Phenomenology‐Based Ethnography for Management Studies and Organizational Analysis

Abstract

This paper introduces phenomenology-based ethnography as a novel ethnographic ap- proach for research in management studies and organizational analysis and describes three methods that have been developed from this approach: life-world analytical ethnography, focused ethnography and go-along ethnography. Phenomenology-based ethnography has emerged from developments in sociology that draw on ‘social phenomenology’ developed by Alfred Schutz. These developments involve the use of phenomenology-based ethnographic methods that shift the focus of research onto participants’ subjective experiences of the field further than has been required by other ethnographic approaches. This paper uses a set of dimensions that allow a comparison of these phenomenology-based methods’ aims, techniques of data collection and analysis, and required effort. These three methods are then compared with current ethnographic methods used in organizational re- search and management studies. The paper concludes with a discussion that explores and addresses the critique of how phenomenology-based ethnography conceives the relation- ship between the researcher and the research subject.