Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter: Reflections on Research in and of Corporations

262 Pages·2010·2.389 MB·English

by  Melissa Cefkin (ed.)

Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter
Studies in Public and Applied Anthropology
General Editor: Sarah Pink, University of Loughborough, and Simone Abram,
Town and Regional Planning, University of Sheffi eld
The value of anthropology to public policy, business and third sector initiatives is
increasingly recognized, not least due to signifi cant innovations in the discipline.
The books published in this series off er important insight into these developments
by examining the expanding role of anthropologists practicing their discipline
outside academia as well as exploring the ethnographic, methodological and the-
oretical contribution of anthropology, within and outside academia, to issues of
public concern.
Volume 1
Anthropology and Consultancy:
Issues and Debates
Edited by Pamela Stewart and Andrew Strathern
Volume 2
Applications of Anthropology:
Professional Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century
Edited by Sarah Pink
Volume 3
Fire in the Dark:
Telling Gypsiness in North East England
Edited by Sarah Buckler
Volume 4
Visual Interventions:
Applied Visual Anthropology
Edited by Sarah Pink
Volume 5
Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter:
Refl ections on Research in and of Corporations
Edited by Melissa Cefk in
Ethnography and the Corporate Encounter
Refl ections on Research in and of Corporations
Edited by
Melissa Cefkin
Berghahn Books
New York • Oxford
First published in 2009 by
Berghahn Books
www.berghahnbooks.com
© 2009, 2010 Melissa Cefk in
First paperback edition published in 2010
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages
for the purposes of criticism and review, no part of this book
may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information
storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented,
without writt en permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ethnography and the corporate encounter : refl ections on research in and of
corporations / edited by Melissa Cefk in.
    p. cm. — (Studies in public and applied anthropology)
  Includes bibliographical references and index.
  ISBN 978-1-84545-598-9 (alk. paper)
  1. Business anthropology 2. Corporate culture. I. Cefk in, Melissa.
  GN450.8.E87 2009
  306—dc22
2009013508
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Printed in the United States on acid-free paper
978-1-84545-598-9 hardback
978-1-84545-777-8 paperback
CONTENTS
R
List of Figures and Tables vii
Chapter 1 Introduction: Business, Anthropology, and
the Growth of Corporate Ethnography 1
Melissa Cefk in
ENCOUNTERS WITH CORPORATE EPISTEMOLOGIES
Chapter 2 “My Customers are Diff erent!” Identity, Diff erence,
and the Political Economy of Design 41
Donna K. Flynn
DOING ANTHROPOLOGY IN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXTS
Chapter 3 Participatory Ethnography at Work: Practicing in
the Puzzle Palaces of a Large, Complex Healthcare
Organization 61
Christopher Darrouzet, Helga Wild, and Susann Wilkinson
Chapter 4 Working in Corporate Jungles: Refl ections on
Ethnographic Praxis in Industry 95
Brigitt e Jordan with Monique Lambert
REFRACTIONS OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL WAYS
OF BEING AND KNOWING
Chapter 5 Writing on Walls: The Materiality of Social Memory
in Corporate Research 137
Dawn Nafus and ken anderson
Chapter 6 The Anthropologist as Ontological Choreographer 158
Françoise Brun-Cott an
vi | Contents
CULTURE AND CORPORATE EPISTEMOLOGIES
Chapter 7 Emergent Culture, Slippery Culture:
Confl icting Conceptualizations of Culture
in Commercial Ethnography 185
Martin Ortlieb
ANOTHER LOOK: COMMENTARIES FROM
CORPORATE RESEARCH AND THE ACADEMY
Chapter 8 Insider Trading: Engaging and Valuing
Corporate Ethnography 213
Jeanett e Blomberg
Chapter 9 Emergent Forms of Life in Corporate Arenas 227
Michael M. J. Fischer
List of Contributors 239
Index 242
FIGURES AND TABLES
R
Figure 2.1 Perspective of technical product manager. 50
Figure 2.2 Perspective of technical customer. 51
Figure 2.3 Perspective of ethnographer. 52
Figure 2.4 Flows of knowledge. 55
Figure 4.1 The ATM factory fl oor. 98
Figure 4.2 The second fl oor houses the cubicles of engineers,
planners, and administrative staff . 98
Figure 4.3a Face-to-face information exchange is vital on
the fl oor 105
Figure 4.3b . . . and around the engineers’ cubicles. 105
Figure 4.4a
and 4.4b Malaysian operators tend to work in groups. 108
Figure 4.5 Cafeteria conversations. 111
Figure 4.6 Engineers trouble shooting in their cubicles. 112
Figure 4.7 Overhearing is easy and commonplace. 112
Figure 4.8 Lambert tracing our LOT on a work station. 114
Figure 4.9 Jordan writing up fi eldnotes off site in Costa Rica. 114
Figure 4.10 Lambert looking for child LOTs in inventory. 115
Figure 4.11a
and 4.11b Jordan asking questions in situ. 116
Figure 4.12a,
4.12b, and 4.12c Some of the offi cial process representations we
encountered. 119
Figure 4.13 Trouble shooting on the fl oor. 121
Figure 4.14 A variety of vehicles is used to move lots around
the factory. 123
viii | Figures and Tables
Figure 5.1 Brainstorming in a corporate project room for
the Smart Streets project. 144
Figure 5.2 A folk model of technology development. 151
Figure 6.1 Example materials participants wish to share
online. 171
Figure 6.2 Bulletin Request Process (Appendix A) 179
Table 8.1 Focus of publications. 222
Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION
Business, Anthropology, and
the Growth of Corporate Ethnography
R
Melissa Cefk in
A relentless quest for innovation, improvement, and change—in short,
“the new”—characterizes the steady march of corporate and organiza-
tional eff orts of all kinds. In the latt er part of the twenty-fi rst century, a
confl uence of social, economic, and cultural dynamics, glossed by such
terms as globalization, the new economy, knowledge work, customer-centered
business, mass customization, and the information age, cast a particular hue
on that quest. A pursuit desiring of a more nuanced grasp on the varieties
of human experience both exposed by and driven through these dynam-
ics, within this context anthropological perspectives and the application
of ethnography to business and organizational actions have emerged as a
favored source for this understanding. Ethnographic researchers, many of
them anthropologists, have “entered the corporation,” invited there to in-
fl uence the organizations’ understandings, and eff ectiveness and profi ts,
to be sure, of their customers, their employees, and the social and cultural
worlds they inhabit. Att esting to this interest, a steady stream of journal-
istic reportage on the phenomena of ethnographic work in corporate and
public sector enterprises has appeared, going so far as to suggest that “an-
thropologists are now regarded as a necessity at such fi rms” (“Off with
the Pith Helmets” 2004).
Growing out of an intermitt ent history of prior interactions between
anthropology and the business world, I believe that a confl uence of re-
cent developments points to the emergence of a nascent canon of corpo-
Notes for this chapter begin on page 28.