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This chapter focuses on the ethnographic research approach that I employed in a service marketing study. The first part briefly describes ethnography’s key characteristics, that is, emergent research logic, prolonged fieldwork, and multiple modes of data collection, where the main method is observation. The second part discusses the data collection methods: participant observation, informal discussion, interview, and document analysis. This section describes in detail how these techniques were used in practice and highlights the key challenges I faced, especially related to the observations, and how I managed these challenges. The third part describes the case, field setting, informants, and field relationships. The development project that I studied concerned a bank’s website and project members from the bank and different consultant agencies represent the study’s informants. The fieldwork lasted for about one year and covered the entire development process from the initial stages to the launch, and some time after. The chapter ends with a thorough discussion about the research criteria of validity, reliability, and generality, and the coping tactics that I used in this study to enhance these. Prolonged fieldwork, multiple modes of data collection, reflexivity, and specification of the research are among those important tactics that this last section discusses in detail.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the myths and challenges in the field of organizational ethnography and methodological angst.

This paper is initially written as an invited keynote address for the 3rd Annual Joint Symposium on “Current Developments in Ethnographic Research in the Social and Management Sciences” (University of Liverpool Management School and Keele University Institute for Public Policy and Management, Liverpool, September 3‐5, 2008). It explores what might be distinctive about organizational ethnography and how that might be different from “anthropological” ethnography. In particular, it engages a kind of collective methodological performance anxiety among organizational studies scholars without formal training in anthropology who do ethnographic research.

The paper argues that it is time to be explicit about a variety of forms of professional angst that many ethnographic researchers within organizational studies carry which have not been discussed.

The paper is of value to those willing to consider the myths and challenges that need engaging and perhaps uprooting and casting off.

Libraries are closing or reducing opening hours in the UK due to budgetary cuts. Library provision for children is consequently diminishing and libraries have to justify their existence. Therefore a reliable methodology for assessing the importance of libraries is vital to demonstrate their value to children’s literacy. Two methodologies were combined to study children visiting children’s mobile libraries (CMLs). The purpose of this paper is to consider whether the combined, qualitative methodology was the correct choice.

Aspects of each methodology are examined for their appropriateness for researching children. The compatibility of their philosophical stance and the validity of combining ethnography and grounded theory is explored and questioned.

It is found that grounded theory and ethnography were the optimum combination to form a powerful research tool that allows children to be active participants in research. The combined methodology was successful because the ethnographic elements allowed the researcher to enter to the children’s world, whereas the grounded theory elements provided a structural framework, exploration into a novel research topic and ensured that a valid conclusion was drawn.

It is unusual for qualitative methodologies such as grounded theory and ethnography to be combined in order to study learning in a non-pedagogic, library environment. This paper is valuable reading for librarians, or educationalists wishing to examine how libraries aid literacy because it verifies the benefits of the combined methodology of grounded theory and ethnography and provides a template which can be used by other researchers.

The purpose of the paper is to propose a shift from the ideal of immersion to a practice of “committed localism” in the ethnographic study of relational work in the post-bureaucratic and service-based economy.

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork following management consultancy projects in a hospital and a manufacturing company in Denmark. The approach was predicated on committed attention to the everyday of consultancy work activities and associated relational dynamics. This involved being present at the client sites, observing and listening in concrete situations of interaction and engaging in conversations with the multiple actors involved, both external consultants and members of client organisations.

The paper shows how “committed localism” was practiced in the ethnographic study of management consultancy as it is relationally accomplished in and through concrete situations of interaction between consultants and different actors in client organizations and the associated meaning production of the involved actors.

The paper develops the notion of “committed localism”, originally introduced by George Marcus, into a methodological concept to challenge the conventional ideal of immersion as the hallmark of “proper” ethnography. Such a shift is particularly pertinent for the ethnographic study of relational processes involving multiple actors occupying different positions in the temporary social spaces of contemporary workplaces.

This paper reports on a study conducted to develop a framework for evaluating the retrieval features using an applied ethnographic method. Direct observation, interviews, analysis of notes, and informal social interaction were done with ten users on their application of the retrieval features and their difficulties in searching. Retrieval features evaluated were those offered by 12 database providers. Findings revealed that the proposed framework successfully gathered the data needed. Application of the features was related to users' retrieval tasks, preference and style of searching, and understanding of the features. Difficulties were related to identification of the appropriate search terms. Expected retrieval features were related to search terms, i.e. relevance feedback, list of similar terms, and assigning values to search terms. Applied ethnographic method used in this study revealed that users have a substantial amount of knowledge about the retrieval features, and that their comments were related to their subject background.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a research methodology that was used to identify dominant socio‐cultural discourse using a feminist post‐structural lens.

