they were planning to work in the arts during the subsequent year. The
arts students were placed into three occupational categories according to the arts
discipline of their program of study. These categories, as with the professional
artists’ sample, were creative artists, performing artists, and technical artists. A
second data collection procedure was undertaken with these participants one year
after course completion (October, 2006). They were eligible to participate at time 2 if
8
they had attempted to work in arts over the preceding 12 months since course
completion.
Boundaryless Career
The boundaryless career (Arthur, Hall, & Lawrence, 1989; Arthur, Inkson, &
Pringle, 1999; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a, 1996b) in contrast with a ‘traditional’,
‘hierarchical’, ‘organisational’ career, is one which is not bounded by a single
organisation or field, and is marked by less vertical movement, a less ordered
progression, and less stability. "Put simply, boundaryless careers are the opposite of
‘organisational careers’ - careers conceived to unfold in a single employment setting"
(Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a, p.5).
Career
“[Career is]… the individual’s lifelong progression in learning and work”
(Watts, 1998, p.2), where ‘learning’ can be formal or informal, ‘work’ can include all
paid and unpaid work roles, and ‘progression’ can be any kind of movement which
retains a sense of development. The definition of career has recently been expanded
from being synonymous with an ‘occupation’ to accommodate changes in the work
world (see the definition of ‘boundaryless career’) and subjective notions of career;
that is, that people personally construct their careers and make their own meanings
from them (Collin & Watts, 1996; Herr, 1992; Miller-Tiedeman & Tiedeman, 1990;
Richardson, 1993).
Career Development Influences
Career development influences are key components of the Systems Theory
Framework of career development (McMahon & Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon,
9
1997, 1999, 2006a). They are the dynamic intrapersonal, social-contextual, and
environmental-contextual factors relevant to the career development process. These
influences are the elements of the individual’s career development system.
Career Management Competencies / Skills, Career Self-Management
Career management skills and competencies are the abilities suggested by
theory to be required in order for an individual to maximise employability and
successfully navigate their own career. Several career management competence
frameworks exist, the most well-known of which is deFillippi and Arthur’s (1994;
1996) competencies for the boundaryless career. These authors posited six classes of
career management competencies: knowing what, knowing where, knowing how,
knowing when, knowing why, and knowing who. However, the most comprehensive
exposition and classification of career management skills for the Australian context
were suggested in the draft Australian Blueprint for Career Development (Haines et
al., 2003).
Career Success
Career success is the accumulated positive work and psychological outcomes
resulting from one’s career experiences (Seibert & Kramer, 2001). Career success
has traditionally been operationalised by variables which can be seen and evaluated
by others, such as salary level or number of promotions, known as ‘objective career
success’ (Judge, Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995). With recent acknowledgement by
career theorists of the importance of derivation of personal meaning in careers,
‘subjective career success’, the individual’s subjective judgements about their career
attainments (Burke, 2001; Ng, Eby, Sorensen, & Feldman, 2005), has assumed an
increasingly dominant role in the career success literature.
10
Employability
Employability is defined as the careerist’s ability to create or obtain work. It
is work-specific adaptability that enables workers to identify and realise career
opportunities (Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004), an important construct in the
boundaryless career world where job security is becoming rarer and the onus is on
the individual to create a career for themselves. Recently, policy makers have started
to emphasise ‘employability skills’ (Atkins, 1999; Australian Chamber of Commerce
and Industry, 2002; Yorke, 2004), defined as the skills required to maximise
employability. The most common conception of employability skills is transferable
or generic skills which might be useful in a wide range of situations (such as
information literacy, working with technology, and written and verbal
communication).
Graduate Attributes
Graduate attributes are “the qualities, skills and understandings a university
community agrees its students would desirably develop during their time at the
institution and, consequently, shape the contribution they are able to make to their
profession and as a citizen” (Bowden et al., 2000, para 1). Graduate attributes can be
divided into two main categories: (i) those which pertain to an individual’s capacity
for citizenship; and (ii) those which pertain to an individual’s capacity for
employability.
Graduate Transition to the World of Work
Graduate transition is the process involved in moving from higher education
to work upon completion of a tertiary course. Graduate transitions are most
commonly discussed with reference to graduate employability and graduate
11
employment outcomes, but they also involve major life and identity transitions for
most students. The present research operationalises successful graduate transitions in
terms of the subjective and objective career success measures used in this study: total
earnings; earnings from arts; total employability; employability in arts; and, self-
defined career success.
