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1 – 10 of 482
Article
Publication date: 11 January 2016

Ciaran B. Trace

The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that researchers in the information disciplines should embrace ethnomethodology as a way of forming deeper insights into the relationship between people and recorded knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper introduces the core concepts of ethnomethodology as a means of articulating what this perspective brings to the understanding of the way that society is accomplished. A selection of key studies are then examined to highlight important ethnomethodological findings about the particular relationship of documents to human actions and interactions.

Findings

Ethnomethodology highlights the fact that people transform their experiences, and the experiences of others, into documents whose status as an objective object help to justify people’s actions and inferences. Documents, as written accounts, also serve to make peoples’ actions meaningful to themselves and to others. At the same time, ethnomethodology draws attention to the fact that any correct reading of these documents relies partly on an understanding of the tacit ideologies that undergird people’s sense-making and that are used in order to make decisions and get work done.

Originality/value

This conceptual framework contributes to the information disciplines by bringing to the fore certain understandings about the social organization of document work, and the attendant social arrangements they reveal. The paper also outlines, from a methodological perspective, how information science researchers can use ethnomethodology as an investigative stance to further their knowledge of the role of documents in everyday life.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 72 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1996

Lucia Ruggerone

The reflections presented in this paper were inspired by a simple consideration: that, although the kind of sociological investigation indicated as ethnomethodology originated as…

Abstract

The reflections presented in this paper were inspired by a simple consideration: that, although the kind of sociological investigation indicated as ethnomethodology originated as a reaction to the institutional sociological establishment, it has eventually become part of it (see Pollner, 1991). Some might quite rightly object that this is hardly surprising; actually, it is the destiny of most revolutionary movements inside and outside the sociological discipline. Moreover, the concern, often emerging from inside the field, that the term ethnomethodology has become no more than a confusing label for a variety of sociological investigations, may seem a pedantic issue of purity caused by the sectarian mentality of insiders.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 February 1993

T.K. Das and David M. Boje

The field of interorganizational studies is not currently known for applying qualitative methodologies with the same enthusiasm as statistically‐based survey techniques. A review…

Abstract

The field of interorganizational studies is not currently known for applying qualitative methodologies with the same enthusiasm as statistically‐based survey techniques. A review of recent developments in qualitative methodologies reveals several techniques which can be fruitfully applied to the study of interorganizational (IO) networks. This paper extends the meaning‐based social definitionist perspective to the study of IO networks, by drawing upon the relevant theoretical aspects of social phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, and ethnomethodology. The social definitionist perspective is concerned with theories and methodologies relevant to the social definition and construction of meaning in multiple actor settings. Such a meaning‐based perspective would facilitate the application of qualitative methodologies to IO networks, in parallel with similar developments in organizational behavior. The paper identifies four specific types of qualitative analyses for IO studies: phenomenological typification, domain analysis, componential analysis, and conversational analysis.

Details

The International Journal of Organizational Analysis, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1055-3185

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1981

N.P. McKeganey and M.J. Bloor

Our concern in this article is with the feeding back of sociological descriptions to those whom these descriptions purport to be about. This in particular is what we mean in our…

Abstract

Our concern in this article is with the feeding back of sociological descriptions to those whom these descriptions purport to be about. This in particular is what we mean in our title by the ‘retrieval of sociological description’. We would like to consider here some of the issues surrounding any attempt on the part of the sociologist to offer his account for inspection by his research respondents, why one may attempt such an exercise and, tentatively, what any such exercise might look like. In particular, we wish to link such ‘feeding back’ of the sociologist's descriptions to the related issue of the validation of social research. Conventionally, validation of sociological research is thought to consist in internal methodological procedures, e.g. triangulation, random allocation, etc., but validation by respondents may represent a feasible alternative to such procedures. By respondent validation is meant here any attempt on the part of the researcher to establish a

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 23 January 2007

Ciaran B. Trace

This article aims to examine a particular sub‐set of human information behavior that has been largely overlooked in the library and information science (LIS) literature; how…

1534

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to examine a particular sub‐set of human information behavior that has been largely overlooked in the library and information science (LIS) literature; how people are socialized to create and use information.

