International Journal of Managing Projects in BusinessUnspread wings: Why cultural projects don’t provide refreshing ideas for projectmanagement although they could?Malgorzata Cwikla Beata Jalocha

Article information:To cite this document:Malgorzata Cwikla Beata Jalocha , (2015),"Unspread wings", International Journal of ManagingProjects in Business, Vol. 8 Iss 4 pp. 626 - 648Permanent link to this document:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJMPB-11-2014-0078

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Unspread wingsWhy cultural projects don’t

provide refreshing ideas for projectmanagement although they could?

Małgorzata Ćwikła and Beata JałochaFaculty of Management and Social Communication,

Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland

AbstractPurpose –The purpose of this paper is to show the potential of cultural projects which could become asource of inspiration in terms of refreshing and adjusting traditional project management to moderntimes and making it more flexible. However, as research indicates, this potential is limited by culturalpolicies forcing artists and cultural managers to implement project-related techniques which have beenalready identified as inefficient and faulty in the progressive discourses on project management,mainly in the for-profit area.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is based on three case studies of Polish and Polish-German theatrical co-productions. The research was conducted in Poland and Germany in 2012-2014.It involved 21 individual in-depth interviews with artists, managers and administrative staff workingon projects as well as an analysis of project documentation.Findings – It has been found that project management could draw a lot of inspiration from culturalprojects in terms of, e.g. the processual nature of activities, motivating project teams and inclusiveleadership. Based on the research, the authors also argue that it is worth considering spectators/otherstakeholders as part of project teams, which will help build a non-oppressive social mechanism of control.Originality/value – Advantages of replacing the just-in-time approach to project management withthe work-in-progress approach; increased motivation and commitment of project teams to their work;building a unique team spirit; inclusive leadership based on passion.Keywords Cultural policy, Critical project studies, Cultural project, Inspiration, Projectification,Work-in-progressPaper type Research paper

IntroductionIt is usually accepted that the arts and economics are two different phenomena,contradictory in their assumptions, although researchers are increasingly trying to bringthese two fields of activity together and make them benefit from each other (Towse, 2010;Thorsby, 2001; Meisiek and Barry, 2014). However, approaches of this kind are mainlyfocused on noticing the potential of economic growth with the use of the arts, which isbest exemplified by cultural policies at different levels and by the rapidlydeveloping cultural industries, even if sometimes their creative capital is appreciated(Townley et al., 2009). Despite these trends, many other researchers underline that it isimportant to keep in mind the specific nature of culture and give priority to theartistic value, even if it is organizationally less effective (Gielen, 2012; Groys, 2002).What remains in the background is the original ability of the arts to deliver surprisingand non-standard solutions which provide an impulse to change instead of patterns to becopied. As a consequence, despite the discussions on the importance of creativity, the artsare behind the times in terms of progressive theories in the field of management andcopy the procedures which have been identified as failed in the for-profit environment(Atkinson, 1999; Engwall, 2003). This, in turn, may be considered as one of the outcomes

International Journal of ManagingProjects in BusinessVol. 8 No. 4, 2015pp. 626-648©EmeraldGroup Publishing Limited1753-8378DOI 10.1108/IJMPB-11-2014-0078

Received 10 November 2014Revised 31 January 20151 April 2015Accepted 29 April 2015

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:www.emeraldinsight.com/1753-8378.htm

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of projectification mechanisms which are present in the current cultural policies.Therefore, publicly funded cultural initiatives are often subjected to oppression, and thusthe entire situation may be a subject of critical studies.

According to Pierre Bourdieu, the economic logic of practice is characterized by anexplicit market orientation, as opposed to the artistic logic of practice that is marked by thedesire to produce l’art pour l’art (Eikhof and Haunschild, 2007). The Bourdieuian approachindicates that when artistic practices become professionalized, they are in danger of beingovertaken by the economic logic (Eikhof and Haunschild, 2007). This observation alsoapplies to the most recent developments in the field of culture, which, instead of being aninspiration to other areas, becomes – often unconsciously – mechanical and dependent onpolitical and economic decisions. The need of regulation and effectiveness goes hand inhand with the risky state of foreseeability, which may draw the arts away from creativity.This phenomenon is ambiguous and therefore it cannot be evaluated as purely negative, asit mirrors the current situations in many fields of social activity and is connected with thepace of the modern world. What can be said for sure is that the main medium of change isthe fashionable and also necessary tendency to create “projects”. As there is a growingnumber of cultural projects in one particular organization, they become part of theprojectification process, which, in a way, alludes to the mimetic institutional pressures(Hatch, 2006), because projects – especially in the public sector – are often carried out onlybecause other organizations make them too. Additionally, we may observe a shift fromlong-term, strategic planning in creating artistic programmes to short-lived perspectivesbased on projects/events. Different ontological artefacts are reproduced and repeated,which slowly makes them lose their peculiarities (which may be also recognized as one ofthe paradoxical results of projectification: due to the reproducibility of procedures, projectsintended to be unique are getting similar). The difference between a long-term andshort-term dimension of actions within an organization is one of the main factors changingthe way how art institutions function in the society as places to influence people’s opinionsand provide critical reviews of the reality. As a result of the popularity of the project-basedwork, theatres, museums and galleries are focused on many single events with a greatvariety of themes. Following the guidelines of public and private institutions responsiblefor the priorities of cultural policies, cultural managers and artists are all dealing withsimilar issues, and the value of artistic diversity is disappearing. In addition, the possibilityof micro and macro emancipation is limited by the necessity of adjusting to strict rules(Huault et al., 2014). The purpose of this paper is therefore to draw attention to the abovemechanisms and, in their context, to attempt to answer the question of why culturalprojects do not really inspire project management, although they could. By using thephrase “project management”, we do not limit its understanding to the academic disciplineor the set of best project implementation practices or procedures developed by projectmanagement professional associations. This is due to the fact that one of the featuresof projectification is the difficulty to define what a project is rather than what a project isnot. In our paper, we focus on the fields of activity where project management isimplemented in various form, and we argue that inspirations drawn from the arts arepossible and would be refreshing.

This paper is structured as follows: in the next section, research gap and study goalsare presented. Next, the methodology section describes the methodological approach wetook to conduct our study. The paper continues by describing the essence of ourconsiderations – the uniqueness and enigmatic character of a cultural project. Then, weattempt to answer the first research question by presenting the limitations imposed oncultural projects by the general projectification shift and cultural policies, especially in

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the European Union (EU). In further chapters, we deliberate on the inspirations thatcultural projects can bring into project management, thereby answering the secondresearch question. The paper ends with the conclusions in which we argue that projectmanagement in the field of culture is limited by cultural policies with their obstinateconcentration on outcomes and indicators; however, project management in generalcould get inspired by artistic projects and their internal, creative logic. We underline thefollowing viable sources of inspiration: the process-like character, related to the open,work-in-progress model instead of just-in-time; the unique team spirit based on sharedopinions, involvement and goals, favouring artistic and aesthetic achievement andfulfilment through work; inclusive leadership which sees audience as team members andgenerates an interesting mechanism of social-based control, as well as the unusualpatterns of artists becoming managers at the same time.

