IT & Work Design

1. IT & Work Design Exercise class 03: Observation

2. On the menu • Group Status • Recap: Ethnography • Topic: Observation • Assignment

3. Previously on IT & Work Design • Forms of participation • Complete observer (Fly on the wall) • Participant observation: • Participant as observer • Observer as participant • Complete participant (Going native) • Forms of ethnography •  Re-examination of previous studies •  Quick and dirty ethnography •  Concurrent ethnography •  Evaluative ethnography

4. Observing: A Few Tips • What to observe? Everything! • Maintain the "strangeness" • Do not take things for granted • Do not assume anything to be uninteresting • Retain sufficient distance from members • Playing the acceptable incompetent • Emphasize your incompetence in order to justify asking more questions • For how long? • Develop relations with other members of the organization

5. About the stranger “The stranger does not share the basic assumptions. He becomes essentially the man who has to place in question nearly everything that seems to be unquestionable to the members of the approached group.” - Alfred Shutz, The Stranger

6. Writing Field Notes • Scribble down as much detail as possible in a rapid shorthand and later write those notes up into something more coherent • Record the field • Rely on your memory until you are free to write detailed field notes • Make features of the organization work for you • Meetings can help to write copious notes • Go often to the bathroom to disguise note-taking 

7. What to Include in Field Notes? • Record the date and time of field notes • Record some details of the setting where the notes were taken (who was there, context) Ask yourself: • Is there any particular features of the organization to be observed? • What level of detail should I manage to record my observations?

8. How to Organize Observations? • In such a way that they make sense when it comes to analysis: • Day and time of the day • Sections of the organization • Organizational members • Field-site • Review notes and try to figure out possible ways of organizing them while still in the field • Apply skepticism to your own field notes • Useful? • What kind of study can be made from them?

9. Assignment: Observation in a public place • Find today's assignment on the blog under 03 lecture  • Choose public location (fun, interesting, attracting people) • Don’t use public places that are of sensitive nature (e.g. hospital) • Chose a different organization than the one you chose for your case • Conduct 1 h individual observation: non‐participant observer • Record as much information as you can (interactions, sights, sounds, spatial arrangements, anything else that strikes you) 

10. Assignment: Observation in a public place • Bring pen and paper - don't use laptop to take notes • Jot down on the spot, then write up longer version • spend at least twice as long writing up field notes • Write 3-­4 pages: include your name, type of setting, date & time, why you chose the setting, etc. • Description followed by interpretation • Each group must bring 1 key observation for next class (9 presentations 3min+ 2min feedback) • Place the observation you have chosen on the top of your google doc by the end of Thursday