Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Similarity, familiarity and access to elite work in Hollywood: Employer and employee characteristics in breakthrough employment:

Similarity, familiarity and access to elite work in Hollywood: Employer and employee... This study develops and tests hypotheses concerning factors that influence employers' decisions to create breakthrough opportunities for workers on elite Hollywood projects. A breakthrough is defined as employment in a new career area in which the employee has no experience. Similarity and familiarity are proposed as constructs that describe relationships between employees and employers. Similarity and familiarity play a major role in breakthroughs because, by definition, the employee's experience is insufficient to gauge his or her ability for the new area. The hypotheses are tested using archival data on employment in Hollywood motion picture production, with the breakthrough to directing an elite motion picture as the focal opportunity. The results show that while similarity and familiarity make breakthroughs more likely, the prospect's experience matters little. Breakthrough opportunities are created by employers with less experience in elite work and lower status. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Human Relations SAGE

Similarity, familiarity and access to elite work in Hollywood: Employer and employee characteristics in breakthrough employment:

Skilton, Paul F.
Human Relations , Volume 61 (12): 31 – Dec 1, 2008
Download PDF
31 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/sage/similarity-familiarity-and-access-to-elite-work-in-hollywood-employer-t4LLuvfm4G

References (39)

Publisher
SAGE
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by The Tavistock Institute
ISSN
0018-7267
eISSN
1741-282X
DOI
10.1177/0018726708098084
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This study develops and tests hypotheses concerning factors that influence employers' decisions to create breakthrough opportunities for workers on elite Hollywood projects. A breakthrough is defined as employment in a new career area in which the employee has no experience. Similarity and familiarity are proposed as constructs that describe relationships between employees and employers. Similarity and familiarity play a major role in breakthroughs because, by definition, the employee's experience is insufficient to gauge his or her ability for the new area. The hypotheses are tested using archival data on employment in Hollywood motion picture production, with the breakthrough to directing an elite motion picture as the focal opportunity. The results show that while similarity and familiarity make breakthroughs more likely, the prospect's experience matters little. Breakthrough opportunities are created by employers with less experience in elite work and lower status.

Journal

Human Relations – SAGE

Published: Dec 1, 2008

Keywords: boundaryless career ■career progression ■ motion pictures,project networks ■ social network ■ stretch work

There are no references for this article.