Summary:
Schwartzman's work provided an introduction to ethnography, a brief history of significant studies, a general introduction to practices , and the theoretical approaches in the field. Schwartzman introduced these ideas against the historical backdrop of the Hawthorn study.
The purpose of doing ethonographic research within an organization is to experience "the native's point of view" (Schwartzman, 1993, p. 1). By investing the time in an environment, the researcher can can better understand the insider's perspective. This enables them to research from both an insider's and an academic perspective. Of course, the Hawthorn study's findings in the 1920s and 1930s concluded that any time researchers observe people or societies, they have an impact on the results, even by their mere presence.
She spends time addressing how ethnography has made a comeback over the last few decades, studying things like: informal organizations withing formal organizations, culture as an external variable, culture as informal organizations, culture as formal and informal organization, interactional research.
Quotation-worthy:
"One of the defining characteristics of ethnographic research is that the investigator goes into the field, instead of bringing the field to the investigator (Schwartzman, 1993, p.3).
"Ethnography facilitates this learning process in several ways. First, it provides researchers with a way to examine the cultural knowledge, behavior, and artifacts that participants share and use to interpret their experiences in a group (Spradley, 1980, pp. 10, 30, 31). In conjunction with this, ethnography also requires researches to examine the taken for granted, but very important, ideas and practices that influence the way lives are lived, and constructed, in organizational contexts. Because ethnographers are directed to examine both what people say and what people do, it is possible to understand the way that everyday routines constitute and reconstitute organizational and societal structures" (Schwartzman, 1993, p. 4).
"The ... controversial finding reported from this early phrase of study has come to be known as the Hawthorn Effect: the 'unexpected impact of non-experimental variables on experimental outcomes' (Finlay, 1991, p. 1820). ... The study itself might be contributing to the puzzling results. And it was also suggested that just attempting to listen sympathetically to workers, as well as the status and attention associated with being studied, might be factors contributing to the continued increase in productivity" (Schwartzman, 1993, pp.6-7).
"Three types of studies that illustrate specific trends in research methods as well as theoretical assumptions: (a) anthropology of work studies, (b) organizational culture studies, and (c) the analysis of organizing processes (events, routines, gatherings) and their relation to larger systems" (Schwartzman, 1993, p. 27).
