Organisational ethnography as a project of unease

Abstract

PurposeThe article examines situations of unease during ethnographic fieldwork with migration control agents in Sweden, Denmark and Germany. It shows how these “tests” are both methodologically challenging and analytically valuable, and how they need to be addressed properly. The article concludes a special issue on “passing the test in organisational ethnography”.Design/methodology/approachThe article is based on ethnographic research with migration control agents, carried out by both authors in Denmark and Sweden (Annika) and Germany (Tobias). However, rather than presenting the main results from this research, the article focuses on the tests encountered during the research.FindingsThe article has two main findings. First, it provides an open typology of tests. Second, it proposes four ways in which ethnographers could address these tests: acknowledging them methodologically, working through them personally and collectively, unpacking them analytically and preparing others in teaching and peer-feedback.Research limitations/implicationsThe article encourages ethnographers to engage reflexively with fieldwork challenges, and provides a framework for doing so.Originality/valueThe article presents contributes to the current debate on organisational ethnography with recommendations of how to engage with tests in ethnographic fieldwork.

Rethinking Elite Interviews Through Moments of Discomfort: The Role of Information and Power

“…Through our focus on the researcher’s relationships with potential and actual research participants during moments of discomfort, our article contributes to the growing body of research on how researchers should understand and prepare for interviews with elites. We believe that moments of discomfort are analytically informative especially in the study of sensitive or politicized topics (Lindberg & Eule, 2020; Lancaster, 2017). Our analysis on power and information has mainly treated the issues of recruitment and interaction.…”

“…Fujii (2015), can allow deeper understandings of the social and political world, in which the interviewees and researcher are embedded. Similarly, we see moments of discomfort as opportunities for knowledge production that allow a careful consideration of the ethics and politics of the research process (The Critical Methodologies Collective, 2022; Lindberg & Eule, 2020;Tomkinson, 2015a). Following this call, we interrogate moments of discomfort that arose during the first author's doctoral fieldwork on governmental elites who worked on Cameroonian diaspora policy.…”

“…Based on fieldwork that centered around conducting interviews with government officials working on diaspora policy in Cameroon, we build on this critical literature and argue for a dynamic conception of power and information in elite interviews. We suggest that researchers can glimpse the dynamic nature of power and information elites hold in moments of discomfort (The Critical Methodologies Collective, 2022; Lindberg & Eule, 2020), which arise during recruitment of and social interaction with policy and political officials. We present examples from these moments that illustrate elite interviews as fluid relationships of knowledge production that are shaped by shifting power and information dynamics.…”

Effect of stress on safety‐critical behaviour: An examination of combined resilience engineering and naturalistic decision‐making approaches

“…One of the challenges of ethnographic research is getting access to a working environment to undertake fieldwork. When a researcher enters the field, developing a trusting relationship with participants might be challenging if the researcher is an 'outsider' (Lindberg & Eule, 2020; Lopez‐Dicastillo & Belintxon, 2014). One coauthor has completed more than 30 years’ service in a UK police force.…”

The chimera of time: Exploring the functional properties of an emergency response room in action

“…As an ethnographer in the 2nd line ER context, the first author of this paper was spending her sabbatical year in OFFB to conduct field research on resilience in emergency management. Conducting ethnographic research has its own challenges (Lindberg & Eule, 2020;Yanow, 2012). Unwritten and unvoiced, without a single word, the ethnographic researcher, almost always hears a voice, to remind him/her of being an "outsider," from an academic world, theorizing on reality when attaining an operation without understanding conducts an organizational ethnography should have "[…] a good grasp of the sociological, anthropological, psychological and methodological thinking which has informed the study of organisations so far."…”