Design/methodology/approach

Naturalism and ethnomethodology were used as theoretical frameworks to examine what a group of fifth grade students were taught about documents, how this information was imparted to them, and how social factors were manifested in the construction and form of those documents. Two concepts are shown to be critical in the explication of students as document creators and users: the notion that there is a “stock of knowledge” that underlies human interaction (some of which relates to recorded information), and that this socialization process forms part of a school's “hidden curriculum.”

Findings

Students were socialized to be good (in the sense of being competent) creators and users of documents. Part of the role of “being a student” involved learning the underlying norms and values that existed in relation to document creation and use, as well as understanding other norms and values of the classroom that were captured or reflected by documents themselves. Understanding “document work” was shown to be a fundamental part of student affiliation; enabling students to move from precompetent to competent members of a school community.

Originality/value

This research demonstrated that people possess a particular stock of knowledge from which they draw when creating and using information. Competence in this aspect of human information behavior, while partly based on one's own experience, is shown to be largely derived or learned from interaction with others.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 63 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1997

Lee D. Parker and Bet H. Roffey

Restates the case for accounting and management research from a grounded theory perspective, and advocates its informed and more frequent application. Examines the intellectual…

4711

Abstract

Restates the case for accounting and management research from a grounded theory perspective, and advocates its informed and more frequent application. Examines the intellectual foundations and key tenets of grounded theory in the context of researchers’ theoretical assumptions and methodological characteristics, discussed in relation to Laughlin’s (1995) classification schema. Pays particular attention to grounded theory assumptions and methods in relation to other interpretive paradigms such as symbolic interactionism, ethnomethodology and hermeneutics. Describes the basic principles and methods of grounded theory research, and presents potential applications to the accounting and management research arenas. Argues that rigorous grounded theory research can offer the accounting and management literatures unique understandings that provide additional perspectives to those already being offered by major schools of thought, and discusses implications of grounded theory for informing contemporary professional practice.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 10 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 March 2020

Devon Gidley

This paper develops a new method to study institutions based on institutional work theory. Institutional disruption is intentionally utilized to explore the taken-for-granted…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper develops a new method to study institutions based on institutional work theory. Institutional disruption is intentionally utilized to explore the taken-for-granted foundations of social institutions. The paper outlines the method and considerations.

Design/methodology/approach

Taking inspiration from ethnomethodological breaches, the paper outlines the steps in the new method called researcher initiated institutional disruption (RIID). The four steps are identifying the institution, identifying the institutional actors, selecting the disruption type and disrupting the institution to gather data (action and reaction). RIID utilizes three types of institutional disruption: undermining assumptions and beliefs, resistance and issue raising.

Findings

The new method complements traditional field methods, such as observation, by showing how a researcher can deliberately make taken-for-granted institutional features visible. The paper finds that RIID offers the opportunity to gather different data, but it is not appropriate for every study and carries potential consequences in the field.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature by outlining an innovative use of theory as method. The approach has not previously been detailed and offers the potential to access previously inaccessible research questions, data and theoretical insights.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 34 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2021

Vassili Joannides De Lautour, Zahirul Hoque and Danture Wickramasinghe

This paper explores how ethnicity is implicated in an etic–emic understanding through day-to-day practices and how such practices meet external accountability demands. Addressing…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores how ethnicity is implicated in an etic–emic understanding through day-to-day practices and how such practices meet external accountability demands. Addressing the broader question of how ethnicity presents in an accounting situation, it examines the mundane level responses to those accountability demands manifesting an operationalisation of the ethnicity of the people who make those responses.

Design/methodology/approach

The study followed ethnomethodology principles whereby one of the researchers acted both as an active member and as a researcher within a Salvation Army congregation in Manchester (UK), while the others acted as post-fieldwork reflectors.

