Exploring Meaning through Organizing in Musicking

John Paul StephensMay Meaning Meeting

2008

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Presentation ‘Score’

• Theoretical background: Coordination

• Conceptualization: Musicking

• Methods & Data

• Places of Meaning in Choir

• Framing attempt

• Questions for MMMMembers

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Introduction

• Dissertation work: Understanding the

experience of successful coordination

• Context:

– Complex, interdependent group task

– Musicking (Small, 1998) as coordination and

organizing

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Theory on Coordination

• Coordination in Psychology – Synchrony (Bernieri, Reznick, & Rosenthal, 1988)

• Coordination in Organizational Studies

– Organizational Design (Galbraith, 1977; Lawrence &

Lorsch, 1967)

– Contingency theories (Thompson, 1967; Van de Ven

et al., 1976)

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Theory on Coordination (cont’d)

• Coordination between individuals at work:

– Relational coordination (Gittell 2001; 2002)

– Energy-in-conversation (Quinn & Dutton, 2005)

– Heedful interrelating (Weick & Roberts, 1993)

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Central Problem: What we (don’t) know about coordination

• We know ways of “managing” coordination• But how is it actually experienced or enacted?

• Coordination depends on mindfulness of

interdependencies (Dougherty, 1992; Heath & Staudenmayer, 2000;

Weick & Roberts, 1993)

• Mindful of what exactly? Where is attention focused?• Coordination also involves the emergence of a new,

holistic form (Fleck, 1979; Weick & Roberts, 1993)

• Where does a sense of “being group” come from?

How is it related to coordination?

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• The psychological experience of coordination

• A dual characterization– Attention (to self-in-relation-to-other)– Feeling (of “being group”)

• A multi-modal communicative achievement

Research Focus

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Conceptual Framework(Successful) Coordination involves:

• Individuals interrelating action mindfully, attending to the relationship between self- and other-produced actions (cf. Weick & Roberts, 1993).

• Individuals apprehending being of a group, a “whole” that is greater than the sum of its parts (Sandelands, 1998; 2003).

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What I mean by “work”

• A broad view of organizing

• Interrelated action to achieve collective purpose (Weick, 1979)

• Interest in the phenomenology (the in-the-moment-experience) of interrelating action as a collective

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Music as context

• Chorus as organizational form• Singing in choir is most popular public arts

activity (NEA survey, 1998)

• Almost 200-strong, community choir in Midwestern town

• “Best Choral Performance” Grammy winners• Conductor prepares choir for other

conductors, performance with symphony orchestras

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Motivation of Research

• Novice to choral singing and musical performance

•Sensitive to issues of attention and coordination; concurrent interest in organizational cognition

• Ethnographic methods used given my insider status and the performative nature of task.

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Research Goals

• Ethnography = representation of a culture [and its meanings] (Van Maanen, 1988)

• Cognitive ethnography = how those meanings are created; how action embodies mind; how context shapes action and action renews context (cf. Hutchins, 1995)

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Meaning in the choir

How do I link meaning with my core interests of attention and feeling?

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Methods

• Insider/Outsider research (Bartunek & Louis,

1996; Evered & Louis, 1981)

• Participant-observation

• Semi-structured (collective) interviewing (cf. Fontana & Frey, 1994; Morgan & Spanish, 1984)

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Data

• Fieldnotes (8 months; 57 hours of rehearsals; 18 hours of dress rehearsals; 21 hours of public performance = 187 single-spaced pages of notes)

• Interviews (27 individuals, 7 paired interviews)

• Video (one rehearsal)

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Where to begin?

• What are people saying is important to them?

• Attention (demonstrated in fieldnotes and interviews)

• Feeling (demonstrated in fieldnotes and interviews)

• Explicit testimony of meaning in interviews

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Where is meaning in the choir?

• “Places” of meaning

• In performance/action

• In context of action

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Meaning in PerformancePlace of Meaning Elements of Meaning Attention and Feeling

Harmony Both Technical vs. Emotional Both Repair Both Connecting with Conductor Both

Meaning in Performance

Physicality Both Role and Identity Both Music as meaning-laden communication

More feeling; some attention

Social connection More feeling; some attention

Seating arrangement preference

Both

Meaning in Context for Action

Legitimate correction Attention

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Meaning in Performance

• Harmony: Meaning in “togetherness” of sound

• Focus on technical elements vs. engagement in emotion: Linked to performance quality

• Repair: Can’t “re-sing”; music comprised of related notes; obligation to audience

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Meaning in Performance

• Connecting with conductor: his facial expression signals performance quality; eye contact creates “shared moment”

• Physicality: co-located physical action; discomfort; gesturing in section self-correction; seating arrangement

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Meaning in Context of Action

• Role & identity: Sopranos vs. altos; Basses & sopranos vs. altos & tenors; “job” vs. choir

• Music as meaning-laden communication: Connection with entire story of musical work; connecting text content to spirituality/religion

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Meaning in Context of Action

• Social connection: making friends and being able to sing next to them; responding to conductor as coordinating center; transferral of significance of piece from conductor to singer; socializing vs. “work” of singing; getting married

• Seating arrangement preference and neighbor’s expertise

• Singer --> singer vs. Conductor --> singer correction

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An attempt at a framing…

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“Meaning of work” framing

• Meaning as created in interpersonal encounters (Wrzesniewski, Dutton & Debebe, 2003)

• In the case of the choir…meaning as created in apprehending place in collective, one’s role in coordination

• Similar to Quinn & Dutton (2005), where conversation helps clarify one’s place in the [narrative about] the collective.

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What is work meaning?

• Work meaning = employees’ understanding of what they do [at work] as well as the significance of what they do (Wrzesniewski, Dutton & Debebe, 2003).

• In the case of intragroup coordination, “understanding” in terms of attention and feeling.

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Construct of “work meaning”

• Meaning of task: unpaid, amateur, publicly

performing, choral singer

• Meaning of role: soprano, alto, tenor, bass,

manager, librarian, section leader

• Meaning of self in work: I can do more than

my day job, I am musically “expert” or am

“learner”, I can influence others

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Potential Contributions

• Richer, more specific views of how coordination gets done

• Furthering relational view of how work is done

• Focus on both attention (cognitive) and feeling (affect)

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Questions to MMMMembers

• Other views of coordination, or ways of interpreting these situations?

• More to “meaning” in the choir than simply “this is what is fun”?

• What literatures would be useful to look into now, considering the early stage of work?

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Thank You!!