Hi everyone,
Was hoping you could help me too in completing my quick survey on management effects on dancers/employees. Its mainly aimed at dancers/performers. Would be great if you could give me feedback via here too on changes I should make & other things I could include. Promise it won't take you long :)
Thanks x...........
Management Effects on Dancers/Employees Survey
Monday, 31 March 2014
Tasks 5c&d) Thoughts on Ethics in Professional Inquiry
Reading through this reader gave me a lot of food for thought on ethics and was is considered 'good' & 'bad' within different societies, cultures and work places. It also made me very aware of what is/isn't ethically sound within my own inquiry. Talking to Melanie Canon via our SIG group made me think a lot about the ethics behind the participants of my inquiry and the anonymity of personal data. As her inquiry is based more on children/students this may be more of an issue as children (or parents of) are less likely to give consent in publicising personal info then adults within a professional environment. All those involved in my own inquiry will receive an explanation of exactly what I am inquiring about and a consent form to sign if they are happy to participate. There names and personal data will stay anonymous unless they specifically give permission for me to publicise.
The idea of covert 'v' overt will come into my inquiry as I plan to use observation methods in my research. I am more likely to use the 'covert' method as a dancer because I can easily observe during rehearsals and this is less likely to distort results or behaviour. However all those involved will be aware of my inquiry.
I have decided to mainly focus on the aspects of management neccessary to creating and sustaining an effective working environment. This will likely bring up both personal ethics when discussing with individuals, professional ethics when looking at specific rules and regulations in place and organisational ethics as the dance world as a whole has a certain way of doing things. It is likely to have impact on both those involved and those looking to be along with other dancers, therefore all the results and data will be fair and truthful.
The idea of covert 'v' overt will come into my inquiry as I plan to use observation methods in my research. I am more likely to use the 'covert' method as a dancer because I can easily observe during rehearsals and this is less likely to distort results or behaviour. However all those involved will be aware of my inquiry.
I have decided to mainly focus on the aspects of management neccessary to creating and sustaining an effective working environment. This will likely bring up both personal ethics when discussing with individuals, professional ethics when looking at specific rules and regulations in place and organisational ethics as the dance world as a whole has a certain way of doing things. It is likely to have impact on both those involved and those looking to be along with other dancers, therefore all the results and data will be fair and truthful.
Saturday, 15 March 2014
Task 5b) Codes of Practice that Steer The Ethical Framework
Having had a vague but undetailed idea on the regulations and ethical practice within my professional practice I was able to have a look at the official sources to help me further. Understandably these documents are confidential so I cannot publish them however here I have made a brainstorm showing my initial thoughts and those furthered after looking at these documents:
Safe working conditions: Without this me and my colleagues couldn't carry out our work. In my practice this ranges from safe studio space to the correct footwear being given to us. We are lucky as the theatre provides us with all of the above as I know of some companies who don't provide footwear for their dancers.
Management link: It would management's responsibility to provide the above. For example, when putting on a show, making certain the stage floor and set are safe for the employees. Also making sure the budget allows for correct footwear for all employees.
Dancer's well-being: Another close link to safety and also an area I might like to explore in my inquiry. As a code of practice the theatre provides the necessary care needed to look after their employees. We have an onsite physio who is great when we are injured along with a gym, sauna and available massages to keep our bodies in good condition and as pain free as possible. We are extremely lucky to have all of these things and as an employee it's great to have such measures taken for our well-being as this can be a rare occurrence elsewhere.
Management link: Again it would be a manager's responsibility to provide this. Also being aware of the importance of it and constantly looking to improve.
Promotion: Also a possible exploring are for my inquiry and a very important aspect of running a company/putting on a production. Any form of promotion the company publishes is copyrighted and can only be used with permission. Likewise us as employees are a form of promotion for our company so going back to manners and respect along with good communication skills, not only to each other but to the public, is vital. Also for example, if we are to take part in performances other than our theatre's permission must be granted.
Management link: For management of a company often a good collaboration with a promotions team is likely to be necessary to promote the correct image of company/production- having the same vision and image to promote and sell to the outside as well as possible.
Safe working conditions: Without this me and my colleagues couldn't carry out our work. In my practice this ranges from safe studio space to the correct footwear being given to us. We are lucky as the theatre provides us with all of the above as I know of some companies who don't provide footwear for their dancers.
Management link: It would management's responsibility to provide the above. For example, when putting on a show, making certain the stage floor and set are safe for the employees. Also making sure the budget allows for correct footwear for all employees.
Dancer's well-being: Another close link to safety and also an area I might like to explore in my inquiry. As a code of practice the theatre provides the necessary care needed to look after their employees. We have an onsite physio who is great when we are injured along with a gym, sauna and available massages to keep our bodies in good condition and as pain free as possible. We are extremely lucky to have all of these things and as an employee it's great to have such measures taken for our well-being as this can be a rare occurrence elsewhere.
