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

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––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ETHNOGRAPHY –––––––––– 315ESRC-funded research assistant. This fact is interesting for two reasons. It was an earlyexample in British sociology of multiple researcher ethnography, something that was morecommon at the time in social anthropology; secondly, it gave a high profile to gender andsectarianism within the organization, both highly controversial issues for the RUC (the resultsare discussed in Brewer, 1990, 1991; Magee, 1991). It is impossible here to accent all featuresof the research design but some points are worth consideration.The research was overt, thus access was negotiated and permission obtained from thegatekeeper, the Chief Constable. Hornsby-Smith (1993: 53) makes a useful distinctionbetween ‘open’ and ‘closed’ access, the latter involving fields where controls are likely to beimposed and barriers erected. Anticipating the RUC to exemplify the latter, it was essentialbeforehand that attention be given to what the gatekeeper thought sensitive, so the researchwas presented to him in such a way that permission might be granted. This strategy involvedan important ethical compromise, for the interests of the gatekeeper were allowed to affectthe conduct of the research, although the ethical problems around covert ethnography are justas great (see Bulmer, 1982). But there are different levels of gatekeeping and once in the fieldinformal gatekeepers tried to restrict the access given on their behalf by the head. Thepermission of the chief constable was a disadvantage in the field because it raised doubts inthe minds of people lower down in the organization about why the management had agreedto the research (for similar experiences in police organizations see Fox and Lundman, 1974).Retrenchment from below in organizational research is as much a problem as limitations fromabove.The selection of cases and planning for the possibility of empirical generalizations to otherpolice organizations also needed careful thought before entry into the field (see also Hartley,Chapter 26, this volume). Stake (1998: 88–9) identifies three kinds of case study. The intrinsiccase studies address one instance (perhaps the only instance) of the phenomenon; collectivecase studies focus on several instances of the same phenomenon to identify commoncharacteristics; while instrumental case studies focus on the phenomenon because it facilitatesunderstanding of something else. Collective cases permit empirical generalizations;instrumental cases theoretical inferences. Empirical generalizations involve application of thedata to a wider population and there are two ways this can be done ethnographically. It ispossible to design the project as a series of parallel ethnographic studies with different casesor with the same case in different fields, perhaps using multiple researchers (for example seeBrewer et al., 1997), or to design the single project in the mould of similar ones in differentfields so that comparisons can be made across them and a body of cumulative knowledge builtup. This option was adopted in the study of the RUC. The project was designed deliberatelyto follow the pattern of ethnographic studies of police organizations in socially homogeneoussocieties without communal conflict so as to add to this cumulative knowledge the dimensionof studying a police organization in a divided society. This allowed us to explore the impactof civil unrest in routine police work.Effective sampling of cases is critical to the aspiration to engage in empirical generalizations.To sample means to select the case or cases for study from the basic unit of study when it isimpossible to cover all instances of that unit. In some cases it is possible to cover all instancesof the unit and sampling is unnecessary – this is possible when the unit of study is a specificorganization interesting in its own right. But where there are many instances or where theambition is to engage in empirical generalizations, sampling becomes necessary. The RUCresearch involved what Glaser and Strauss (1967) call ‘theoretical sampling’, in which an
316 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––optimal case is selected as the fieldwork site where the processes being explored can beexpected to happen. With our intent to study the way in which police work was affected bycommunal conflict, in order to link up with those studies on routine police work in policeorganizations operating in socially homogeneous settings, we needed to select a site whereroutine policing took place. ‘Easton’ was selected as a police station purposely because it wasin an area of Belfast where routine policing was possible. Sampling of cases was not the onlyconsideration, for we needed to sample by time and event (on sampling in ethnography seeBurgess, 1984: 61ff). The time frame spent in the field and the events and people encounteredin the organization needed to be representative of the organization: too little time and theevents and people encountered can be abnormal and unusual. We asked police officers tocomplete time budget diaries to determine our sampling of the time to spend in the field andwe initially restricted the fieldworker’s contact to a few hours a shift once a week, graduallybuilding up to a full shift, including nights, twice a week for a whole year. This was done notonly to ensure a representative cross section of people and events in the organization but alsoto facilitate the development of a fieldwork role for the researcher in which rapport could beestablished.Ethnographers are viewed differently as a relationship is built up and trust developed. Thisbond of trust is premised on the same qualities people bring to all social relationships –honesty, friendliness, reciprocity, openness, communication and confidence building. Trustis rarely instantaneous and normally builds slowly. The RUC fieldwork shows that it is alsosometimes not a one-shot process: trust continually needs to be worked at and reassurancesgiven. Over a 12-month period in the field, a fieldworker’s persistent inquisitiveness is boundto become something of an irritant, and van Maanen (1982: 111) warns that ethnographersmust not expect to be liked by everyone. But leaving aside moments of irritation, mostinformants in the organization became confident enough of Magee’s presence to express whatwere widely held fears about the research, mostly by humour but once by anger. Toward theend of a long and tiring night shift, when news was coming through of the murder of anothermember of the RUC, one policeman in particular decided to put the fieldworker through agruelling test of trust that was something like a rite of passage that she needed to pass beforeshe could be trusted (outlined in Brewer, 1991: 21–4 and discussed further in Brewer,2000: 86–7).Getting people to talk to you when trust has not been established is difficult; it is so evenwhen this bond has been established. The problem can be compounded where people in theorganization are suspicious of the management’s motives in permitting access. People can bereluctant to talk to ethnographers and avoid one-to-one contact (see Westley, 1970 for hisexperiences in a police organization in the USA). In this case it is necessary to hang aroundlong enough to force people to talk. With respect to the RUC, we used those naturallyoccurring moments when sensitive topics came up in conversation naturally or could beartfully manufactured to appear as if casual by use of props. We used as props artefacts likeevents seen on the television the night before or as they appeared on screen in the televisionroom of the station, things read about in the daily newspapers and relayed by computer as theyhappened in police stations elsewhere. Our experience shows that recording data when peopledo talk needs to be handled sensitively too. The ethnographer’s conventional notepad can beobtrusive, yet when the time in the field is extensive it is impossible to do without this aid.To recall events in detail in the evening or when in private is difficult and results in generalimpressions. Sometimes a tape recorder or video camera can be used to record data but these
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ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO QUALITATIVE METH
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This book is dedicated to our child
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viii ---------- CONTENTS ----------
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Notes on ContributorsJohn Benington
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AcknowledgementsIt has been 10 year
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2 ---------- QUALITATIVE METHODS IN
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10 ---------- QUALITATIVE METHODS I
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4 ---- Life Histories -------------
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8 ---- The Twenty Statements Test -
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9 ---- Qualitative Research Diaries
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tended to get shovedin the backgrou
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10 ---- Stories in Organizational R
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12 ---- Group Methods of Organizati
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15 ---- Critical Research and Analy
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18 ---- Talk-in-interaction/convers
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20 ---- Grounded Theory in Organiza
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Quote Code in open coding Concept T
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Table 20.2 Examples of open coding,
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Table 20.3Collective stressors and
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21 ---- Using Templates in the Them
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30 ---- The Future Conference -----
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