Research gap and goalsThe imperfections of projects have been repeatedly pointed out in many papers byresearchers from the field of management studies, mainly by the ones dealing with theCritical Project Studies – an area dynamically developed by the Making Projects Criticalmovement, which have brought such aspects as power, ethics, moral responsibility, andthe dysfunctions of project rationality up for scientific discussion (Cicmil and Hodgson,2006; Hodgson and Cicmil, 2007; Lindgren and Packendorff, 2006; Sage et al., 2010, Ikaand Hodgson, 2014, Packendorff et al., 2014). It has also been found that the popularity ofproject-based labour in the field of culture is limiting and strengthens precariousconditions, both in the for-profit-oriented creative industries and in the non-profit,mainly publicly funded, endeavours (Rowlands and Handy, 2012; Gill and Pratt, 2008;Blair et al., 2001). Also, researchers investigating the newest aesthetic developments inthe arts pay attention to the meaning of projects and their influence on the patterns ofcommunication (Groys, 2002), carriers (Eikhof et al., 2012) and on creative undertakings(Gielen, 2012). In this context and taking into account the theories of management and thearts, making cultural projects should be seen as an experiment which mirrors the mostcurrent phenomena in the social reality. However, what is happening today is quite theopposite. The arts, with their striving after freedom and the undiscovered ways ofexpression, still fail to provide new solutions or creative models of how to improve projectmanagement as a whole, and instead are stubbornly repeating their flaws, which for along time have been perceived as limiting in progressive discourses. The arts do not offerrefreshing ideas although – as we will argue in this paper – they could. Thus far, only afew studies have covered the topic of how the arts can inspire and influence projectmanagement (e.g. Simon, 2006; Lehner, 2009). Therefore, we do believe that there is aresearch gap that needs to be addressed.

One of our goals is to show that standardized business-like project managementapproach is not the optimal form of the implementation of cultural events. Additionally,we want to indicate that the ways of how projects or project-like undertakings areimplemented in the field of the arts unconsciously contain many interesting elementswhich could be used in a broadly defined project reality. In this study, we focus on thefollowing research questions:

RQ1. How and through what kind of mechanisms is the field of the arts limited bythe traditional and standardized project management?

RQ2. How could the uniqueness of the arts contribute to development of projectmanagement in general?

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We are particularly interested in non-commercial artistic projects which we do notunderstand as a part of cultural industries. Our analysis will concern imperfections oftheory of project management and at practical level of the cultural policies whichpromote this kind of models in order to force cultural institutions to meet numerousexpectations. This power relations shape the behaviour of individual artists involved inprojects and, in consequence, influence the way artistic projects are selected, preparedand carried out. We will focus in particular on the performing arts, however, similarpotential can be seen also in other areas of artistic work. The paper attempts to payattention to the described phenomena mainly from the artistic perspective. However, tomake the analysis complete it will be at each stage combined with the theory of projectmanagement. In our study, we will consider how project management can benefit fromcultural projects, however, we do not assume that cultural projects are an ideal form ofprojects. Recognizing their problems, imperfections, we will try to show that there aresome areas that can be a source of inspiration and refreshing ideas for projectmanagement. On the other hand the assumption that cultural projects are not the perfectway to conduct artistic undertakings shows a need for further empirical research andefforts at practical level to find more appropriate models matching the current social,artistic, political and economic needs. This observation is shared by researchers who alsodescribe management of creative projects from critical perspective, even if they representslightly different approach as we do (e.g. Hodgson and Briand, 2013).

Empirical backgroundThis paper draws on a set of qualitative data from a broader research conducted between2012 and 2014 in Polish and German cultural institutions, but also contains ourreflections of a more conceptual nature, based on an analysis of diverse literature fromthe fields of management and the arts. The main objective of the investigation was theneed to understand the dynamics of project-based work in the field of the arts. The aimof the research was to discover the ways in which cultural institutions active in the fieldof performing arts conceptualize, implement and evaluate projects. These prerequisites ofthe scientific work were based on the general methodological understanding of whatprojects are. During the research, it became clear that artistic projects are far away fromthe projects in the business-oriented reality and from their scientific understanding; still,they are called “projects” and are often described with a specific language overfull withterminology typical of the managerial discourse. To illustrate different modernapproaches to project work in culture, three heterogeneous case studies of Polish andPolish-German projects in the form of theatrical co-productions with at least two partnershave been chosen. All organizations were located in EU countries and thus influencedby similar public policies. The cases combined various features in terms of: the level ofco-operation, organization type and the scheme of partnership:

Alfa – premiered in 2012; co-producers: two theatres from Mazovia (Poland); local level ofco-operation; organization type: public, private. – Beta – premiered in 2011; co-producers: onetheatre from Lesser Poland (Poland), one theatre festival, one theatre from Mazovia, nationallevel of co-operation; organization type: public. – Gamma – premiered in 2011, co-producers:one theatre from Lesser Poland, one theatre from North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), onesocio-cultural center from North Rhine-Westphalia; international level of co-operation;organization type: one public, two NGOs.

The research contained 21 individual in-depth interviews with artists, managersand administrative staff working on the projects as well as an analysis of documents

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(including internal project documentation, publicity materials, the guidelines ofprograms aimed at supporting cultural initiatives and public information about theinvolved institutions). The interviews were recorded and then transcribed. Most ofthe data were collected by one of the authors and used in her PhD thesis in a differentcontext (title of the thesis: project management in the field of culture, a case studyof theatrical co-productions). For the purpose of this paper, we selected a set of datafrom the above-mentioned research and chose examples that illustrate the themediscussed by us. This approach was chosen after the inductive thematic analysis of thequalitative data and coding. Furthermore, the following paper reviews relevantliterature on cultural projects and cultural policies, the history and philosophy of thearts and on their impact on project implementation. A wide selection of heterogeneousliterature, not only the classical project management literature but also criticalpapers, and literature on art sciences (particularly theatre), helped us to answer theresearch questions.

The enigmatic object of the studyAccording to Cicmil and Hodgson (2006, p. 32) and from the critical perspective, insteadof asking, “What is a project?”, the question should be, “What do we do when we callsomething ‘a project’?”. In this section, we would like to follow the logic of criticalproject management studies and pose the following query referring to our main field ofexpertise: “What do artists do when they call something a project?” Due to a specificnature of this type of activity, cultural projects clearly differ from the projectsimplemented in order to generate profit or develop an organization. This succinct yetinsufficient comment does not explain, however, what exactly this “otherness” means.Most practitioners and researchers do not ask themselves the question of “What do youmean by saying ‘different’?” As a result, the inability to define a project is becomingmore and more aggravating. Nevertheless, there have been some attempts to comparetraditional (i.e. technical) projects and cultural (entertainment) projects. The authors ofthe study conducted in the 1990s – Ashrafi et al. (1998) – argued that unlike technicalprojects, artistic projects tend to have more of a people perspective and have asignificant intangible component. Also, the quality of an artistic project is rated by theaudience. It should be added that assessing the quality (value) of a cultural projectcannot be limited to the opinion of the public. It would be too simplistic, because themission of the people of culture is not just pandering to the tastes of the potentialaudience but also creating and disseminating ideas. Cultural projects should also shapethe artistic sensitivity of their audiences and, sometimes, promote universal valueswhich last for a long time. For this reason, it should be emphasized that the quality of acultural project should not be assessed solely by the size of the audience, customersatisfaction or good reviews but also by ethical responsibility (Lee, 2011).