Protean Career
The protean career is an extreme form of the boundaryless career, in
conjunction with strong internal career motivations and measures of success (Baruch,
2004). It involves a psychological contract with one’s self rather than an organisation
or organisations. The protean careerist, taking personal responsibility for their career
development, continually ‘refashions’ themselves according to their personal needs
and demands of the world of work. The term ‘protean’ comes from the name of the
Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape at will.
Protean Career Success Orientation
Seven related underlying attributes or dispositions are commonly argued in
protean career literature to lead to individual career success in the context of the non-
traditional career pattern. These are: strong internal motivations; self-directedness;
proactivity; resilience and adaptability; openness to career opportunities; a positive
self image; and a positive interpersonal orientation. For the purposes of the present
study, these seven underlying attributes comprise protean career success orientation.
Predictors of Artists’ and Arts Graduates’ Career Success
The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the predictive value
of certain constructs and influences suggested by career theory to career success in
artists and tertiary arts graduates. The constructs and influences chosen as predictors
12
arose from relatively recent developments in career theory which have begun to
recognise:
- the changing nature of many careers from linear and organisationally based to
‘boundaryless’ (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a; Sullivan, 1999) and individually
managed;
- the importance of subjective, holistic and process-oriented views of career;
and,
- shortcomings in extant career development theories which tend to emphasise
only one or a few influences on career development and thus have limited
explanatory power in an exploratory study such as this one.
Career Self-Management Skills
The first group of arts career success predictors chosen for the present
research emerged from discussions of the changing world of work in advanced
economies. Since the mid 1990s, commentators have observed a decline in
traditional organisationally-based careers amongst knowledge workers, and a
corresponding rise in ‘boundaryless’ careers, characterised by lateral or advancing
movements within, between or outside organisations, and various types of paid
employment such as short-term contracts, job-sharing and self-employment (Arthur
& Rousseau, 1996b; deFillippi & Arthur, 1994; Hall, 1996; Knowdell, 1996). The
boundaryless careerist experiences low levels of employment security and cannot
rely on organisationally-based career development opportunities. Chapter 4 of this
thesis presents the argument that a significant number of artists and tertiary arts
graduates experience boundaryless careers.
13
Employability, the ability to create or obtain work, is a central concept to the
boundaryless careerist (e.g., Bridges, 1995; Kanter, 1989; Mirvis & Hall, 1996), who
must constantly look around and ahead for the next suitable career opportunity or
opportunities (Jones & deFillippi, 1996). It follows logically that boundaryless
careerists who possess certain types of skills, such as the ability to effectively
network with professional contacts or locate career-related information, would be
more successful than others.
The career development literature suggests a range of skills or competencies
for successful career self-management in the era of the boundaryless career
(deFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996; Hache, Redekopp, & Jarvis, 2000; Haines et al.,
2003; Kuijpers & Scheerens, 2006; Kuijpers, Schyns, & Scheerens, 2006). The
present study used a research-designed survey measure based on the Australian
Blueprint for Career Development (Haines et al., 2003) to investigate whether career
self-management competence predicted career success in the artists and arts
graduates under study.
Protean Career Success Orientation
A deficit in most career self-management skill frameworks is the relative lack
of consideration of dispositional and other psychological characteristics which
underlie the successful development and application of career self-management
skills. This shortcoming is addressed by protean career theory, which emphasises the
dispositions, identities, attitudes and beliefs associated with success in a non-
traditional career (Briscoe & Hall, 2006; Briscoe, Hall, & DeMuth, 2006; Hall &
Chandler, 2005; Hall & Mirvis, 1996).
14
Protean career theory suggests that successful protean careerists possess a
number of related underlying dispositions or attributes. The most commonly
documented of these dispositions include: strong internal motivations (Gagné,
Senecal, & Koestner, 1997); self-directedness (Briscoe & Hall, 2006; Hall &
Chandler, 2005); proactivity (Briscoe et al., 2006; Eby, Butts, & Lockwood, 2003);
resilience and adaptability (Lounsbury et al., 2003); openness to career opportunities
(Chiaburu, Baker, & Pitariu, 2006); a positive self-image (Judge & Bono, 2001); and,
a positive interpersonal orientation (Seibert & Kramer, 2001).
These underlying dispositions are associated with varying degrees of
empirical support, and have also received different levels of attention in the
theoretical literature, as discussed in Chapter 3. The research described in the present
document involved the development and validation of a brief survey measure based
on these dispositions, which was then used to predict career success in the artists’
and arts graduates’ samples.
