Deck 19: Ethnography and Participant Observation

Question 1

Ethnography and participant observation are easy to distinguish.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

What distinguishes organisational ethnography from other types of ethnography?

A) Concerned with social relations that are non-goal orientated
B) Concerned with social relations that are orientated toward goal-directed activities in structured workplace situations
C) Concerned with the study of transnational corporations
D) None of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

In ethnography, gaining access to the social setting is one of the least difficult steps.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

It is considered unethical to use friends, contacts or colleagues to gain access to conduct ethnographic research in an organization.

Question 5

The ethnographer is much more likely to be in an overt rather than covert role owing to ethical considerations.

Question 6

Identify two ethical transgressions associated with a covert ethnographic study. Please select all that apply.

A) Informed consent
B) Ruptured friendships
C) Practice of research
D) Interpretive reflexivity

Question 7

Negotiation of access will always finish once you have made contact and gained an entrée to the organisation.

Question 8

Which of the following is not a concern that group members may have about an ethnographic researcher?

A) That they are there to spy on the employees
B) That anything they say to them will get back to the bosses
C) That they are sent by a competitor
D) That they have a criminal record

Question 9

Which of the following can you do to smooth the path of ongoing access in an ethnographic study? Please select all that apply.

A) Play up to your credentials
B) Pretend to be somebody you are not
C) Pass loyalty tests
D) Bribe your participants

Question 10

Which of the following is not a role of an ethnographer?

A) Complete participant
B) Non-complete participant
C) Observer-as-participant
D) Complete observer

Question 11

Going native refers to when an ethnographer loses their sense of being a researcher and becomes wrapped up in the world view of the people they are studying, to such an extent that they are willing to engage in unethical behaviour.

Question 12

Which of the following is not a category of field notes for an ethnographic study?

A) Mental notes
B) Billed notes
C) Jotted notes
D) Full field notes

Question 13

Postmodernism is most associated with which turn in the context of the social sciences?

A) Positivistic turn
B) Poetic turn
C) Numerical turn
D) Linguistic turn

Question 14

Which of the following would not typically be considered a data collection source in an ethnographic study?

A) Questionnaire
B) Observation
C) Interview
D) Documents

Question 15

Autoethnography involves writing the study exclusively from the position of others and the researcher tries as much as possible to exclude themselves from the account.