On the one hand, “otherness” applies to the manner in which projects are executed,which in culture is often based on intuition. Additionally it refers to an approach toplanning one’s own intentions. In cultural activities, pragmatism affects programmeundertakings to a lesser extent than does fantasy. What is the most important is adesire to create something unique – an action which, irrespective of organizationaloutlays, will prove to be a crucial manifestation of one’s creative powers and determinethe further development of a particular field of the arts. An artistic effect thereforeprevails over the issues of organization and management, which are often perceived asred-tape factors inhibiting creativity and inspiration. This continuous disharmonybetween the desire to create and the need for efficiency and performance leads to the

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situation duly noted by Klein (2010), who wrote that most of the projects in culture stopat the planning stage. In his opinion, artists and cultural managers are constantlyplanning new projects, the majority of which fail to be implemented for variousreasons. This aspect is also underlined by Groys (2002), who argues that planning aproject is like creating future, and the projects proposals of visions, which will never beaccomplished, are like the archives of ideas. The transitory nature of artists’ intentionsstems from their ideological enthusiasm, their striving for freedom of creation and theirunrestricted bonding with art consumers. Their original visions – comprehensive andunfettered – are often suppressed by the economic, organizational and political reality,whereas project management boils down to impromptu actions. In some cases, artistsor institutions do not pay heed to the financial aspect of a given project, expecting toimplement a unique undertaking that will not be profitable, and, in many cases, extramoney have to be paid out of their own pockets. Despite this, culture sees a multitude ofnew projects, and one could even get the impression that the crisis and the omnipresentthreat trigger even more activity. It does not change the main problem: most of thecultural workers do not have a clue what projects are, and, despite using this word, itsmeaning remains unknown. It is more like repeated habits of language, a mysterioususus that replaces many other words. Using managerial jargon is expected and thusdetermines the chances of obtaining funds. A privileged position in the allocationof external funds for projects (e.g. from the EU programs) seems to be based onhow efficiently artists will learn the language of project management. This language ischaracterized by a specific jargon with words artists would not normally use todescribe their artistic undertakings (e.g. Gantt chart, milestones, critical path,dissemination of project results, etc.). The language of project proposals mirrors therelationship of power and privilege, in which artists are the group which (if they wantto be granted external funds for projects) has to accept projectification mechanisms.Therefore, the use of managerial jargon remains superficial and illustrates thepower relation rather than a process of interweaving different professional languagesin a meaningful way. During the research study, all interlocutors were asked what“a project” meant to them. Some of the responses, representing many differentperspectives, are quoted in Table I.

It is obvious that the answers are based on intuition and own experiences, and not onthe methodology or the formulas known from the management theories. Paradoxically,however, despite a significant discrepancy between cultural practices and the theories ofmanagement, in order to determine the characteristics of cultural projects, one can easilyduplicate the well-known parameters of project management such as a division intological steps, schedules and goal orientation. Most of them have a wide range, and someof them have a conventional dimension. Due to the nature of time, cultural projects aredeveloped according to the same stages as all other undertakings of this kind, and theyneed the same resources and divisions of work (Klein, 2010). For the same reasons, someresearchers compare projects with theatrical productions (e.g. Lehner, 2009), although itmay be assumed that the similarities are present mainly at the initial stages of work. Thevalidity of projects in cultural activities is indisputable; however, it would be moreappropriate to use the term “project-like” (Blomquist and Lundin, 2010). While talkingabout the limits of cultural projects (or cultural endeavours of project-like nature) andhow much they can stand out from other undertakings, it is necessary to make somearbitrary assumptions. This line of thought is endorsed by Anderson and Jessen (2003)and their statement that the project maturity of an organization is usually moresubjective than objective, being always associated with the desire for change and

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innovation. The authors mention three factors that merge to demonstrate projectmaturity: actions, attitudes and knowledge. These are the preliminary variables of theproject success, which, however, do not apply to all situations. With cultural institutions,no clear definition of a project naturally influences the way how the limits and the scopeof particular tasks are perceived. Paradoxically, in organizations with various methods ofworking, there occur inaccuracies in interpretation even if the nature of an institutionunambiguously displays the characteristics of a project organization. In our study, thiswas the case with the public theatre (Alfa) and both theatres (Beta). Because so muchremains unclear, it is even hard to say how many projects institutions are involved in atthe same time (all partners of Alfa, Beta and the Polish partner of Gamma). In fact, it can

Task intheatres Understanding the term “project”

Curator To me, a project is a fuzzy concept. I also believe that there are regions where people’sway of thinking is more project-oriented than elsewhere. Actually, I don’t really knowwhat is not a project nowadays. We don’t really say that “someone is staging a play”any more, much less when it comes to the independent scene. There are no clear-cutguidelines on what a project is. As for now, it can by anything. The word “project” israrely used in its original meaning

Director A project is something I want to do. I come up with an idea for a play and I want tomake it happen, so this is a project. A theatre project. It has to be something short-lived,something that will run out one day. It has nothing to do with the repertoire. Well,I don’t know. What was once a project during the planning stage is now a performance,so a kind of extension of that project

Artisticdirector

A project is a project

Director A project is a specific performance you’re working on. From an idea, through filing fora grant and staging, to financial settlement. In this formal sense, projects come to anend, but in the ideological sense – they don’t. In this sense, these are the things thataccompany me for a long time. Also, the word “project” itself is an interesting one, as itsuggests that something will be done in the future. Something is being projected forlater; there is a projection of one’s thoughts. I feel that now projects between co-producersare like shares on the stock exchange. You have to be involved in several concurrentprojects which are on-going now but will bring benefits later. Now that I think about it,which I haven’t done before, I get the impression that there are two sides to projectactivities. The one which is more important to me pertains to certain ideas or visionswhich are created together, as a joint venture. The second one is more pragmatic and islike selling your shares introduced to the theatre market. I sell them, I come forwardwith my ideas, and I juggle. The second meaning is constantly being reinforced andinfluences the first one. As a creator, you have to be careful not to let the aspectassociated with selling yourself “run the show”

Producer A project is good in the phase of production and financial settlement, but later, after ithas been set in motion, it is much less important. From our perspective, this is of coursea project, because it gets external funding. From the perspective of our partner inWarsaw, this is a repertoire performance, because this is how they operate. It’s not aconstant thing. I’d have to know exactly what a project is, and the truth is that I don’t

Musiccomposer

To me, a project is a step towards my self-development. Every theatre play is a project,and becoming an artist is a process consisting of many projects.Projects are also about all these things – budgets, schedules. And schedules aresomething contractual and pointless. In fact, a lot in the project depends on thepersonality of the artist. Visual artists, for example, cannot work on a schedule.They think form, color, emotion. The idea must mature, regardless of the schedule