Career Development Influences
It is of value to place career self-management skills and protean career
success orientation into a theoretical career development context in predicting artists’
and tertiary arts graduates’ career success. However, relatively little is known about
the career development of artists, apart from information from labour market and
economic modelling studies (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2004; Graduate Careers
Council of Australia, 2005a; Throsby & Hollister, 2003). There is little to guide a
choice of one theoretical formulation, particularly considering that many of the
career development theories still focus on only one or a few aspects of the individual,
their context, or processes acting within or between them (Savickas, 2001a, 2001b).
15
The Systems Theory Framework of career development (McMahon & Patton,
1995; Patton & McMahon, 1997, 1999, 2006a), which encompasses all of the
influences described in the major theories, provides a broad, overarching view of the
career development processes acting on and within boundaryless or protean
careerists. As such, it may be used to examine a wide variety of systems and
subsystems relating to career development and success in artists. Protean career
success orientation (Hall, 1976, 1996, 2004; Hall & Mirvis, 1996) and career
management competence (deFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996; Hache et al., 2000;
Haines et al., 2003) can then be contextualised into the wider influences on artists’
career development. Data obtained from this broad exploratory stage of study into
the non-traditional career can be used to direct later targeted studies.
A measure of career development influences based on the Systems Theory
Framework of career development (McMahon & Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon,
1997, 1999, 2006a) was developed and validated as part of the present doctoral
research. Along with career self-management competence, protean career success
orientation and a number of sociodemographic variables, this brief scale was then
employed in the exploration of predictors of career success in artists and arts
graduates.
Research Questions and Overview of the Studies
Four substantive studies were conducted in this program of research, using an
online survey method with professional artists and tertiary arts students / graduates.
These studies were preceded by a pilot study which assisted in the development of
the research instruments (refer to Appendix D for details). The first study examined
the psychometric properties of researcher-designed survey measures of the career
development constructs and influences under investigation: Career Management
16
Competence; Protean Career Success Orientation; and Career Development
Influences. The second study explored the notion of career success in the two
samples of participants. Studies 3 and 4 determined which of the measured career
development constructs and influences predicted artistic career success in the two
groups. Table 1.1 presents an outline of the four studies comprising this program of
research.
Study 1
The first study answered the research question: Are the following researcher
constructed measures sufficiently valid and reliable when used with the study
samples?
a) career development influences; b) protean career success orientation; c) career
management competence.
No quantitative measures were available to address the constructs of interest,
so brief scales based on theory were constructed and validated via pilot testing and
exploratory factor analyses, followed by confirmatory factor analyses via Structural
Equation Modelling with data collected from the artist groups: 310 professional
artists, and the 218 graduating arts students who participated at time 1 (i.e., at the
point of course completion). Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the scales
would benefit from respecification, so changes were made to the measures to
enhance their validity and reliability. The three scales modified and validated in
Study 1 were then employed in Studies 3 and 4 as potential predictors of career
success for the two cohorts of artists under investigation, along with relevant
sociodemographic variables.
17
Table 1.1
The Program of Study by Research Question Study Research Question Samples Measures Analysis
Techniques
1 Are the following researcher constructed measures sufficiently valid and reliable when used with the study samples? a) career development influences b) protean career success orientation c) career management competence
Professional artists Arts students at time 1 (at course completion)
Career Development Influences Protean Career Success Orientation Career Management Competence
Confirmatory factor analysis Reliability analysis
2 How can career success in the arts be defined?
Professional artists Arts students at time 2 (one year after course completion)
Career Success Content analysis Descriptive statistics
3 Which of the measured career development influences and constructs predict career success in professional artists?
Professional artists
Career Development Influences Protean Career Success Orientation Career Management Competence Career Success Sociodemographic variables
Decision tree analysis
4 Which of the measured career development influences and constructs measured at undergraduate course completion predict successful transition to the world of arts work?
Arts students at time 1 (at course completion) Arts students at time 2 (one year after course completion)
Career Development Influences Protean Career Success Orientation Career Management Competence Career Success Sociodemographic variables
Decision tree analysis
Study 2
The second study of the program of research answered the research question:
How can career success in the arts be defined? Two research subquestions were
addressed in this study, namely: (i) What are the artists’ definitions of career
success? and (ii) What is the statistical relationship between the measures of career
success employed in the present study? The broader aim of the study was to identify
18
the career success measures which would be most appropriate to use in the ensuing
two studies.
