Trajectory Normalizing Work in Unstable Production Environments: When Adapting Production Means Appearing Authentic

Organizations emphasize specific production practices to deal with authenticity pressures, but the practices that signal authenticity to audiences must be continually adapted when production environments are unstable. Changes in the environment can make production practices suddenly infeasible, compelling organizations to perform in different ways the highly visible practices that audiences have come to associate with authenticity. However, authenticity research tends to take the continuity of production practices for granted, focusing on whether certain practices are made visible or not, and leaving unexamined how practices are made legible as they are adapted. Drawing on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork at a renowned winery (Cal-Cru), I identify a novel form of authenticity work— trajectory normalizing work —that Cal-Cru’s production team performed internally, out of view from external audiences, to guide production changes. Specifically, the team created contrast cues to inform their actions. They avoided changes that would noticeably alter parts of production visible to audiences, or that clashed with their own understanding of authenticity. Doing so created a reassuring sense among the team that they were departing from audience expectations to sustain, not compromise, the practices that conveyed authenticity. My study highlights the backstage tensions constructing authenticity in unstable production environments.