Table I.How artists andother theatre staffmembers who areregularly involved ina project-based workunderstand projects

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even be stated that the typical managerial “knowledge” is not available, and culturalprojects are implemented in a “tabula rasa” environment, where every new project createsa new faint methodology soon to be forgotten. If it is possible to learn from one’s ownexperience and become aware of what is and what is not advantageous, this could, insome way, make the team members feel empowered and encourage them to try outdifferent techniques, which, although more flexible, are often “management-like”anyway, as they are based on intuition, selective inspirations drawn from managementtheories and on the logic of time. The most important factor, however, is the preservationof the unique character of a particular institution or group of individuals. To conclude, itcould be stated that, in fact, artists do what they personally think is right and not whatsticks to the methodology; there are as many definitions of a cultural project as there arecultural projects themselves. From this point of view, the very general term “project-like”seems to be the most accurate to describe undertakings of this kind in the artistic field.However, we agree that due to the popularity of the term “project”, using it today isjustified, as it helps avoid semantic chaos and the emergence of new epithets.

“Sinister new orthodoxy”: instrumental cultural policies, rituals ofverification and the pursuit of indicatorsPublic expenditure has a unique role in the financing of culture worldwide, especially inEurope. Therefore, public sector reforms introduced by many governments to increaseefficiency and effectiveness (Lindqvist, 2012) must have influenced cultural policies,organizations and art management practices. In this chapter, we will try to discuss howstate-controlled public policies affect cultural projects, making them less revealing. Inparticular, we will pay attention to how the cultural policy of the EU is changing theworld of cultural projects and activities of people of culture.

The New Public Management, referred to by some authors as a “sinister neworthodoxy” (Belfiore, 2004 after Protherough and Pick, 2002), which introducedmanagerialism to public organizations, including cultural institutions, has dramaticallychanged the landscape of the public sector during the last 30 years. The changesstarted in the late twentieth century, when a shift occurred in the cultural policies ofwestern governments. According to Vuyk (2010), some vague ideological motives –longing for beauty or general education – sufficed of these changes. Vuyk (2010, p. 173)points out that nowadays the arts are seen by policy makers as a tool “contributing toeconomic flourishing or as a means to strengthen cohesion in a society threatened byglobalization and individualization”. What this shift brought to the world of the artswas the culture of accountability, effectiveness, efficiency and calculated adjustment.For example, in one of the interviews a very alarming statement about artistic strategicadaptation was made. The dramatist of the Gamma co-production said:

Now, it is believed that Polish performances are sad and depressing. That’s why sometimesjoyful endings are added to somehow alleviate the dejection. As you do this, you have morechances to be invited to a festival or a partnership in future projects.

This is disturbing, but at the same time, we are aware that a widespread projectificationof the art sector is one of the consequences of the fact that public funds for culture areincreasingly granted on project basis. Projectification of the arts, mainly in the public-funded domain, echoes from the New Public Management shift. Evidence-based funding(with rigid indicators) has led not only to an increasing number of business-orientedmanagement techniques being implemented in public organizations (includingprofessional project management) but also to a more “demand- or outcome-oriented

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management of cultural organizations” (Lindqvist, 2012, p. 23). However, as Lindqvist(2012) emphasizes, surprisingly little is known about the effects of these reforms on themanagement of art and cultural organizations.

According to the administrative logic, cultural projects should no longer be the meansof achieving artistic purposes – they should become tools for the implementation ofpublic policies. However, facing all the changes that have occurred in relation to thecultural sector, how can artists still realize their visions? How does the professionalizationof project management and the ways in which art funding is distributed affect artists?The introduction of managerial techniques in the field of culture has been described as“instrumentalization” (Lindqvist, 2012, p. 23). What wemay observe, especially in the EU,is an enormous interest in measuring the effects of cultural activities; hence, EU officialsare struggling to describe, compare and summarize the value of cultural activities:

[…] From 2005, the EU Council of Culture Ministers and the European Commission havemultiplied their initiatives in the domain of cultural policy, and have also demonstrated theirwill to have reliable and quality cultural statistics, so as to measure the economic impact ofthe cultural sector as well as its potential impact in the framework of the Lisbon Strategy(Bína et al., 2012, p. 18).

EU-funded projects are usually perceived by financing bodies as successful when theyare completed on time and within budget, and when they meet all specifications set outin the project plan, which means that they have met the “iron triangle” criteria. Impact,product and result indicators are crucial for the majority of EU-funded social projects.Indicators are set to ensure particularly the transparency of funds distribution.However, the EU generosity is not only based on ideals. The European Commission’snew Creative Europe programme was set with a budget of €1.46 billion over the nextseven years. In the programme’s official description we read the following:

[…] The programme will provide a boost for the cultural and creative sectors, which are amajor source of jobs and growth. Creative Europe will provide funding for at least 250,000artists and cultural professionals, 2,000 cinemas, 800 films and 4,500 book translations. It willalso launch a new financial guarantee facility enabling small cultural and creative businessesto access up to €750 million in bank loans (European Commission (2013)).

As the above passage briefly indicates, it is about jobs and economic growth. E. Belfiore(2004) states that in the UK there is a strong belief that public investment in culture isthe investment in job creation, tourism promotion and urban development. The EU’sunderstanding of cultural policy seems to be the same. The EU has an extensiveadministrative apparatus that mediates the distribution of funds for cultural projects andconsists of administration at the level of the EU, the member states and the intermediarybodies within the member states. As a result, project administration may be verycomplex, and there is a greater risk of excessive red tape, the need to exercise total controlover projects and too much emphasis placed on achieving the pre-set indicators. All EUprograms are subject to consultation. This does not mean, however, that the voices ofstakeholders are treated equally, and it is rather policy makers, not artists, who remainthe main power holders. According to S. Arnstein (1969, p. 216), “participation withoutredistribution of power is an empty and frustrating process for the powerless. It allowsthe power holders to claim that all sides were considered, but makes it possible for onlysome of those sides to benefit. It maintains the status quo”. In the EU cultural programs,we have to deal with the relations of power and inequality, which means artists have tosubmit and adjust to programs created at the level of European policies. Cultural projects

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implemented with EU funds have to fit within the strategic plans imposed at the level ofthe whole community (e.g. European Comission (2014)). This means that cultural projectshave to pursue (in addition to the originally planned artistic visions) additional goals,falling within the framework of EU programs. Lindqvist (2012, pp. 22-23) uses theexpression “strategy of policy attachment” to describe a situation where:

[…] as a result of the demands to adhere to policies of regeneration, social development, andso on, cultural organizations have increasingly adopted a strategy of policy attachmentwhereby they linked the value of their own activities to those of more influential policy areas.

Cultural organizations take part in this funding “game”. Sometimes, in order to get agrant, they build partnerships with institutions with which they would not normallycooperate. As one of the artist stated:

An impulse to do a project with another theatre was lack of money. First, the performancewas to be made only by us, but then it turned out that the theatre did not get the money […].A co-production was the only way to apply for additional funds. (director, Alfa).