The professional artists’ and arts graduates’ surveys contained several
measures of career success, including: (i) total earnings over the previous 12 months;
(ii) arts earnings over the previous 12 months; (iii) 1-6 self-rated total employability;
(iv) 1-6 self-rated arts employability; and (v) 1-6 self-rated self-defined career
success. Each participant also responded to an open-ended question asking them to
define career success.
The responses for professional artists were content analysed using emergent
coding with two coders. The codebook was later applied to the arts students’
definitions. Once themes emerged, sociodemographic differences in career success
definitions were explored.
The second section of the study investigated the statistical relationships
between the five different measures of career success for each career success
definitional category and overall. Nonparametric Spearmans correlation procedures
were used to do this.
Study 3
Study 3 answered the research question: Which of the measured career
development influences and constructs predict career success in professional artists?
The study used the career development constructs validated in Study 1,
sociodemographic variables, and the career success measures explored in Study 2 via
Classification and Regression Tree (CART - Breiman et al., 1984) style decision
trees with v-fold crossvalidation pruning using the 1 SE rule. CART decision trees
are a nonparametric analysis technique which can be used as an alternative to OLS or
19
hierarchical regression in the case of data which violates parametric statistical
assumptions. In the regression trees, the Protean Career Success Orientation scale
(PCSO), Career Management Competence scale (CMC), Career Development
Influences scale (CDI), career success definitions, and sociodemographic measures
for the 310 artists were entered as attribute (predictor) variables, and the career
success measures were entered as target (criterion) variables.
Study 4
Study 4 answered the research question: Which of the measured career
development influences and constructs measured at undergraduate course
completion predict successful transition to the world of arts work? Like Study 3, this
study used the career development constructs validated in Study 1, sociodemographic
variables, and the career success measures explored in Study 2 via CART style
decision trees. However, unlike Study 3, which employed a cross-sectional design
where professional artists provided data regarding the attribute (predictor) and target
(criterion) variables at once, Study 4 used a prospective repeated measures design
where the data for the attribute variables were gathered at the point of undergraduate
course completion and the target variables were measured one year later. Data from a
total of 122 arts students were used, as 122 of the 218 students who responded to the
survey at time 1 (October 2005) also responded at time 2 (October 2006).
Research Significance and Contributions
The research program findings represent significant contributions to existing
knowledge, in terms of theory relating to career success, the nature of protean and
boundaryless careers, career self-management competence, and the relationships
between various influences on artists’ career development. In addition, through the
20
development of three brief scales, the use of a one-year prospective approach to
investigate career outcomes in tertiary graduates, and the application of CART style
decision trees (Breiman et al., 1984) for nonparametric prediction, strong
methodological contributions are made. Further, as indicated below, the research
makes substantive contributions to what is known about artists’ career development
and success, and also the transition from higher education to the world of work, with
specific applicability to arts and creative industries programs.
Theoretical Contributions
The program of study contributes to theory in four key ways. First, the
confirmed factorial structures of the three measures as examined in Study 1 provide
insights into the nature of career self-management competence, the dispositions and
attributes argued to underlie the development and application of these competencies,
and the relationships between influences acting within an individual’s career
development system.
Second, the findings of Study 2 extend theory pertaining to career success in
arts, and in the protean career more broadly. The nature of subjective career success
in artists was explored, and links investigated between subjective career success and
other aspects of the artist (such as age and gender), and also objective measures of
career success such as earnings. Some previous work investigating the nature of
subjective and objective career success has been conducted (Arthur, Khapova, &
Wilderom, 2005; Heslin, 2005), but Study 2 described in this document is amongst
the first to explore subjective and objective career success amongst careerists
navigating non-traditional, non-organisationally based careers.
21
Third, Studies 3 and 4 contribute to knowledge regarding connections
between career self-management skills, career motivations and measures of success,
and career success in the non-traditional career. Recent theoretical literature suggests
that links between these constructs may exist (e.g., Hall & Chandler, 2005), and the
simple correlations and decision trees depicted in Chapters 8 and 9 empirically
demonstrate these relationships.
