Learning to develop as a rock band: The contradiction between creativity and entrepreneurship

Abstract

Abstract Creativity and entrepreneurship are increasingly celebrated features of today's societal life. However, small creative groups face many challenges in developing as a productive unit together, and there is still little research on how they learn to handle these challenges. The aim of this article is to provide an understanding of learning within a rock band and its potential for assisting organizational development. It presents an ethnographically inspired case study and uses the theory of communities of practice to analyze the learning processes involved in a band's organizing of its practices. The findings illustrate how band members learn to become a micro-organization at times of production, while, in time periods between production, they learn to become a loosely held together partial community of creators and entrepreneurs. The article argues that a rock band's organizational development relates to its members' ability to handle a seldom highlighted contradiction between creativity and entrepreneurship. It concludes that the group's members may develop organizationally by learning to identify with and organize for creativity and entrepreneurship in so-called multi-memberships. It also suggests that a rock band not always develops and its multi-membership abilities may as well decrease because of personal, line-up or commercial issues.