An actor starring in the same show added:

It was just about the money, not about some artistic exploration. This is most often the casewith co-productions and projects.

It is often a game of appearances – indicators the achievement of which is required by theintermediary organizations are secondary to the artistic goals of the projects. In our casesstudies, we noticed that the description of projects in application forms and evaluationdocuments were different than of the projects themselves and were formulated in a waywhich would meet the expectations of the funding bodies. Priorities of particular programshad to be addressed, and the desired goals had to be achieved (at least officially“on paper”) to obtain funds. This illusory game, the pursuit of indicators (e.g. to establish apartnership, which is always desired by several funding bodies), is not only typical ofcultural projects, but it is a consequence of the bureaucratic processes prevalent in thedistribution of EU funds. In some EU social programmes, the method of indicatordetermination causes organizations to focus on achieving top-down imposed indicators,which are sometimes artificial and incompatible with local realities, at the same timepreventing them from focusing on realizing value for stakeholders. This means that thesuccess of certain projects is defined by whether or not they meet the pre-set indicators,and not by whether they bring value to the society ( Jałocha, 2014). Also, there is anotherstrategy observed in the cultural practice. In some cases, artists are able to deliver theexpected results (again “on paper” or using various convincing artefacts like electroniccover designs of publications which have never been printed although the costswere accounted for in the books – a real-life example from one of the interviews).This strengthens the cynical illusion both parties are involved in just to maintain thetemporarily comfortable status quo. However, in this context it is policy makers whoalways seem to be much more powerful than artists. This is a different, more durable andconvenient status quo, and artists will not become emancipated as long as they follow theguidelines instead of conducting project-like initiatives according to their internal, creativelogic, which would expose the flaws of traditional project management on a practical level.

Hood (2007) explores what happens when the doctrine of transparency (as a key togood governance) meets the behavioural tendency of blame-avoidance in politicsand public administration. According to his work, transparency may be “an antidoteat least to certain ways of avoiding blame” (Hood, 2007, p. 192). This leads to many

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organizational pathologies such as the phenomenon of managers “managing to audit”(in order to minimize the risk of blame), the knowledge sharing and the learningproblems that arise in blame-obsessed organizations (where a failure is a taboo) or apreference for blind rule-following over common sense (Hood, 2007). In search fortransparency, cultural projects financed from public funds are being audited,supervised, controlled and evaluated. Power (1997) writes about the audit society andthe rituals of verification and a pervasive need for control. While discussing Power’sdeliberations, Belfiore (2004, p. 191) notes that:

[…] the validating role of audit often entails that the very fact that an organization undergoesa process of auditing becomes in itself a guarantee of legitimacy and transparency, regardlessof the audit’s actual findings – which are often simply ignored.

Some authors suggest that it may lead to blind rule-following rather than to the use ofcommon sense in the evaluation of public organizations’ performance (Lindqvist, 2012).Again, this is similar to the game of illusion played by cultural project managers.

Belfiore (2004) argues that the positive impact of the arts on society is no longerdiscussed in merely general and vague terms. Culture is a “public investment” and, assuch, it is expected to bring concrete and measurable economic and social resultsthanks to cultural projects. As Belfiore (2004, p. 186) points out, quoting Vestheim(1994, p. 65), in the case of culture organizations in Great Britain, the arts are“subsidized in so far as they represent a means to an end rather than an end in itself”.One of the biggest EU cultural programmes, the European Capitals of Culture (ECOC),is a good example to illustrate the instrumental justification for arts funding. Accordingto different research discussed by O’Callaghan (2012), ECOC is viewed by the host citiesas a tool to regenerate, rebrand and reposition themselves in cultural and economicterms. O’Callaghan, quoting Bayliss (2007), claims that the use of culture as a tool forurban and economic growth is an established feature of the policy agenda.

Such an extremely pragmatic understanding of a project, which is often present atthe administrative level, is similar to the philosophical foundations of projectificationand can be described as instrumental rationality. According to Jürgen Habermas (1968),instrumental rationality is focused on the effectiveness and efficiency in the context ofthe pursuit of the objectives. This type of rationality is characterized by a lack ofpolitical and ethical sensitivity, because the key is, in fact, the finding and reificationof appropriate measures that will allow for the implementation of compelling goals.In other words, the elements of reality are understood as susceptible to manipulationand interdependent variables, while the value of the action is conditional, based on itsusefulness in the context of environmental control and production of predictableresults. Instrumental rationality determines the conduct of public policies in the field ofculture and the arts, and thus affects the type and method of implementing culturalprojects. A big number of cultural projects is precisely in line with this “purpose”philosophy, losing their extraordinary ability to question the reality. Additionally, itmay trigger a feeling of fear and threat, as the project procedures and documentationmay be controlled for a long time after its formal end. The German director of theGamma co-production referred to this problem in the following way:

In German law, and I suppose in Polish law as well, many issues are unclear. I have never metanyone who could answer all my questions I have on doing theatrical co-productions.It’s connected to fear. Today, I don’t know it, but maybe in five years I will get a letter fromthe Inland Revenue stating that something was badly done in the project and I have to pay themoney back. So, beyond an artistic vision, you are making a projection of anxiety.

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The abovementioned considerations show that the world of cultural projectsis changing dramatically under the influence of public policies. This change, however,is one-sided: artists and cultural organizations acquire the language of bureaucracy,public policy and professional project management. Cultural projects, tightlysqueezed in a “corset” of indicators and expected results, become unified to be more“professional” instead of changing the world of projects. Coping replaces creating.We may therefore conclude that the aforementioned mechanisms, embedded inpublic cultural policies, limit the field of the arts in terms of the innovative practices ofproject management.

The unique ontology of artistic projectsCleland and Ireland (2006, p. 51), define the project management process as “gettingthings done on a project by working with a project team members and otherstakeholders to attain project schedule, cost and technical performance objectives” andstate that the whole process is adapted from the general management course.Therefore, one should perform project tasks in accordance with the managementprocess principles, similar to Fayol’s subsequent concept of management functions,which consists of planning, organizing, motivating, directing and controlling. Despitethe differences that exist in defining the life cycle of particular projects in variousindustries, literature says that it is possible to map each project using the basicstructure of the project life cycle, which consists of four phases: conceptual, planning,execution and termination (Cleland and Ireland, 2006; Project Management Institute, 2008).Traditionally, schedule, cost and quality are referred to as the “iron triangle” or “tripleconstraint”. This set of constraints has been accepted as the most widely used set ofcriteria to measure project performance ( Jha and Iyer, 2007). At the same time, formany years now the following question has been asked, “Why has project managementbeen so reluctant to adopt other criteria of project assessment in addition to the irontriangle (Atkinson, 1999, p. 337)?” Multiple findings indicate that the traditionalmeasures of the iron triangle are no more applicable to measuring project performanceand success (Toor and Ogunlana, 2010; Cooke-Davies, 2002; Atkinson, 1999); however,“this myopic view has become cemented into conventional project practice” (Zwikaeland Smyrk, 2011, p. 3). We argue that in the case of artistic endeavours, highlightingthe limitations is a serious issue and was one of the most important topics whichemerged during the coding of the available data. From this point of view, the quoteddefinition of project management delivered by Cleland and Ireland does not seem to beappropriate for project-like artistic undertakings. However, what has to be underlinedis that this way of thinking is forced upon us at the political level and influences thelanguage which describes artistic activity. Conceptual work on any non-artisticproject – even the one very innovative in nature – starts with a common-sense analysisof the project feasibility associated with the available resources, staff performance andrealistic goals. The initial planning stage is often similar in the field of culture due to thenature of time; however, the authors of cultural projects also very often seek a differenttype of logic. One director and theatre manager involved in the Beta co-production saidthe following in the interview:

Sometimes, I just have to do something. I don’t want to wait six months to get an answerabout whether I can start my work or not. The idea may be already obsolete then. Very often,I started projects without any funding and I hoped that if the politicians saw that the projectwas already up-and-running, they would support me. Well, unfortunately this is not really thecase. I ran up debts and it took years to replenish our budget.