Management link: Again it would be a manager's responsibility to provide this. Also being aware of the importance of it and constantly looking to improve.
Promotion: Also a possible exploring are for my inquiry and a very important aspect of running a company/putting on a production. Any form of promotion the company publishes is copyrighted and can only be used with permission. Likewise us as employees are a form of promotion for our company so going back to manners and respect along with good communication skills, not only to each other but to the public, is vital. Also for example, if we are to take part in performances other than our theatre's permission must be granted.
Management link: For management of a company often a good collaboration with a promotions team is likely to be necessary to promote the correct image of company/production- having the same vision and image to promote and sell to the outside as well as possible.
Task 4c) & 5a) Development of Inquiry ideas within the workplace and & ethical considerations
So after having an in depth conversation with Paula about the possibilities behind both of my subject lines of inquiry I am currently more swayed to that of management as it ecompasses a lot of areas I am interested in and my current employment allows me substantial access to these areas. We currently have plans for 2 new productions underway and therefore as part of task 4c I am in the process of asking my director and others if it is possible for me to be involved in witnessing the collaboration and factors that bring the productions together. What's great about my theatre is we have several separate departments: Ballet company, Drama, Orchestra, Opera, Costume, Stage crew, Promotions team etc. that all become involved when we put on new shows. This gives me a broad basis to explore.
A big part of my inquiry topic is going to involve work research/insider research and as explained in Reader 4, will involve a lot of ethical consideration. Primarily I want to understand how management works on a professional level to gain more knowledge and insight through looking at my own company's methods. I am not looking to fault specific happenings. Part of inquiry is to ask about change for further development with a topic so understandably there will be elements of questioning however being an employee means first and foremost I am under policy and will need to find out exactly what can or cannot be publicised.
Before finding out the exact policies I am already aware of some of the rules regarding the protection of information in the company. Any specific happenings can not be published without permission, for example names of participants will be kept anonymous, data will be fully protected and all knowledge & intellectual efforts of others will be clearly referenced. In regards to other work ethics such as the respect and reliability between co-workers it is always important to have both. I am primarily at my work as a dancer and as part of my job description there must always be respect towards others, reliability and confidence in knowing I can carry out my work to the fullest standard. Communication and manners come under this section and both will be vital when it comes to me exploring more into management with those I will be working with.
A big part of my inquiry topic is going to involve work research/insider research and as explained in Reader 4, will involve a lot of ethical consideration. Primarily I want to understand how management works on a professional level to gain more knowledge and insight through looking at my own company's methods. I am not looking to fault specific happenings. Part of inquiry is to ask about change for further development with a topic so understandably there will be elements of questioning however being an employee means first and foremost I am under policy and will need to find out exactly what can or cannot be publicised.
Before finding out the exact policies I am already aware of some of the rules regarding the protection of information in the company. Any specific happenings can not be published without permission, for example names of participants will be kept anonymous, data will be fully protected and all knowledge & intellectual efforts of others will be clearly referenced. In regards to other work ethics such as the respect and reliability between co-workers it is always important to have both. I am primarily at my work as a dancer and as part of my job description there must always be respect towards others, reliability and confidence in knowing I can carry out my work to the fullest standard. Communication and manners come under this section and both will be vital when it comes to me exploring more into management with those I will be working with.
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
A couple of thoughts on Reader 4
So reader 4 is a lot of information to take in and to 'gather my thoughts' on highlighted sections that I have noted in both my journal and now my blog.
Since my inquiry is primarily looking into the management side of professional dance companies and productions I found the theory of single and double loop learning interesting. Enquiring about a problem based subject to develop workplace will effectively lead to changes and I think this will be a big part of managerial processes in making improvements. Doing this through asking questions and providing new possibilities of change is likely to bring positivity to a company.
The 'espoused theory' and the idea that words we convey about our actions aren't always the same as our 'theory-in-use' (our actual actions) is another idea that I feel will be important in my inquiry. In a workplace employees don't just want to hear of progressional changes but they actually want them. The idea of delivering and not just saying is an important one.
KNOWLEDGE seems to be a key word in this reader and the concepts of each type are both what I come across in practice and what I look to learn about and improve in my inquiry:
Disciplinary knowledge:
Since my inquiry is primarily looking into the management side of professional dance companies and productions I found the theory of single and double loop learning interesting. Enquiring about a problem based subject to develop workplace will effectively lead to changes and I think this will be a big part of managerial processes in making improvements. Doing this through asking questions and providing new possibilities of change is likely to bring positivity to a company.
