Reconnecting With the Spirit of Workplace Ethnography

We chronicle the early history of organizational research in which ethnography was an important methodological tool used to study workers’ experiences. Early applied psychologists and management researchers were conversant with leading ethnographies and cited their work, occasionally even doing ethnography themselves. Although there is currently a vibrant niche of organizational researchers who use ethnography, the vast majority of organizational researchers have relied less on workplace ethnographies, citing them infrequently. We outline benefits of ethnography and explain reasons why organizational researchers should reconnect with the spirit of ethnography, even if practical constraints keep them from conducting ethnographical work themselves. In addition, we provide a list of recommended workplace ethnographies that have been cited most frequently by organizational researchers.