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The top-down formulation of restrictions before getting down to work is frequentlyregarded as an attempt to curb one’s artistic freedom. Simultaneously, principles suchas the triple constraint are rarely obeyed (Shenhar and Dvir, 2007; Atkinson, 1999).It does happen, however, that defying the project assumptions actually makes itpossible to achieve a value more meaningful than pragmatic efficiency, which weconsider as one of the special features of artistic work. It did not really happen in thecases we investigated; nevertheless, the play Factory 2 directed by Krystian Lupa,premiered in 2008 in Cracow, which was also discussed by one of us in the analysis oftime awareness in cultural projects (Ćwikła, 2014), is certainly a good example.Rehearsals to this seven-hour-long show lasted more than one year, and the premieredate (which is a crucial moment for theatre projects) had remained unknown for along time. It may be stated that this undertaking had an anti-performative character.Artistic curiosity and a creative experiment were far more important than indicators.Finally, after the premiere the show was presented at important Polish andinternational festivals, got a lot of rewards and was commented on in around 100reviews. This attention was focused purely on the artistic value and proved that thetime invested in the creation of the performance was the time well spent. The showwas produced at Cracow’s Stary Theatre. The theatre’s management provided thedirector with optimal if not laboratory conditions for the development of his creativeprocess, thus allowing him to fine-tune the show, which the audience and criticshailed as unique. However, this kind of luxury does not occur very often, and thesituation was completely different in the case of Lupa’s another work entitledPersona. Marilyn, which premiered in 2009 in Warsaw. The performance hadbeen shown earlier in an incomplete form at a theatre festival in other Polish city.A satisfactory artistic effect had not been achieved on time; therefore, theperformance was presented in its preliminary form. The expression work-in-progress,suggesting that the work is not yet complete but still disclosed in front of theaudience, is a kind of safety net. It is a creative and vital act of defiance againstproject limitations. Presenting an incomplete form of a particular undertaking seemedfor a long time to make sense only in the case of artistic projects. Nowadays, it may bealso observed in business-oriented projects. New products are advertised before thedate of the official launch, or “controlled information leaks” occur to make the“audience” more involved in the process of development. May be this is already aninfluence of the arts which sparks the trend of just-in-time – forced by the traditionalmethodologies conditioned by deadlines to be met –more flexible. As a matter of fact,the work-in-progress initiatives can be hardly regarded as typical projects, becausethey defy the tenets of defining time frames required for particular project steps.Nevertheless, such nomenclature does not prevent an undertaking from being called aproject at the same time, which once again proves the fluidity of cultural terminologyand shows the popularity of project-like activities. After all, given the specificity ofculture, it is indeed difficult to stick to methodological dogmatism. It seems to spreadon other disciplines and influence the theoretical reflection. Modern thoughts onproject management tend to be more process oriented, thus promoting, in fact, a kindof work-in-progress. For instance, Small and Walker (2009) see project praxis as a socialprocess, which underlines the dynamic character of projects, while in their study on amanufacturing project company, Cicmil and Gaggiotti ponder over the meaning ofdeadlines. This similarity is rooted, on the one hand, in the ontological status of theatre,which is always in the state of developing or becoming something and not just beingsomething, and, on the other hand, in the fact that, as mentioned before, the rigidity of the

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iron triangle is nowadays rejected also in for-profit environment. Therefore, this categoryof time illustrates the specific features of a cultural project, but it could also be adopted insome other fields.

There is another issue to be mentioned in terms of ontology. Influenced by theobservations of practices in Polish and foreign theatres, a tenet has been adoptedaccording to which a theatre project includes both a rehearsal period and the life of ashow. Such an assumption goes far beyond the traditional understanding of time inproject management; however, it has been adopted intentionally. The main reason was toacknowledge the uniqueness of each individual performance and its phenomenologicaldistinctiveness. Many artists, including Antonin Artaud (1994), argued that every showis an autonomous act and cannot be repeated. Furthermore, a consequence of this conceptwas the recognition that the introduction of a particular title to the repertoire at agiven moment deliberately refers to the anticipated effects of the project on the targetaudience. Therefore, a theatre project lasts for as long as it is performed on stage after thepremiere and as long as it is featured in the current repertoire of an institution or isconsidered – even vaguely – to be shown again in the future. As a result, it may beinspiring in times of change, as it remains more organic. In the conducted research, allinterlocutors said that projects they were involved in (Alfa, Beta, Gamma) are still “alive”although only one performance is shown regularly (Alfa). All of them are formallyfinished and evaluated according to the requirements of funding bodies, but theyare intuitively still developing in the eyes of the team members (surprisingly not onlyartists, but also administrative staff). For instance, the curator working on the Gammaco-production rejects any possible end of project:

This project started 10 years ago, when I first had the idea for a performance. I was in highschool at the time. Then, it developed in my mind, and we finally staged it with Germancolleagues. But it’s not finished, although for now no further shows are planned. To me, thisproject will never stop. Maybe in 30 years, I will show it again. Maybe not. But the idea is aliveand out there.

In the current environment, it seems to be an attractive alternative, as it is hard to planand predict the course of a project, even in the very formal and standardized for-profitworld. In this case, what is relevant are the project features not derived from themethodology and theory of project management but which do refer to the performingaspect and unstable methodology. In its broad sense, performativity (which is rooted inthe theatre studies but now goes far beyond that) is now becoming more and morepresent in the management studies, which stems from the performative turn in sciencefrom sociology and linguistics to humanities and even technology (Bachmann-Medick,2006). The notion of doing instead of deliberating, happening instead of waiting echoesdown in many publications. Spicer et al. (2009) argue that even Critical ManagementStudies – which are in favour of the non-performative approach in terms of goalachievement (Fournier and Grey, 2000) – can benefit from focusing on the performativenature of organizational phenomena, which may lead to micro-emancipations. Also,performativity is discussed in project management, e.g. because of its ambiguous nature(Sage et al., 2013) or ways of resistance (Hodgson, 2005). The inspiration drawn from thefield of the arts is obvious and will probably increase in the coming years. The lack ofmethodology is replaced by passion, dedication and the need of doing, which isequivalent to creating. This commitment of artists was noticeable during theresearch and was also diagnosed by other authors analysing different cultural projects(e.g. Lindgren et al., 2014).

