A Comprehensive Guide to Ethnographic Research for PhD Scholars in Industrial and Organisational Settings
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Ethnographic Research
- Safety as a Collective Competency in Industrial Workplaces
- Understanding Identity and Change in Post-Industrial Neighbourhoods
- The Role of Technology in Shaping Workplace Culture
- Inequalities and Disclosure in the Workplace
- The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Culture
- Digital Tools for Researching Workplace Learning
- Conclusion
- References
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Introduction
The ethnographic research methods have established themselves as important to investigate culture, social interactions, and social relations in various organisational ethnography research contexts. Through ethnography, researchers can gain insight into the employee, manager, and community experiences. For sociology, anthropology, and organisational studies PhD researchers, ethnography is a method through which they can understand complex social structures, workplace culture, and decision-making processes in real-world settings.
This article reviews significant ethnographies studying workplace culture and social relations in industrial settings, offering concrete examples and descriptions of key components of Ethnography in educational research for PhD Scholars. We will draw on recent studies about safety practices, workplace inequalities, technology implementation, and the impacts of COVID-19.
1. Safety as a Collective Competency in Industrial Workplaces
Biermann-Teuscher and colleagues (2024) performed an ethnographic industrial research study on safety practices (a Dutch industrial organisation). This study provides a valuable contribution to a rich and critical understanding of safety as a collective capability. Ethnographers spent time within the organisation observing employees, managers, and safety professionals to understand how safety behaviours and information were socially produced and acted upon. The study indicated that safety was more than simply guidelines or rules to be acted upon in a moment; safety was a culture of shared values in the workplace.
Example:
In the Netherlands, employees displayed informal safety rituals, including safety meetings before each shift and constant peer monitoring of one another’s work safety-related. These informal rituals were essential to maintaining a safety-oriented work culture.
Tips for PhD Researchers:
- When researching safety or any Organizational Ethnography research issues, make sure you explore informal practices that aren’t always apparent, and observe how employees perform safety through everyday rituals, peer interactions, and group norms.
- Utilise participant observation techniques to become more engaged in these rituals and note the subtleties that formal surveys or interviews would not capture.
2. Understanding Identity and Change in Post-Industrial Neighbourhoods
Polukhina (2022) engaged in an ethnographic study of Russian post-industrial neighbourhoods to consider how identities are formed in communities moving away from an industrial means of production. The study illustrates how personal self-concept and collective identity adapt as industrial work disappears, and new forms of labour and social networks emerge.
Example:
In post-Soviet Russia, former factory workers in the city of Ivanovo struggled with their identities after the local textile factories shut down. Community gatherings and storytelling sessions were found to be crucial in maintaining a sense of belonging and social cohesion among displaced workers. This ethnographic study is an example of Organizational Ethnography research, as it highlights the social dynamics and identity changes that occur when an industry is dismantled and replaced by new social structures.
Tips for PhD Researchers:
- Consider and note the implications of ethnographic industrial research for understanding memory, identity, and economic change. Consider as well the link between economic or industrial change and identity, and social and cultural identity alongside material conditions.
- Seek out localised narratives and practices of local communities that maintain an identity even after the industry has changed or closed.
3. The Role of Technology in Shaping Workplace Culture
Barker & Jewitt (2022) conducted an ethnographic examination of industrial robots, framed through the concept of workplace culture. For this study, the authors focused on what the workers’ understandings were of the role of technology in their everyday work. The study specifically investigated the role of industrial robots being used for the purposes of manufacturing.
Example:
At a particular auto-manufacturing plant, workers went through varying degrees of feelings from fear of losing their jobs to intrigue at the notion of automation. A number of the workers explicated seeing the robots as “partners” in the projects of productivity, whereas others expressed a feeling of being increasingly marginalised by the now highly automated environment. The study concluded that physicality and the human experience of touching and engaging machines were at the core of the workers’ experience.
Tip for PhD Researchers:
In workplaces undergoing technological change, ethnographic studies can reveal the emotional and cultural impact of technology on workers. Pay attention to how workers perceive technology, both in terms of productivity and its potential to disrupt social bonds.
4. Inequalities and Disclosure in the Workplace
Rivera (2023) sheds light on workplace inequalities and reveals how ethnographic approaches can unveil the concealed social and power relations within organisations. The research pointed out that race, gender, and class have a significant impact on career development and work situations.
