Putting ethnography to work

Putting ethnography to work: the case for a cognitive ethnography of design

The methods of ethnography and cognitive psychology are frequently set in opposition to each other. Whilst such a view may be appropriate in de"ning pure, or prototypical, classes of each activity, the value and necessity of such a distinction is broken down when researchers are goal-directed to study complex work domains in order to foster technological change. In this paper, we outline a rapp...

SELECTIVE ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS Qualitative Modeling For Work Place Ethnography

In order to harness the value of workplace ethnography, it is becoming more and more apparent that we need a way to incorporate ethnographic data into work system analysis and design efforts. One of the biggest problems we face in this regard is making the best use of the insights that ethnography brings to a design process. Traditionally ethnography takes a lot of time, is done mostly in isola...

Auto-Ethnography: “Employee Behavior Towards Supervisors and Managers” Or “Interaction as the Ideal Behavior”

Before managing the staff in dealing with supervisors and managers, it is necessary to recognize types of behavior they exhibit. This has not been previously analyzed through concise research. Using Analytic Auto-ethnography can help us to provide a model based on two indicators of courage and adaptability, which can be low, medium or high. Four main types of employee behaviors towards supervis...

Ethnography in Participatory Design

Even the most cursory glance through recent proceedings of the biannual participatory design conference shows that ethnography is becoming an increasingly widespread technique in work-oriented design. This paper (1) explicates the rationale behind participatory design’s ‘turn to ethnography’; (2) identifies central problems with the technique’s employment from participatory design’s point of vi...

Chapter 9 Ethnography and the social structure of work