Findings

The conceivers and guardians of an accountability system relating to the Zimbabwean-Mancunian Salvationist congregation see account giving practices as they appear (etic), not as they are thought and interiorised (emic). An etic–emic misunderstanding on both sides occurs in the situation of a practice variation in a formal accountability system. This is due to the collision of one ethnic group's emics with the emics of conceivers. Such day-to-day practices are thus shaped by ethnic orientations of the participants who operationalise the meeting of accountability demands. Hence, while ethnicity is operationalised in emic terms, accounting is seen as an etic construct. Possible variations between etic requirements and emic practices can realise this operationalisation.

Research limitations/implications

The authors’ findings were based on one ethnic group's emic construction of accountability. Further research may extend this to multi-ethnic settings with multiple etic/emic combinations.

Originality/value

This study contributed to the debate on both epistemological and methodological issues in accountability. As it is ill-defined or neglected in the literature, the authors offer a working conceptualisation of ethnicity – an operating cultural unit being implicated in both accounting and accountability.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 34 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2006

Dirk vom Lehn

The purpose of this paper is to argue that social interaction fundamentally underpins how people examine, experience and make sense of museum exhibits. It seeks to reveal how…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to argue that social interaction fundamentally underpins how people examine, experience and make sense of museum exhibits. It seeks to reveal how people collaboratively view and make sense of artwork and other kinds of exhibit, and in particular how the ways of looking at and responding to exhibits arise in social interaction.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis inspects in detail video‐recordings of visitors' conduct and interaction at exhibits. It draws on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis to reveal the social and sequential organisation of people's verbal, visual and bodily action and interaction.

Findings

The study finds that people explore museums and examine exhibits with companions while other visitors act and interact in the same locale. Which exhibits visitors look at and how they see and experience them is influenced by and arises in social interaction with others, be they companions or strangers. People display and share their experience of exhibits with others through verbal and bodily action and interaction.

Research limitations/implications

The findings bear on current debates in marketing research. They suggest that there is a lack of understanding of people's experience of exhibits in museums. They show how video‐based studies can address this gap in marketing research. Further studies are currently being conducted to shed light on the quality of people's experience at the exhibit‐face and how it may be enhanced by the deployment of interpretation resources, such as labels, touch‐screen and handheld systems.

Practical implications

The findings may have some implications for the work of curators, designers and exhibition evaluators. They suggest that social interaction needs to be taken into consideration when designing and deploying exhibits and interpretation resources, such as labels, touch‐screen information kiosks, hand‐held computers, etc.

Originality/value

The paper uses visual/video‐recordings as principal data and illustrates its findings by virtue of visual material. It introduces video‐based field studies as a method to examine cultural and visual consumption in museums. It employs an analytic and methodological framework from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis that previously have found little application in marketing and consumer research.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 40 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 August 2009

Peter Svensson

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of letting ideas from ethnomethodology inform a radicalisation (i.e. going to the roots) of interviewing in management…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities of letting ideas from ethnomethodology inform a radicalisation (i.e. going to the roots) of interviewing in management and organization studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The argument draws upon insights from discourse and conversation analysis, in particular the acknowledgement of the productive function of language use in social life.

Findings

A radicalised approach to interviews is one that tries to abstain from letting the interview talk represent an organizational reality “out there.” The aim of radicalised interviewing is rather that of trying to identify situations and practices within the organization that resemble the interview situation.

Research limitations/implications

Interview research within management and organization studies needs to take into consideration that the relation between interview accounts and organizational reality is one of the re‐creation rather than re‐presentation. This insight has implications for both the interview practice and the analysis of interview material. The challenge for the interviewer is to contribute to an interview situation that enables the re‐creation of organizational reality.

Practical implications

The practice of interviewing in business practice offers the same kind of problems as the research interview, and thus needs to take into consideration the re‐creational nature of the interview situation.

Originality/value

The paper attempts to complete the linguistic turn and explore the radical consequences for the practice of interviewing. Doing so, the paper contributes to the self‐reflexive methodological debate in a way that tries to avoid pragmatic and inconsistent argumentation.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 4 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

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