The One-shot Deal: Temporary Organizations, UK Feature Film Units, and Learning Organization Theory

Ludwin, Linda Grace (2003). The One-shot Deal: Temporary Organizations, UK Feature Film Units, and Learning Organization Theory. PhD thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.0000e81f

Abstract

This embedded single case study considers how temporary organizations such as UK feature film production units learn. Units, which cluster around London and are active for less than a year, manufacture pre financed films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and The Crying Game.

Six important learning organization models, three from the UK and three from the USA, were used to think about how film units learn. Primary and secondary data were considered in function of six themes. Three were learning organization themes: (i) learning is tied to action, (ii) problem solving, and (iii) commitment to learning. Further powerful themes emerged during coding: (iv) temporariness, (v) employment practices, and (vi) networking.

Fieldwork consisted of in-depth interviews with freelances working on UK film units, as well as a range of other primary and secondary sources, including days of observation during the production of Loaded, and attendance at a series of British Film Institute seminars on film production issues.

The study concludes that although UK feature film units are epistemic communities, they are not learning organizations.

The combination of being temporary and producing cultural texts conditions most aspects of organizational life and style in UK film units. They are an extreme and idiosyncratic form of temporary organization, designed to thrive in climates of radical change and grounded in a unique historical context.