Based on a literature‐based study focusing on research methodology and theoretical frameworks, the conduct of an ethnographic case study is described in detail. A discussion of the reporting and analysis of the data is also included.

The study indicates that using an ethnographic case study approach is a very effective tool for identifying dominant socio‐cultural discourses. This in turn can lead to greater emancipation for women through discourse analysis and re‐positioning.

This paper presents a focused literature study and contains a description of an effective research methodology for specific purposes. It may be of use to others interested in conducting similar types of research.

The study indicates that using unstructured interviews and a narrative reporting technique is a valuable way to collect data about socio‐cultural discourses in an Arabic context. The importance of the position, power, and reflexivity of the interviewer is also explored. In addition, the study suggests that successful feminist movements should be gradual and should take into account societal discourses to allow women to gain emancipatory action through re‐positioning themselves within their societal discourses.

The paper is one of the few attempting to describe an ethnographic case study approach with a feminist, post‐structuralist view in an Arab context.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect upon the role of intervention‐oriented scientists in the process of organisation development. The paper seeks to contribute to the growing interest in design studies for organisation development and argues that a focus on reflexivity is missing in current debate. The aim of the paper to develop critical reflexiveness for organization design studies by introducing the ethnoventionist approach.

The paper discusses the ideal forms of clinical inquiry, participative action research, ethnography, and the ethnoventionist approach. The ethnoventionist approach is described by its central aspects: a focus on reflexivity, a management (but not managerialist) orientation, commitment to obtaining a deep understanding, connecting the multi‐layered context, and studying in pre‐arranged longitudinal intervals.

The ethnoventionist approach uses organisational ethnographies to facilitate intervention strategies intended to improve organisations. An example of such an approach in the design of new collaborative practices in the Dutch construction sector is drawn on.

The essence of the ethnoventionist approach is to obtain a deeper understanding of organisational change. The ethnoventionist approach helps to overcome a lack of attention to management in current ethnographic bodies of knowledge and to deepen existing management approaches to change dynamics. Ethnoventionist approaches can be very useful for intervention‐oriented studies of change processes which require high levels of engagement and which produce high‐quality ethnographic data.

This paper explores a new research approach that has not been discussed previously.

Well into the 21st century, it is difficult to deny the contribution that Mayan culture has made to the history of the world, and not only because of its contribution to universal culture with its architecture, astronomy and mathematics. Understanding the management practices of a Mayan dance (the dance of the Pochó) that has transcended over the years can give us an idea of the management practices carried out by an ancestral culture such as the Maya. The purpose of this article is to establish an initial conceptual relationship between the management process proposed by Henry Fayol (1916) and the management of a Mayan dance that has survived to the present day.

A specific ethnographic study was carried out in the municipality of Tenosique, Tabasco (Mexico) for two consecutive years. Research methods such as direct observation, researcher diaries, in-depth interviews and photographs were utilized that allowed a study of management practices.

Thanks to the cross-checking of the data obtained, it was possible to determine a theoretical-conceptual relationship between Fayol's management process and the Mayan dance studied. In fact, 12 specific management practices found in the four phases of the process were identified. In addition, with the ethnographic study it was possible to determine the levels of intensity and impact regarding the satisfaction of those attending and performing the dance.

Research limitations are due to result from the fact that the analysis corresponds to a single Mayan dance in a specific place (Tenosique) in the state of Tabasco, Mexico.

To understand the management practices of the Mayan culture through the study of a dance that has remained alive until our days; this might be useful for the management practices of today's companies.

It is a pioneering study that analyzes a Mayan dance through the optics of management sciences.

Ethnography is a qualitative, naturalistic research method derived from the anthropological tradition. Ethnography uses participant observation supplemented by other research methods to gain holistic understandings of cultural groups’ beliefs and behaviors. Ethnography contributes to bioethics by: (1) locating bioethical dilemmas in their social, political, economic, and ideological contexts; (2) explicating the beliefs and behaviors of involved individuals; (3) making tacit knowledge explicit; (4) highlighting differences between ideal norms and actual behaviors; (5) identifying previously unrecognized phenomena; and (6) generating new questions for research. More comparative and longitudinal ethnographic research can contribute to better understanding of and responses to bioethical dilemmas.