Which research method seeks to uncover the meanings people give their social actions by observing their behavior in practice?
Find out how to use ethnographic research methods and participant observation in our detailed guide. Show
What are ethnographic methods?Ethnographic methods are a research approach where you look at people in their cultural setting, with the goal of producing a narrative account of that particular culture, against a theoretical backdrop. As part of this you will look at:
Organisational ethnographyEthnography is a study of culture, therefore, organisational ethnography looks at the culture of organisations. Organisational culture exists within the minds of the people who make up that organisation, while organisational ethnography is concerned with settings within which social relations take place between actors who are set on particular goals. This culture evolves over time, contains dominant cultures and subcultures, and is subject to its own rules, rites, myths and symbols. History of ethnographic methodsEthnography has its origins in social anthropology, and in particular, the work of Malinowski whose seminal text Argonauts of the Western Pacific describes his experience of living for a long time with South Pacific islanders, and counsels the anthropologist to spend at least a year in the field, to learn the language, and to live as one of the population which he or she studies. It was taken over by sociology in the 1930s when the Chicago school studied "deviant subcultures" in urban America in the great depression. Early ethnographers were criticized for their detached stance, particularly by feminist anthropologists, but recent adaptations of the method use it in action research, where the study population itself becomes involved in the request for information and meaning. Research parametersEthnographic methods are qualitative, inductive, exploratory and longitudinal. They achieve a thick, rich description over a relatively small area. As the researcher, it is best if you conduct your data gathering on an iterative basis, with you taking on a "reflexive" role – in other words observing, reflecting, building up a theory and then going back into the field and testing it. This process of testing is essential, because of the inevitable element of subjectivity in a research method where you, the researcher, is the instrument. There are a number of practical considerations with ethnographic methods, such as:
Data collection methods and triangulationMost ethnographic research makes considerable use of participant observation, usually triangulated with interviews and/or ordinary "informal" conversations. Triangulation is particularly important as one method on its own is not usually reliable. You can also gain a lot of information from other sources, such as:
Another method used is that of the diary, which participants are required to complete (you will also be completing a diary as part of your participant observation. This may either have set categories as in structured observation, or the participant may be required to keep a record of their experiences (for example, their reactions to a training course) or of what they do. What is participant observation?Participant observation is one of the main ethnographic data collection methods. The essence of participant observation is that you, as the researcher, observe the subject of research, either by participating directly in the action, as a member of the study population, or as a "pure" observer, in which case you do not participate in the action but are still present on the scene, for example observing workers in a manufacturing plant or discussants in the board room. In either case, you observe, note, record, describe, analyse, and interpret people and their interactions, and related events, with the objective of obtaining a systematic account of behaviour and idea systems of a given community, organisation or institution. Why use participant observation?Like other ethnographic methods, participant observation is very much based on the classic methods used in early anthropology, by Malinowski and others as they studied particular populations, often for years at a time, taking detailed notes. Participant observation is usually inductive, and carried out as part of an exploratory research phase, with the view of forming hypotheses from the data. It is often connected with the grounded theory method, according to which researchers revisit the research territory with deeper and deeper knowledge. The strength of participant observation is its ability to describe depth (thick description) and to help understand human behaviour. Researcher rolesThere is a continuum in observation techniques between the covert and the overt observer, and the observer who participates completely in the activity and the one who is purely a "fly on the wall". There are problems with all these approaches, but the ideal is to ensure that the maximum amount of information is gained whilst at the same time retaining the maximum distance in order to ensure researcher objectivity. Which role is adopted would depend on the subject being researched, for example:
There are other possible roles for the observer:
Structured observationStructured observation differs from participant observation in that it is more detached, more systematic, and what is observed often has a more mechanical quality. It is also a quantitative as opposed to a qualitative technique, concerned with quantifying behaviour as opposed to obtaining a rich description. Advantages and disadvantagesParticipant observation is not without its detractors and is seen to have a number of advantages and disadvantages: Advantages
Disadvantages
