essential-guide-to-qualitative-in-organizational-research

158 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––own experience as a participant observer, it is first necessary to provide a brief overview ofthe dispute.The strike was precipitated when management disciplined a group of production workersfor allegedly engaging in action calculated to disrupt the smooth running of a four-dayworking week which Ansells had recently imposed due to slack consumer demand. Threeweeks into the strike, management delivered an ultimatum that, unless the employees agreedto accept a package of redundancies and revised working practices as the basis for animmediate return to work, they would be dismissed for breach of contract and the brewerywould be permanently closed. Far from intimidating the workers, management’s threatmerely hardened their determination to win. A long battle of attrition followed, involvingthe ‘secondary picketing’ of other production units belonging to Ansells’s parent company,Allied Breweries. Ultimately, the strike was defeated and the brewery stayed shut. Theseemingly half-hearted support provided to the strikers by their union, the Transport andGeneral Workers’ Union (TGWU), provoked accusations of cowardice and betrayal by thedisillusioned brewery men.Fortunately for me, Ansells brewery was located a mere two miles away from AstonUniversity, where I was conducting my doctoral research. In the strike’s early stages, picketingwas confined to the brewery. These factors were obviously advantageous and encouraged meto try to gain access. My first, nerve-wracking encounter with Ansells’ pickets occurred whenthe strike was only a few days’ old. Much to my relief, however, the pickets wereoverwhelmingly receptive towards my stated intention of exploring the ‘feelings andexperience of workers who were out on strike’.Subsequently, I obtained the endorsement of branch officials, who told me that, while theywere generally happy to lend their cooperation, they were only prepared to do so on conditionthat I promise not to ‘interfere’ in any activities or pass on information to other interestedparties, such as management or the local press. Once I accepted these conditions, the branchsecretary wrote out a letter, encouraging all members to support me wherever possible.At the outset of the strike, I had no preconceived research strategy, other than a vaguelydefined intention to administer some sort of attitude survey to a representative sample ofthe workforce. On entering the field, I quickly realized that such a preformulated approachwould be incapable of probing the rich but often transitory layers of meanings underlyingthe strikers’ actions. I soon found myself mesmerized by the ceaselessly unfolding activitiesof the strike and the corresponding attempts to interpret them. On the day I first arrived,most strikers I talked to confidently predicted that the dispute would be settled within aweek. Ansells then threatened to close the brewery and, suddenly, every picket I met wasadamant that management was out to smash their trade union organization and that thestrike would drag on for months. I therefore realized that, in order fully to understand thestrikers’ beliefs and motives, it was imperative that I immerse myself in the distinctiveculture of the participants and witness first-hand the manufacture and transmission of theirideas.Consequently, I spent most of my research activity attending picket lines, mass meetingsand policy-discussions, and accompanying the strikers on flying-picketing and intelligencegatheringmanoeuvres. The objectives of such missions were to trace the suppliers of ‘scabbeer’ or deter the delivery of essential brewing ingredients like sugar and carbon dioxide. Dueto the long distances travelled, it was sometimes necessary to sleep rough on hostel floors orthe back seats of cars, or spend whole nights walking rainswept streets.