Fourth, the program of study makes contributions to extant theory regarding
graduate attributes, extending the notion of ‘employability skills’ (Atkins, 1999;
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 2002; Yorke, 2004) to include a
broader range of competencies and attributes which are linked with positive graduate
outcomes. The present studies show that there are a range of important influences on
graduate outcomes beyond the discipline-specific and transferable skills for
employability commonly discussed in the graduate attributes literature (Bennett,
2002; Bowden et al., 2000; Dahlgren, Hult, Dahlgren, af Segerstad, & Johansson,
2006; Garcia-Aracil, Mora, & Vila, 2004).
Methodological Contributions
The present program of study developed and validated three brief quantitative
scales. No quantitative measures relating to: (i) career self-management competence;
(ii) underlying dispositions and attributes for career success; or (iii) broad influences
on career development, existed at the time of writing. The scales developed in this
research can be further refined and used in subsequent research studies.
Second, the research demonstrated that a one-year, online, prospective
approach to investigate career outcomes in tertiary graduates is possible and that it
can yield valuable information regarding graduate outcomes and also regarding links
22
between skills and knowledge developed at university and post-graduation success.
The prospective one-year approach provides clear advantages over the limited
graduate data collection procedures currently undertaken 4 months after course
completion (Graduate Careers Council of Australia, 2006b).
The use of CART style decision trees (Breiman et al., 1984) for prediction of
career success in the artists under study is also an important contribution to research
methodology. Although decision trees are well known in data mining, and fields as
diverse as law, science and medicine (Furnkrantz, Petrak, & Trappl, 1997; Gibb,
Auslander, & Griffin, 1993; Yohannes & Webb, 1999), they have not commonly
been employed in the social sciences. Decision tree methodologies may prove useful
when the data shows serious violations of the statistical assumptions needed for
parametric regression modelling. Decision trees can also can be used as effective
profiling tools, for instance to identify arts students who may be at risk of poor
graduate outcomes and therefore will require additional support during a tertiary
program in arts.
Substantive Contributions
The studies described in this document add to what is known about artists’
and arts graduates’ experiences and beliefs regarding their careers. This is a
significant addition to the literature which has hitherto largely been restricted to
economic modelling research (Menger, 1999, 2001; Rengers, 2002; Rengers &
Madden, 2000) and small scale, predominantly qualitative studies (Brooks &
Daniluk, 1998; Stohs, 1991). The present research identifies influences and
constructs which can enhance career outcomes for professional artists and tertiary
arts graduates, and also identifies constructs and influences which represent risk
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factors to artists’ career development and success. Minimal systematic quantitative
research into these issues had previously been undertaken.
There are strong practical implications arising from the research for career
education in the arts, tertiary arts / creative industries education programs, and also
for employers wishing to capitalise on the desirable creative workforce skills and
abilities artists possess. The research raises broader issues about the importance of
career education, the responsibilities of universities in preparing students for the
world of work, and the roles of artists in the creative economy and contemporary
society.
Organisation of the Thesis Document
Chapter 1 presented a discussion of the background and context to the
research program, including the social and economic importance of the arts to
knowledge-based economies, and the working patterns and career challenges faced
by professional artists and tertiary arts graduates. In addition, it provided concise
definitions of the specialised terms used in this thesis document. An overview of the
research questions and the techniques used to answer these questions was included,
and also a short section outlining the significance of the research.
Chapters 2 through 4 review the literature pertinent to the present research.
Chapter 2 commences by examining career development theory, including recent
moves towards theory convergence and integration, and recognition of new patterns
of career in advanced economies. Chapter 3 outlines extant literature relating to
career success and successful tertiary graduate transitions to the world of work.
Chapter 4 relates the theory discussed in Chapters 2 and 3 to the career development
and career success of artists and tertiary arts students.
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The methodological issues relating to this program of research are presented
in Chapter 5. Considerations relating to online survey research comprising both
qualitative and quantitative approaches are discussed, and ethical issues arising in the
research are also reviewed. This chapter also summarises the research design and
analyses used in the research, along with sampling of the professional artist and arts
graduate participants.
Chapters 6 through 9 report the findings of the four studies conducted in this
research program. Chapter 6 relates to Study 1, the primary aim of which was to
examine the psychometric properties of the researcher-designed measures with the
participants under study. Chapter 7 pertains to Study 2, which explored the construct
of career success with relation to the professional artists and arts graduates. Chapter
8 outlines Study 3, which assessed the predictive value of the career development
constructs and influences explored in Study 1 to career success in professional artists
using a decision tree approach. Chapter 9 summarises Study 4, which involved the
use of a decision tree approach to assess the predictive value of the career
development influences and constructs explored in Study 1 to career success in
tertiary arts graduates.