Example:
In a company office, a research pointed out that even though the qualifications of both men and women were exactly the same, women were usually assigned to do administrative tasks and provide clerical support while men were offered chances to lead. The research brought out that informal power networks (e.g., hanging out after work) were the main reason why people got ahead in their careers and so these networks were creating gendered inequalities as a consequence.
Tip for PhD Researchers:
Extend the boundaries of the traditional approaches in the study of workplace power dynamics by using ethnographic methods to identify informal networks (like social events or unwritten rules) that contribute to structural inequalities.
5. The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Workplace Culture
The ethnographic investigation conducted by McCallon (2023) presents the now ubiquitous presence of the currents of COVID-19 and the recession in the longitudinal study of workplace norms and culture. The paper portrays the metamorphosis of the work settings, as a result, employees going from in-office work through remote and hybrid setups, which in turn altered social interactions and team dynamics.
Example:
During the cutoff of the pandemic, a worldwide company’s workers reported feeling as if they were cut off from the rest of the world, and a large number of them could not cope with the situation without the usual in-person interactions. Some employees felt they could fly in the new world of working remotely, while others went down the path of losing their work-life balance and, eventually, becoming isolated from their respective teams.
Tip for PhD Researchers:
The post-COVID workplace has become a very promising and rich source of data for ethnographic studies. Research to find out how such things as remote work, flexible hours, and digital tools have impacted workplace culture and affected team dynamics.
6. Digital Tools for Researching Workplace Learning
In Lemmetty et al. (2022), the authors centre on digital tools and virtual ethnography to research workplace learning. The article is structured to demonstrate the advantages of the use of digital technologies in studying community and organisational learning despite not being physically present– providing a mechanism for researchers to collect data across a multitude of contexts.
Example:
A study was conducted at an online education company in which the researchers used digital ethnography to explore employee learning behaviors and professional learning in real time. They analyzed data from employee interactions and learning management systems linked with their practices of engaging with training resources.
Tip for PhD Researchers:
If researching workplace learning or organisational training, consider the power of using virtual ethnography and digital tools (e.g., learning management systems). They place you in the informal and formal contexts to observe the learning behaviours of employees.
Table.1: Key Components of Virtual Ethnography and Digital Tools in Workplace Learning
Aspect | Description |
Methodology | Virtual ethnography combined with digital tools |
Digital Tools Used | Subjective cameras, screen recording, and collaboration platforms |
Focus | Workplace learning as a communal and practice-based phenomenon |
Case Examples | 1) Informal learning in virtual environments |
Benefits | Captures real-time interactions, enhances authenticity, supports remote research |
Challenges | Ethical concerns, data privacy, technical limitations |
Conclusion
An ethnographic research method that allows for investigating the social dynamics, cultural practices, and interpersonal relationships in an industry and an organisation thoroughly. These methods in ethnography, however, are not only used for the ethnographic research for PhD scholars, but they also provide a big advantage in studying the workplace culture, decision-making, inequality, and technological integration in organisations. By informal practices, social identities, and power dynamics, researchers can obtain insights that traditional quantitative methods may overlook.
References
- Barker, N., & Jewitt, C. (2022). Filtering touch: An ethnography of dirt, danger, and industrial robots. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 51(1), 103-130.
- Biermann-Teuscher, D., Thissen, L., Horstman, K., & Meershoek, A. (2024). Safety: A collective and embedded competency. An ethnographic study of safety practices at an industrial workplace in the Netherlands. Journal of Safety Research, 88, 93-102.
- Lemmetty, S., Collin, K., Glăveanu, V., & Paloniemi, S. (2022). Capturing actions of communities: Towards virtual ethnography and digital tools in researching organisations and workplace learning. In Methods for researching professional learning and development: Challenges, applications and empirical illustrations (pp. 397-418). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
- Larsen, B. R. (2024). A state within reach? An ethnographic case study on the relocation of a government workplace from Copenhagen to a small town in rural Denmark. Journal of Rural Studies, 106, 103218.
- McCallon, K. J. (2023). The new workplace normal and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative ethnographic study. Northcentral University.
- Polukhina, E. (2022). Ethnographic case-study design for discovering identities in Russian post-industrial neighbourhoods. The Qualitative Report, 27(5), 1221-1238.
- Rivera, L. A. (2023). Beyond the company line: Studying workplace inequalities ethnographically. In Ethnographies of Work (pp. 183-195). Emerald Publishing Limited.
- Tomas, V., Ahmed, H., & Lindsay, S. (2022). Unravelling the complexities of workplace disclosure among persons with non-visible disabilities and illnesses: A qualitative meta-ethnography. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation, 32(3), 538-563.