City Research Online

Abstract

This study explores cinema management within the context of arts administration. To do so, the model of organizational effectiveness chosen is that of the ecological perspective. In order to understand what it is that cinema managers run, a thorough survey of the cinemas involved is provided, revealing a wide range of circumstances. The cinema managers are themselves analysed according to their orientations to work, utilizing the "ideal type" approach as a basis for investigating the motives that contribute towards their managerial attitudes and behaviour. The strategic contacts of the cinema managers, on which they are dependent for resources, are identified and categorized as internal, overseer and external constituencies. Choice of method of minimizing the demands and constraints of the strategic constituencies are explored through the roles adopted in managerial behaviour. Mintzberg's seven managerial roles are augmented in number to accommodate cinema managerial behaviour. The numerous tasks undertaken by cinema managers are reviewed and reveal a work pattern far in excess of that one might expect of a "manager". The working day was found to contain many tasks punctuated by frequent interruptions, so that the pattern emerged as one of variety, brevity and fragmentation. Three styles of management emerged to cope with the above work pattern: those of juggler-manager, player-manager and lone-manager. The period covered in this research, 1980 to early 1987, is seen to witness the cinema industry at its lowest decline, with this followed by a revival and the cautious spawning of multi-screened cinemas. The cinema industry's vicissitudes during this period and its status are recorded as a background to the precarious position under which cinema managers have been working and will work in the future.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management N Fine Arts > NX Arts in general
Departments:	School of Communication & Creativity > School of Communication & Creativity Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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