ETHNOGRAPHIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO ORGANIZATIONAL-SOCIOLOGY

The authors examine the contributions of ethnography to organizational sociology in five substantive areas: (1) the elaboration of informal relations, (2) organizations as systems of meaning, (3) organizations and their environments; (4) organizational change, and (5) ethics and normative behavior. They then discuss three claims that ethnographers typically make: that ethnography provides for depth multiple perspecti ves, and process. These claims permit ifs unique contributions but als o create trade-offs in terms of control bias, and generalizability. Ti le authors conclude by considering the implications that the resurgent interest in organizational ethnography holds for ifs systematic pract ice and the development of standards to evaluate ifs cross-disciplinar y usage.