Practicing Power and Gender in the Field: Learning from Interview Refusals

This article considers the ways in which power and gender are practiced in the interactional situations of interview refusals in organizational research. The research draws on two episodes of male telemarketers’ refusals in the context of call centers. Utilizing an ethnographic approach together with nonparticipant observations enabled the analysis of the interview refusals while providing valid and informative data. By arguing that gender is filtered into the interaction particularly through power negotiations and actualized for the most part in conflict between the female researcher and the male participants, the article offers an example of how gender can shape and influence the data collection process.