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Unpacking the problem of research access(es): the case of large knowledge-intensive international consultancies
Management and Organization Department, HANKEN School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland.
Management and Organization Department, HANKEN School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland.
Management and Organization Department, HANKEN School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. (CFS: Centre for Feminist Studies)ORCID iD: 0000-0002-9808-1413
2015 (English)In: Qualitative research in organization and management, ISSN 1746-5648, E-ISSN 1746-5656, Vol. 10, no 3, p. 274-293Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to unpack the question of research access(es), especially ethnographic access, seen as an intrinsic part of research projects that should be scrutinized carefully to gain a deeper understanding of the field. Two main questions are asked: what does the process of accessing knowledge-intensive businesses (KIBs), specifically large international consultancies (LICs), tell us about access more generally? And what does accessing KIBs, specifically LICs, tell us about these organizations more generally?

Design/methodology/approach: The paper builds on discussions of research access issues in organizational ethnography, in part when setting out to employ shadowing as a method of inquiry. It focuses on the challenges of gaining access to KIBs, where confidentiality is central to the work. The empirical focus is a study of LICs from where the data for this paper is drawn.

Findings: To answer the two questions, the paper provides an analysis of: accesses in the plural; ongoing processes of accessing; multiple levels of access and contradictory negotiations; research accesses, including access difficulties, as constitutive of research itself; and research accesses as dependent on and giving data on the organizations in question. Building on literatures on ethnographic access and empirical data gained while negotiating access to LICs, this paper contributes to prior research on access, focusing on LICs as an arena for organizational ethnography, whose particular character has to be taken into account when conducting research.

Originality/value: This paper examines the processes of accessing, a neglected but important part of research: the phase(s) of negotiating and gaining access to the field, and the need to fully absorb these phases into the research process as a whole. Access as such multi-level ongoing processes is often neglected, however, in both academic writing and importantly in doctoral education curricula. Therefore, the paper offers guidelines for use in research training.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2015. Vol. 10, no 3, p. 274-293
Keywords [en]
Boundaries, Ethnography, Access, Knowledge work, Interviewing, Knowledge-intensive businesses
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-47846DOI: 10.1108/QROM-12-2013-1189ISI: 000214536200004Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84944569256OAI: oai:DiVA.org:oru-47846DiVA, id: diva2:899074
Funder
Academy of Finland
Note

This paper derives from the project “Age, generation, and changing work-life balanceand boundaries: an intersectional and interactive ethnographic study”, funded by the Academy of Finland, 2012-2014.

Available from: 2016-01-31 Created: 2016-01-31 Last updated: 2018-04-16Bibliographically approved

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