An Exploratory Study of Administrative Workers in the Arts

Abstract

This study focuses on an exploration of value differences between administrative workers in the arts and workers in for-profit business organizations. Data were collected among both for-profit and arts workers to determine if there are differences in the things they value in the workplace. Analyses indicate that there are differences between the groups' work values. The managerial implications of the study are then discussed at length. Here has been an increasing appreciation of the special problems and administrative imperatives faced by managers in semi-public organization and not-for-profit arts organizations in particular. Most arts organizations function somewhere in the gray area between a public agency (as they are frequently supported by, and responsible to, both municipal and Federal programs) and true not-for-profits. As such, administrators in arts organizations look to the experiences of both public agencies, as well as not-for-profit organizations, to provide guidance on the daily management of their organizational mission.