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

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION–––––––––– 161reliable hearsay, that at least some of these accusations were valid. Consequently, I found myselfstruggling to decide whether my personal commitment not to interfere with the ‘naturalcourse’ of events should override what might be regarded as my moral obligation to complainabout life-threatening activities or, where necessary, report them to the police.Mercifully, the negative publicity associated with these activities discouraged their furtheruse and thus rescued me from a dilemma I was finding practically impossible to resolve. Nonethe less, this example emphasizes Taylor and Bogdan’s assertion that ‘one is not absolved ofmoral and ethical responsibility for one’s actions or inactions merely because one is conductingresearch. To act or fail to act is to make an ethical and political choice’ (1984: 71).The possible risk of physical danger has been rigorously illustrated by commentators likeArmstrong (1993), Punch (1998) and Angrosino and de Perez (2000), who cataloguenumerous instances where researchers have found themselves threatened with violence, beatenup, arrested, stalked, harassed, and even raped while in the field.There were numerous times during the strike when I could easily have been arrested,especially during picket-line mêlées, or when my personal safety was jeopardized. Once, forexample, I was almost beaten up by Ansells pickets who suspected me of working for theSpecial Branch! This improbable development was the direct result of a Daily Mail article of21 April 1981 which established that the Special Branch had been brought in to investigate‘an extreme left-wing terror campaign against pub managers and their families’, allegedlyperpetrated by ‘Trotskyist hard men’ who had recently infiltrated the strike. This representeda scurrilous attempt to attribute the strike violence to the influence of two Workers’ Poweractivists (a slight, bespectacled man and a silver-haired woman) who had been distributingleaflets urging the strikers to form ‘defence squads’ against the police. Nevertheless, somestrikers took the Mail’s disclosure seriously and, shortly after the article appeared, I was seizedand interrogated by three burly draymen who knew me only as a stranger. It was only afterI had received a blow to the ear that two familiar pickets returned from the local fast-foodrestaurant to vouch for my identity and spare me from further injury.One common criticism of participant observation is that people are likely to react to theresearcher being present by engaging in untypical or extreme forms of behaviour. My ownexperience suggests that any exhibitionistic or unusual forms of behaviour excited by theresearcher’s arrival tend progressively to disappear the longer he or she remains part of theresearch setting. Nevertheless, I did find it extremely difficult to maintain a passive role in sucha politically volatile and dynamic environment. This difficulty is best illustrated by theoutcome of our week spent picketing Ind Coope’s Romford brewery – a sobering episodein which we tried, unsuccessfully, to obstruct the delivery of essential supplies. When wereturned to Birmingham, my erstwhile colleagues grossly exaggerated our achievements,having already appealed to me not to say anything which might contradict their story andthereby undermine rank-and-file morale.Afterwards, I rationalized my part in this ‘conspiracy’ by convincing myself that it was theleast obtrusive and contaminatory of all the available options. Much closer to the truth wasthe fact that I very much wanted the Ansells workers to succeed in their action and wouldnot have said or done anything to weaken their commitment. In taking me for someone whowas relatively detached from the strike, pickets often asked me for my prognosis of theoutcome. Privately, I considered it extremely unlikely that the strikers could effectively resistsuch a powerful and well-prepared adversary as their multinational parent company; but thisview was something I never publicly conceded.