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Team spirit and leadership in cultural projectsApart from the ontological status and the performative and processual character,a feature that significantly distinguishes a cultural project from a business project is agroup of people involved in its implementation. In most cultural projects, the leadingrole is played by artists, for whom the artistic value almost always means more than abudget, time or other project components. In one of the interviews, the director of theAlfa play said:

This is an off-theatre and this is also a statement. People who come to work with us have otherexpectations. A certain director of a private theatre thought he has to pay us high salaries, butthis time we wanted something else. For us, what mattered was the play and the work ofpeople who were involved.

This approach favors employees, who, for centuries, have paid attention to self-fulfilmentin the form of artistic and aesthetic achievement. German authors, Eikhof andHaunschild (2006), derive this attitude from the “Bohemian” lifestyle. As they state,“bohemian life was marked by principles or ideas such as spontaneity, sporadicemployment, lack of income, continuous improvization, by living from day to day insteadof suborning to fixed (work) schedules” (p. 236) and “for most theatre artists, the ideaof being part of a bohemian milieu and sharing cultural rather than materialistic oreconomic values is central to their self-perception” (p. 239). Nowadays, this model stillexists and is present not only in traditional bohemian cities, such as New York, Paris orBerlin, but also in many other places. The project-based organization of cultural eventsharmonizes with this kind of professional (and at the same personal) life. This is also thereason why it is possible to easily implement project-like techniques in culture – becausehuman resources are available and people are familiar with short-term undertakings(Blair, 2001). Artists frequently build goal-oriented communities with a wide array ofindividualists, which makes them completely different from traditional teams withclearly divided tasks. According to the theory of management and the workplace reality,teams operate in all types of organizations. It is generally accepted that they are able tooutperform individuals acting alone, especially when the task requires multiple skills(Baiden and Price, 2011). As Baiden and Price indicate, a fully integrated project teamshould have a common project focus and objectives, the boundaries between individualsshould be diminished, and achievements, failures and successes should be shared amongall team members. This was underlined by the producer of the Alfa play:

This is our performance, that’s what we think. When I see posters of the play in the city, then Ithink this is our play. We made it together despite many problems and that’s what matters.This was an outstanding energy. Now I know it very well.

The energy and devotion of the artistic community are unique features, which createdifferent kinds of teams than the business-goal-oriented ones. People working at artisticinstitutions are very self-reflective and can often define the flaws and talk about themdirectly. We have observed that it does not happen in terms of methodological issues andmanagerial practices at formal and technical level, but it often occurs while consideringpersonal aspects. Also, in his analysis of teams at German theatres, Axel Haunschild(2003) argues that institutions of this kind may be seen as laboratories for project orientedfor-profit organizations, as they deliver a lot of well-thought-out ideas for improvements,and, because they are not exposed to financial risks to the same extent as private bodiesare, the proposals are often rapidly implemented and tried out. For project management,these observations could indeed be seen as an impulse to improve work schemes.

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Given the relations prevalent within teams working on artistic projects, it may bestated that in many cases artists take over some managerial tasks. As the curator of theGamma project stated:

From the very beginning, I was involved in the curatorial and artistic problems and at the endalso in accounting. At the time, we had to tackle many projects simultaneously, and peoplewere working on many different things. This is the way how we do projects: everyone workson what is needed to be done urgently. There is no division of tasks. Some people worked onthis performance for a while only to switch to other projects which started later.

This aspect, pointed out by the curator taking on organizational tasks, refers to theethics of each undertaking and the responsibility for the created work which has anaesthetic and discursive influence on the audience. The dualism of being an artistand at the same a leader is illustrated by the two examples from the Polish theatre ofthe last century. Jerzy Grotowski and Tadeusz Kantor were artists who significantlycontributed to the outstanding development of theatre and changed the meaning ofperforming arts into a means of communication and common sensation. At the sametime, they were discoverers, disputants, creators, and leaders. In the book “The Post-traumatic Theatre of Grotowski and Kantor”, Magda Romanska (2012) quotes anotherfamous Polish researcher Zbigniew Osiński and says, “Grotowski simultaneously‘directs’ two groups – actors and viewers, that is, he treats them as one community,integrated within the theatrical time-space” (p. 137). She also points out the uniquerelation which occurred during the staging of Kantor’s plays: “During Kantor’s show,old people reading large black obituaries emphasize their connection with the departed.Dead Class becomes a community of memory for the artist, actor and viewer” (p. 279).In fact, the audience is part of the project team, because, as stated earlier, it becomesan element of a theatrical project understood as a process. Such a broad approach tointerpreting what a project team means is quite utopian but still justified by the relationwhich comes into being during performative acts. Thamhain (2013) believes asuccessful project results in an “effective multidisciplinary effort, involving teamsof people and support organizations interacting in a highly complex, intricate, andsometimes even chaotic way” (p. 152). This observation fits well within the reality oftheatrical projects with no task division, clear responsibility (although in manysituations these two aspects have to be considered ambiguous) and visionary artistswho want the audience to be involved to the maximum. As we know, the field ofleadership studies has traditionally been leader centred (focused on the individualleader and his actions); however, nowadays researchers provide alternative waysof understanding project leadership, like the one proposed by Packendorff et al. (2014,p. 17): “leadership beyond institutionalized project management notions of unitarycommand, linearity, formal planning, and entitative notions of projects”. Therefore,the perspective brought by artists to cultural projects seems to be appropriate also fornon-artistic undertakings.

Despite the lack of project-related formal prerequisites, many performancesare called projects and are successful. What matters is the artistic quality, not theorganizational quality. However, it seems logical that if the audience is considered aspart of the team, then the social-based mechanism of control should grow and lead tomore attention paid to managerial accuracy. In the case of cultural activity, it seemscrucial to combine experience with enthusiasm. These two components complementeach other. Professional artists become experienced amateur project managers, andthe project-like team work takes place. The ideas of project-like managers are often far

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from the methodology but still promising ( just to name one example: work-in-progressshows involving the audience as part of the creative adolescence of the play).Furthermore, enhancement of the project team inspired by the process of creating andenjoying the arts is, in our opinion, one of the ideas which could be interesting for othercontexts of project management.

With regard to the above considerations, we assume that project management coulddraw inspiration from cultural projects in terms of motivating project teams andtriggering involvement based on ideas and visions shared by the community. What ismore, learning some visionary leadership best practices (Grotowski, Kantor) andunique shared leadership practices (involving audience) present in the field of culturecould be beneficial for project managers, both in the for-profit and non-profit reality,even if it requires a lot of effort to make them visible and accepted. Furthermore,the field of project management could benefit from learning creativity, spontaneity andinnovativeness from cultural project teams. It may be easier to teach abstract projectconcepts to team members while looking at how it is done in the art projects with theirunstable nature that requires a lot of flexibility. If we consider project stakeholders aspart of the team, as it seems to be the case with the audience in some cultural projects,the social-based mechanism of control may grow, as a result of it is likely thatstakeholders’ needs will be fulfilled in a more accurate way.

