This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Google Scholar Articles by Edwards, P. Articles by Bélanger, J. Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Generalizing from Workplace Ethnographies

From Induction to Theory

Industrial Relations Research Unit, University of Warwick, UK

Jacques Bélanger

Département des relations industrielles, Université Laval, Quebec, Canada

Two modes of generalizing from the large set of workplace ethnographies now in existence are compared. These are the results of the Workplace Ethnography (WE) data set and holistic modeling (HM) based on a more theoretically driven project. In the treatment of specific cases, there is impressive complementarity between the two. But the WE data fail to capture some key features of leading studies, because they do not treat cases holistically. They might also be developed by including studies not included to date. A more explicit theoretical approach offers some firmer grounds for generalizing, and new directions for comparative ethnographies arise.

Key Words: workplace relations • workplace ethnographies • work • qualitative comparative analysis

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?