Exploring Integrative Creative Leadership in the Filmmaking Industry

This chapter elaborates on Mainemelis, Kark, and Epitropaki’s (2015) multi-context model of creative leadership. More specifically, we focus on integrative leadership, one of the three contexts outlined in the model. Integrative leadership is a context in which multiple non-similar professionals provide highly heterogeneous inputs that need to be integrated. How the integration occurs, though, is still not fully understood. We therefore explore how integrative leadership occurs in the filmmaking industry through examples from six renowned film directors. In this position paper, we hypothesize that directors vary considerably in the extent to which they practice integration in an autocratic vs. a democratic manner. Furthermore, we hypothesize seven factors related to variation along that continuum: (1) The personality of the director, in particular, their apparent need for control; (2) The temporality of involvement of others in crafting the vision: early vs. late; (3) Secrecy, or the extent to which directors protect the creative process from others vs. leave it open; (4) Directors’ tendency to work with the same crew and cast across different movies or not; (5) Consolidation of roles by the director; (6) Technology; and (7) The organization of the filmmaking process.