ConclusionsAs shown by recent theoretical proposals in project management, the rigid andtraditional understanding of this area may be quite inhibitory. Responding to theturbulent environment should not be based on fixed schedules and assumptions butrather on the approaches focused on the process and flexibility. The examples offailed projects illustrate the shortcomings of the existing tools. Cicmil and Hodgson(2006) mention the renovation of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden andthe construction of Denver International Airport. Other unsuccessful projects includethe construction of Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg or the Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg.All of them exemplify colossal mistakes which ate up significantly more resources thanoriginally planned. At the same time, it is necessary to find new ways of formulatingproject plans which take into account the unfettered element of innovation. To someextent, this is the path culture is now treading. This is often done unconsciously and isbased on intuition, experience and a complex combination of the elements encoded inthe theory of project management. In many cases, this approach is not very effectivebut sometimes guarantees more dynamics and good results. Our research on the threecases of theatrical co-productions as well as other examples of cultural projects showthat the internal creative logic in artistic undertakings of project-like nature is far fromthe methodology, theory and patterns of managing projects in the achievement-drivenbusiness world. Therefore, it seems reasonable to conclude that culture managementdraws heavily on the theory of management but does not rigidly follow its guidelinesalthough it is constantly imposed by cultural policies.

In order to answer the first of our research questions, it may be stated that thepursuit of economic accountability and rigid indicators at the level of policy makingbodies – connected to the discourses of power and oppression in the form of restriction,control, cynicism and forced adjustments – may be understood as one of the mostdangerous limitation for cultural projects to inspire the field of project management ingeneral. Through the funding mechanisms cultural managers are forced to copy theproject restrictions which were often already exposed as failed in the business-oriented

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environment. The necessity to achieve predefined results and indicators followsbureaucratic logic, often omitting the right of artistic freedom. Also the reduction ofculture to workplaces is short-signed and pass over the precarious project conditionsartist are accepting to have a chance to work at all. This limitations show that the wayof making cultural projects is rooted in a broad political and social contexts. Due to thespecific professional situation of creative workers projects in their strict and traditionalunderstanding strengthen the pathologies of fear and assumption of necessity ofmaking as many projects as possible, without considering advantages of long-termactions and gradual development, despite deadlines and indicators. Cultural policysanctions this state at different levels by organizing new programmes and endorsingthe project-oriented way of thinking, which, as a consequence, forms an incoherentimage of particular institutions. In the case of negative development, the build-up ofprojects can make the works of art turn into copycat commodities that will pile up whilerejecting the perspective of development, and the artists themselves to scaredrepresentatives of the creative workers, dependent on the demissions of the powerholders and working in a precarious environment.

However, once the opportunities arising from the flexible working structuresstill guaranteed by projectification are fully taken advantage of, the project work willcontinue to develop the dynamics of creative areas and thus reinforce thesynchronization of the audience needs with the non-standard artistic exploration.The potential of creative change is noticeable. This disobedience of the artistsconfronted with artificial limitations could be perceived as an advantage. As showed inour research on three Polish and Polish-German theatrical co-productionsmethodologies along with their obstacles are often rejected more out of ignorancerather than out of personal conviction, yet management as a logical process occurspartly in project-based cultural activities and often finds surprising, and refreshingsolutions, even if some phenomena are contradictory and paradoxical. According to thecollected data and recent literature, especially from the critical movements withinmanagement studies, we want to answer our second research question and to underlinefollowing features of cultural projects, which could be considered as useful formodernization of project management, understood as a broaden phenomenonencompassing for-profit and non-profit undertaking, as well as all activities ofproject-like nature and carried out according to the logic of time:

(1) processual character – replacement of the just-in-time perspective bywork-in-progress could be more flexible and open to new developments withina project; it is also performative in nature and alludes to the ontological andopen status of theatre; it is connected with the need of doing and beingconstantly active, which could be beneficial for project management in termsof sustainable development and long-term outcomes;

(2) team spirit – the high level of involvement present in artistic communitiesgenerates extraordinary energy, which motivates people to work intensivelydespite organizational imperfections; such goal orientation is driven by sharedidentification with artistic endeavours; however, it could be inspirational for thefor-profit reality due to flat structures and well-thought-out ideas forimprovement; and

(3) leadership – the uniqueness of the arts is also illustrated by leaderships; apartfrom high commitment and passion, we have identified an interesting model of

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understanding a project team: the audience was included by the leaders-artists inthe process of creating a play; this social mechanism has a very inclusive natureand makes sense especially in publicly funded undertakings; additionally, it hasbeen proved that artists are willing to take on managerial tasks; their enthusiasticway of dealing with problems could be used in practice and to innovatemanagement teaching methodology, e.g. in the form of case studies.

Each project represents a change event if it is hard to define what projects really are.It can be insignificant or substantial, but, to some extent, it always introduces amodification to the existing environment. Since today people draw on projectsolutions more than ever before, it is necessary to comprehend this process and stopblindly following organizational fads (Dewaele, 2012). According to Meisiek and Barry(2014, p. 134):

[…] the arts hold a promise for management: that management, organizations, and work itselfwill become better – more effective, yes, but also more interesting, meaningful, attractive,original – when artistic perspectives are employed.

We do believe that this statement is especially valid for project management, with theinspiration which can be adopted from cultural projects. Uniqueness, freedom,resistance, courage and curiosity make the arts special. For ages, the arts have been asource of refreshing ideas; hence, we argue that it is still possible to establish the art ofproject management in a more creative way.

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Further reading

Cicmil, S. and Gaggiotti, H. (2009), “Who cares about project deadlines? a processual relationalperspective on problems with information sharing in project environments”, InternationalJournal of Knowledge Management Studies, Vol. 3 Nos 3-4, pp. 222-240.

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Thamhain, H.J. (2004), “Linkages of project environment to performance: lessons for teamleadership”, International Journal of Project Management, Vol. 22 No. 7, pp. 533-544.

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About the authorsDr Małgorzata Ćwikła graduated in Polish Philology from the University of Wroclaw/Poland(2007). In October 2014 she defended (summa cum laude) at the Jagiellonian University inCracow/Poland her PhD thesis entitled “Project management in the field of culture: a case studyof theatrical co-productions” (discipline: management studies within humanities). Main fields ofresearch: connections between culture and management, contemporary arts, development ofartistic ideas in the context of politics and economics.

Dr Beata Jałocha is a Post-Doctoral Researcher and a Lecturer at the Jagiellonian University inKraków/Poland. In 2012 she defended (summa cum laude) her PhD thesis on Project PortfolioManagement in public sector. She obtained her Masters in Marketing and Management with amajor in Culture Management in 2006 from the Jagiellonian University. Her main researchinterests are: projectification, project, programme and portfolio management in publicorganizations, critical participatory action research. Dr Beata Jałocha is the correspondingauthor and can be contacted at: beata.jalocha@uj.edu.pl

For instructions on how to order reprints of this article, please visit our website:www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/licensing/reprints.htmOr contact us for further details: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

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