Participant Observation: A Model for Organizational Investigation?

Participant observation, in which research is carried out through the direct participation of the researcher in the situation of interest, is a method of considerable interest to managerial psychologists, and others such as staff officers and other employees who carry out a similar role. Unfortunately it, and qualitative methodology as a whole, of which participant observation is a sub‐species, are approaches which are widely denigrated in the literature. This is unjust, since the method is not without its rigours, and the alternative, complementary and more highly regarded quantitative approach is not without its flaws, some of them fatal. Gives examples where participant observation is likely to be the only viable method of eliciting information, and there may be a significant public interest in such cases. There are ethical objections to covert participant observation, but even this has its valid applications. Participant observation should achieve its rightful place as a major research method with div...

[1]  Bob Laughlin,et al.  Accounting for Waste or Garbage Accounting: Some Thoughts from Non‐accountants , 1991 .

[2]  J. Gill,et al.  Research Methods For Managers , 1991 .

[3]  A. Strauss,et al.  Discovery of Substantive Theory: A Basic Strategy Underlying Qualitative Research , 1965 .

[4]  Alfred P. Sloan,et al.  My years with General Motors , 1964 .

[5]  D. Zimmerman,et al.  The Diary , 1977 .

[6]  Martin Bulmer Social Research Ethics , 1982 .

[7]  A. Kakabadse,et al.  UNCONVENTIONAL PRACTICES AT WORK: INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS THROUGH PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION , 1992 .

[8]  A. Buono The human side of mergers and acquisitions , 1989 .

[9]  Jason Ditton,et al.  Part-Time Crime: An Ethnography of Fiddling and Pilferage , 1977 .

[10]  Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt,et al.  Action Research in Higher Education: Examples and Reflections. , 1992 .

[11]  C. Proctor,et al.  Response behaviour in the survey-interview , 1983 .

[12]  G. Vinten HOW TO POP THE QUESTION — THE ART OF ASKING QUESTIONS , 1988 .

[13]  T. Deal,et al.  Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. , 1982 .

[14]  James L. Bowditch,et al.  The Human Side of Mergers and Acquisitions: Managing Collisions Between People, Cultures, and Organizations. , 1990 .

[15]  M. Easterby-Smith,et al.  Management Research: An Introduction , 1991 .

[16]  G. Vinten Data Management and the Auditor , 1987 .

[17]  Seymour Sudman,et al.  Improving Interview Method and Questionnaire Design. , 1982 .

[18]  Jason Ditton,et al.  Part-Time Crime , 1977 .

[19]  E. Diener,et al.  Ethics In Social And Behavioral Research , 1978 .

[20]  Ortrun Zuber-Skerritt,et al.  Action Research for Change and Development , 2021 .

[21]  Gerald Mars,et al.  Cheats at work: An anthropology of workplace crime , 1984 .

[22]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  Of strategies, deliberate and emergent , 1985, Strategic Management Journal.