Organisational autoethnography

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to review and organise the autoethnography literature: to explore the obstacles of and opportunities for autoethnography in organisation research; to support PhD students and supervisors who have chosen this methodological route to more clearly define their autoethnographic positions and choices; and to propose new research directions for organisational autoethnography.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors critically summarise autoethnography as a contemporary approach to organisational ethnography by looking back, looking at the present, and looking to the future. The authors briefly consider the historical and disciplinary development – and vehement critique – of autoethnography, trace its shifting epistemological positions and introduce three emergent “possibilities” of organisation autoethnography.

Findings

The authors highlight how autoethnography can tell stories otherwise silenced; exploring the mundane, ignored and distorted in current academic life, past and other work experiences, working with others through collaborative or co‐produced autoethnography in exciting new organisational contexts.

Originality/value

This paper is one of the first attempts to review autoethnography as a contemporary approach to organisation autoethnography.

Citation

Doloriert, C. and Sambrook, S. (2012), "Organisational autoethnography", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 1 No. 1, pp. 83-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/20466741211220688