The 'espoused theory' and the idea that words we convey about our actions aren't always the same as our 'theory-in-use' (our actual actions) is another idea that I feel will be important in my inquiry. In a workplace employees don't just want to hear of progressional changes but they actually want them. The idea of delivering and not just saying is an important one.
KNOWLEDGE seems to be a key word in this reader and the concepts of each type are both what I come across in practice and what I look to learn about and improve in my inquiry:
Disciplinary knowledge:
- Boundaries of knowledge such as 'subjects' ie) 'dance' 'media' 'science'
- Often used in university study/school/college and are specific to the course of study.
- In my case training at school the subject and sectional discipline was dance. Rarely did we step out of this 'section'
Interdisciplinary and Transdisciplinary knowledge:
- More than one discipline used- wider scope of knowledge over boundaries.
- Uses ranges of theoretical perspectives and practical methodologies to solve problems
- Seen and used most often in the workplace
- For my inquiry into managerial processes behind dance professionals it involves interdisciplinary knowledge ie) the subject of dance along with education to teach and managerial skills to run a company or direct a performance.
My work as a professional is slightly more transdisciplinary. The main discipline being dance although I use other disciplines of knowledge such as acting skills (to play a character), physical knowledge (to keep myself in shape) and logical knowledge (spacing and rehearsing). Most of these I know from being taught although some like physical knowledge, I have looked into myself. For both my inquiry and possibly the future I will need to learn more managerial skills myself and hopefully through this course I can do so.
Monday, 17 February 2014
Task 4b) Special Interest Groups
Having a look around your blogs and primary inquiry questions I have already found a fair few of you who have similar topic interests to me. Firstly though, Laura Houghton has mentioned a good way of communicating in our SIG groups would be via facebook as it's easy to have group discussions on specific topics:
- The link to my profile is https://www.facebook.com/emma.price.5815 so if my ideas on possible lines of inquiry are similar to yours or interest you please feel free to add me.
- I have also added the 'Labels' widget which makes those of you looking for specific themes easier to find as each of my posts will have specified subject tags.
Reading Gabrielle's posts I can see the health and fitness theme is similar to that of my own thinking. Asking what does it take for a dancer to be fit and healthy physically and mentally and how do you keep a balance of strengthening muscles yet staying lean. All these are questions I have asked myself throughout my training and career & I find a lot of information about sports related fitness programmes whereas less that are specified to dance. My boyfriend is a professional footballer & the amount of time and money spent on injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes in a professional football club compared to most professional dance companies is astounding. Obviously football has a lot more money to spend than the arts however even just the importance stressed in their education on nutrition & daily gym training/workouts compared to in dance is huge. It means they get into eating/sleeping/training routines from a young age that they then maintain throughout their career. My routines have often changed due to me testing things as quite honestly I was never thoroughly educated in this side of my profession.
Kim has asked questions that involve running her own dance school:
"Is repetition in teaching a dance routine the best method to get the students to learn it quickly?" By nature of professional life, you are often put in things last minute and here we are given DVDs to watch if the choreography is already in the company rep. Some find this easier than others and linking back to Module 1 theories on learning I think each employee/student should be able to learn in a way which works best for them. Guaranteed in a large company this is more difficult due to time however if an employee is given options of a DVD, another colleague/staff member or the bible/benesh notation to learn from they can each choose and therefore enhance their learning and performance and actually save time in the long run.
"How can I get enthusiastic about choreography without music being my inspiration?" When planning a production for a school/company a lot of inspiration is needed and sometimes hard to come by. I often find films, literature and tv documentaries can give me ideas. Also articles on specific subjects help me with themes for choreography. Managing a production involves collaboration with designers, musicians, dancers etc so maybe exploration of other's spoken ideas could help your own? Especially if you're working towards the same vision.
In Melanie's post she's talked about the management of children and although I am currently not engaging in teaching, I found a lot of the points in the article she posted linked well with my own ideas on the management of a company. After all, aren't we all really just big kids at heart?:
- The link to my profile is https://www.facebook.com/emma.price.5815 so if my ideas on possible lines of inquiry are similar to yours or interest you please feel free to add me.
- I have also added the 'Labels' widget which makes those of you looking for specific themes easier to find as each of my posts will have specified subject tags.
Reading Gabrielle's posts I can see the health and fitness theme is similar to that of my own thinking. Asking what does it take for a dancer to be fit and healthy physically and mentally and how do you keep a balance of strengthening muscles yet staying lean. All these are questions I have asked myself throughout my training and career & I find a lot of information about sports related fitness programmes whereas less that are specified to dance. My boyfriend is a professional footballer & the amount of time and money spent on injury prevention and rehabilitation programmes in a professional football club compared to most professional dance companies is astounding. Obviously football has a lot more money to spend than the arts however even just the importance stressed in their education on nutrition & daily gym training/workouts compared to in dance is huge. It means they get into eating/sleeping/training routines from a young age that they then maintain throughout their career. My routines have often changed due to me testing things as quite honestly I was never thoroughly educated in this side of my profession.