Finally, Chapter 10 discusses the research findings and broader implications
of the findings for artists’ careers, protean and boundaryless careers, career
development theory, higher education, and research methods. Limitations of the
current studies and possible future research projects are also included.
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CHAPTER 2
Literature Review: Career Development Theory
This chapter, in conjunction with Chapters 3 and 4, provides a theoretical
basis for this program of study. The aim of the present chapter is to present an
overview of career development theory. It commences by exploring recent changes
in conceptions of career, and the challenges inherent in the new ‘boundaryless’
(Arthur et al., 2005; Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a; deFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996;
Sullivan, 1999) career pattern. Current theories of career development are then
considered, and placed into context using the Systems Theory Framework of career
development (McMahon & Patton, 1995; Patton & McMahon, 1997, 1999, 2006a), a
meta-theoretical framework which provides an overarching frame for existing career
development theories. A measure based on the Systems Theory Framework is
developed and employed as part of this program of research, in order to investigate
the predictive value of a broad range of career development influences on artists’
career success.
Chapter 3 presents a discussion of current thinking about career success,
including a critical review of the various skills and dispositions suggested by various
theorists to be necessary for careerists to flourish in an era of ‘employability security’
(Opengart & Short, 2002) rather than employment security. The emphasis on
employability has extended to the tertiary education sector, with universities being
placed under increasing pressure to demonstrate positive graduate outcomes. Chapter
3 concludes by giving an overview of the strategies currently undertaken by
universities to facilitate student transitions to the workforce and promote graduate
employability.
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Chapter 4 examines the literature surrounding the career development of
artists, and connects career development theories and constructs outlined in chapters
2 and 3 to the unusual circumstances of arts careers. Using labour force statistics and
published studies of artists’ working lives, the career patterns of professional artists
and tertiary arts graduates are examined. Links with boundaryless and protean career
theory, career success theory, and graduate employability theory are made. Chapter 4
concludes with a discussion of the research questions to be addressed in this program
of research. It has the overall objective of investigating which, if any, of several
potentially relevant career development constructs predict professional artists’ career
success and arts graduates’ successful transition to the workforce.
New Conceptions of Career
Like many good words in the English language, the term [career] is richly
ambiguous. It can describe a neat progression up the hierarchy; but we also
refer to ‘careering about’ (Watts, 1998, p.2).
The concept of career has traditionally been synonymised with ‘occupation’,
or ‘vocation’, and has been associated with professional paid work involving linear
advancement within one field, or even one organisation (Adamson, Doherty, &
Viney, 1998; Arthur et al., 1989). This idea of career has recently expanded and
developed in line with changes to: (i) the way work is structured and organised
(Arnold & Jackson, 1997), known as the ‘boundaryless career’ (Arthur et al., 2005;
Arthur & Rousseau, 1996a; deFillippi & Arthur, 1994, 1996; Sullivan, 1999); and (ii)
more developed understandings of the ways that people personally construct their
working lives and obtain meaning from them, termed the ‘subjective career’ (Collin
& Young, 1986, 2000; Miller-Tiedeman, 1999a; Peiperl, Arthur, Goffee, & Morris,
2000; Savickas, 2001a; Savickas, 2002; Watts, 1998).
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Boundaryless Careers and Employability
The current career development literature contains much discussion of the
changing world of work in most advanced economies (e.g., Arnold, 1997; Arnold et
al., 2005; Collin & Young, 2000; Hall, 1996). These changes have been attributed to
technological advances and the shift to a post-industrial ‘knowledge economy’,
globalisation, deregulation of labour markets, changing workforce demographics,
and a rise in post-compulsory education (Niles, Edwin, & Hartung, 2001; Storey,
2000). They have been noted to particularly affect knowledge workers (Peiperl,
Arthur, & Anand, 2002; Peiperl et al., 2000; Royal & Althauser, 2003; Sullivan,
1999), and those who work primarily with information or who develop and use
knowledge in the workplace (Drucker, 1995).
By the mid 1990s, alternatives to the traditional linear career ‘bounded’ by
orderly employment arrangements and upward progress through a single firm or
occupation were increasingly discussed (Arthur & Rousseau, 1996b; deFillippi &
Arthur, 1994; Hall, 1996; Knowdell, 1996). As McMahon, Patton and Tatham (2003,
p.5) note, “work is often no longer characterised by a s