However, the best way of using participant observation in a useful and responsible way is to triangulate it with other approaches. Applications to management researchParticipant observation is based on the social sciences, particularly social anthropology and on the premise that you go and study a different, and often remote culture. The appeal to management research is that it can study the culture of an organisation in depth. However, in many cases it is simply not practical to immerse oneself for months at a time: the cost would be too great, the organisation may not be willing, and one cannot actually live with the workers. For this reason, time sampling is often adopted, where the times at which observation takes place are carefully selected. Use in market research Participant observation is particularly useful in market research. It is a natural technique as both are concerned with human behaviour. It can be a good method when:
Data collectionObservations should be recorded as far as is possible on the day of the fieldwork, in diary form, and should comprise the following:
Analysing, theorising and writing upAnalysis of unstructured dataWhat distinguishes the analysis of ethnographically generated data is that the research process is inductive and iterative. Unlike the neatly linear trajectory of some other research, when you construct an instrument to prove a theory and do not analyse until you have collected all the data, in ethnographic research data collection and analysis may be simultaneous, while theories are formed on the basis of some data and then tested and refined against further data. This process is known as analytic induction. When you begin to collect data, you will find very soon that you get a lot. This is the time to begin an initial analysis. As you start the coding process, begin to look for groupings, based on frequency and patterns of and in the data. As you refine your coding structure, check your assumptions carefully. Eventually, you will reach a point where you are relatively confident of your coding structure and you can begin to use it as a way of organising your data. There are a number of software packages – NVivo, QSR NUD.IST and The Ethnograph for example – that can help here, or you may prefer to use an ordinary office package such as Word or Excel. Some of the software packages also offer modelling facilities. Whatever method you use, at this stage patterns will begin to emerge from which you will be able to build theory. Analysis of structured dataThe analysis of structured observation data is different in that the coding schedule is established before the start of data collection. In this case you either:
Validity The fact that data are situation specific and not easy to replicate, together with the possibility of observer bias, are threats to validity with unstructured observation. These threats can be dealt with by:
Theory buildingThe literature review is commonly done at the beginning of the research process. But with ethnographic research, it often follows (at least some) data collection and analysis – because it is connected with theory building. In ethnographic research, the researcher is often compared with a journalist researching a story and looking for promising lines of enquiry. As the data are being collected and patterns start to emerge, so may interesting lines of enquiry on which theories can be built. The objective of the theory is not to predict, but to explain, to look for contextual structures and to provide a context for events, conversations and descriptions. You are providing an explanatory framework for the phenomena which you have been observing. As indicated above, once you have formulated a theory you need to check it against the data, and check the data against itself – how valid is it? The theory also needs to be situated in the relevant literature, and have its own theoretical context. Writing upFor a dissertation, you should follow the guidelines of your own university and check out other dissertations which have used similar research techniques. A traditional approach, however, is introduction, literature review, philosophical approach and methodology, findings, analysis, discussion and conclusion. For a journal article, you are best advised to look carefully at other examples of articles written for scholarly journals, particularly ones in which you are thinking of publishing. Ethnographic research allows us to regard and represent the actors as creators as well as executants of their own meanings. The very way in which they tell us about what they do tells the researcher a great deal about what is meaningful for and in the research. It adds richness and texture to the experience of conducting research. Stuart Hannabuss,"Being there: ethnographic research and autobiography", Library Management, Vol. 21 No. 2 In our experience, many editors are particularly pleased to receive submissions that combine qualitative and quantitative research. Find out more about this "mixed methods" approach. Read our guide Help your article gain attention with clever use of search engine optimisation (SEO) at the writing stage. Tips on writing for SEO ProofreadingIn this guide, we explain what you should look for at the proofing stage. Tips on proofreadingTips on proofreading Which research method can be converted into numerical?Quantitative Research is used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics.
What is holistic approach in qualitative research?Holistic perspective -- the whole phenomenon under study is understood as a complex system that is more than the sum of its parts; the focus is on complex interdependencies and system dynamics that cannot be reduced in any meaningful way to linear, cause and effect relationships and/or a few discrete variables.
What is qualitative research in social science?Qualitative research is a form of social action that stresses on the way of people interpret, and. make sense of their experiences to understand the social reality of individuals. It makes the use. of interviews, diaries, journals, classroom observations and immersions; and open-ended.
What data analysis is used to study of a phenomenon to describe the subjective reality of an event?Phenomenology describes the "subjective reality" of an event, as perceived by the study population; it is the study of a phenomenon. Evidence from phenomenological research is derived from first person reports of life experiences.
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