Kim has asked questions that involve running her own dance school:
"Is repetition in teaching a dance routine the best method to get the students to learn it quickly?" By nature of professional life, you are often put in things last minute and here we are given DVDs to watch if the choreography is already in the company rep. Some find this easier than others and linking back to Module 1 theories on learning I think each employee/student should be able to learn in a way which works best for them. Guaranteed in a large company this is more difficult due to time however if an employee is given options of a DVD, another colleague/staff member or the bible/benesh notation to learn from they can each choose and therefore enhance their learning and performance and actually save time in the long run.
"How can I get enthusiastic about choreography without music being my inspiration?" When planning a production for a school/company a lot of inspiration is needed and sometimes hard to come by. I often find films, literature and tv documentaries can give me ideas. Also articles on specific subjects help me with themes for choreography. Managing a production involves collaboration with designers, musicians, dancers etc so maybe exploration of other's spoken ideas could help your own? Especially if you're working towards the same vision.
In Melanie's post she's talked about the management of children and although I am currently not engaging in teaching, I found a lot of the points in the article she posted linked well with my own ideas on the management of a company. After all, aren't we all really just big kids at heart?:
- "8. Offer positive feedback at every opportunity. Children respond well to positive feedback...You’ll definitely get more mileage out of saying something positive (“beautiful arms, Suzie” “that’s a high jump, Becca!”) than overstating negatives. Try to be specific. “Good job” doesn’t have much power all on its own so really keep your eyes open for specific things that are being done properly."
- "11. Assign objectives that heighten anticipation. If the same skills are done the same way each week, the children are bound to get bored...you can still give the kids creative objective that will increase their anticipation toward participating."
These are just a few of the blogs I have come across that help my own thinking. I am wary a lot of your ideas are specified to teaching children/students and although due to my current work, my ideas are based more on professionals, I find this helpful. I'd really appreciate hearing your thoughts and comments on my slightly different take to somewhat similar subjects.
Sunday, 16 February 2014
Task 4a) Inquiry Questions
So despite being a little delayed I am back blogging BAPP style. Having already read some of your blogs and questions for your inquiries it is nice to know it is not just me that is not entirely sure of my specific subject for inquiry just yet. After coming up with quite a few ideas in 'Task 2d' I narrowed my interests down and found there are two areas that I am keen to explore therefore have decided to come up with questions for both and see where my thoughts take me.
The first of these areas is the health and fitness side to becoming a professional dancer and factors from personal work ‘outside of the studio’ that go into becoming a professional and maintaining your body and mindset throughout a professional career.
• Is it necessary to do extra personal work eg. Gym?
• What work should you/shouldn’t you do outside of the studio?
• How can you maintain weight during differing workloads?
• Are we educated enough on such aspects?
• Where can we gain specific information for dancers?
• How do we maintain a mental stability in such a high-pressure career?
The second possible line for my inquiry is that of management. As stated in a couple of my blogs from Module 1 I am a good organiser and exploring the management side of both a professional dance company and it's new productions is something that interests me.
• What does putting on a new production involve?
• Is collaboration between departments necessary?
• What are the most effective ways of professionally communicating between colleagues?
• Is promotion for productions important? How can we develop it?
• How can we keep employers & employees happy?
• Should there be more measuring of growth within a company?
• How can we make accurate selling estimates?
These are all just my (very!) initial thoughts and ideas so feel free to comment. I would appreciate your thoughts on them too. Happy blogging again everyone! x
The first of these areas is the health and fitness side to becoming a professional dancer and factors from personal work ‘outside of the studio’ that go into becoming a professional and maintaining your body and mindset throughout a professional career.
• Is it necessary to do extra personal work eg. Gym?
• What work should you/shouldn’t you do outside of the studio?
• How can you maintain weight during differing workloads?
• Are we educated enough on such aspects?
• Where can we gain specific information for dancers?
• How do we maintain a mental stability in such a high-pressure career?
The second possible line for my inquiry is that of management. As stated in a couple of my blogs from Module 1 I am a good organiser and exploring the management side of both a professional dance company and it's new productions is something that interests me.
• What does putting on a new production involve?
• Is collaboration between departments necessary?
• What are the most effective ways of professionally communicating between colleagues?
• Is promotion for productions important? How can we develop it?
• How can we keep employers & employees happy?
• Should there be more measuring of growth within a company?
• How can we make accurate selling estimates?
These are all just my (very!) initial thoughts and ideas so feel free to comment. I would appreciate your thoughts on them too. Happy blogging again everyone! x
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