Practical Ethnography – A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector is a detailed text outlining how to conduct a corporate ethnographic project. This book is suitable for social scientists who are interested in working in the private sector, or people within the private sector that do not have an academic background in ethnographic methodology. Ethnography is indeed gaining ground beyond the higher education community of researchers. According to Businessweek “ethnography is the new core competence” (Ladner, 2014, p. 17). One reason that ethnography is gaining more ground in the private sector is that “ethnography provides new insights into the other objects, people, and products that consumers are currently using” (Ladner, 2014, p. 13). All ethnographic projects have “clients” – “people who will use the findings to design, implement, improve, or launch something” (Ladner, 2014, p. 7). Ethnographers have the ability to observe details and connect them to wider patterns of social life. Private-sector ethnographers must adapt academic theory, method and timelines to suit the individual project.
The book focusses on how to conduct and design an ethnographic project, dealing with client management, understanding ethics, reporting the findings, and translating the findings into usable business strategies. While the book is essentially written as a primer to introduce the topic of ethnography in the workplace, Ladner still addresses important aspects of “adapting academic theory, method, and timeliness to suit the private-sector ethnographic project” (Ladner, 2014, p. 3). In other words, Ladner draws a distinction between academic and private-sector motivations. In academic settings, ethnographers focus on understanding culture and explaining the participant’s point of view. In private-sector settings, the focus is on consumer’s opinions and consumption of different products or services. For example, this information can be interpreted by product designers and managers to increase sales or innovate new products or services. However, this touches on the ethical dilemma of corporations making a profit from the research. The differences in motivations may cause some conflicts throughout the project, but Ladner provides several practical tips to safeguard these challenges. The “American Anthropological Association (AAA) offers three principles that can be applied to any academic or private-sector project: Do no harm; Be open and honest; and Gain informed consent” (Ladner, 2014, p. 92).
The text is 210 pages long and divided into 11 chapters. It is a “hands-on” text that is easy to read. Chapter 1 – “Introduction” focusses on introducing ethnography and explaining its link to the private sector. This chapter also focusses on defining the emic and etic perspective and how it relates to the ethnographic project. Chapter 2 – “Using theory in ethnography” discusses concepts including social capital, gender, and economic class, and how these theories can be incorporated into a corporate project, and Chapter 3 – “Managing a private-sector ethnography project” presents the necessary steps in conducting research in a corporate setting. The author offers practical advice on how to organize, interact, and represent the research project to clients and stakeholders. Chapters 4 – “Ethnographic tools” launches into a discussion on the potential tools that are available to ethnographers and an evaluation on which tools are better to use based on best practices. The importance of self-reflection is introduced to remind researchers to consider their research goals and the clients’ needs throughout the project. Chapter 5 – “Managing clients” discusses the differences between private-sector ethnographers and academic ethnographers and their relationship with clients or participants. The private-sector ethnographer is in a position to educate clients on the craft of ethnography and its potential to uncover information regarding customers or products; the relationship is a partnership. For academic ethnographers, the participants are not usually seen as partners, and the research is not a collaborative process. Chapter 6 – “Ethical ethnography” discusses the dilemma that private-sector ethnographer’s face when doing research to generate profits. Consent forms, anonymity, and being honest are handled differently in the private sector vs the academic setting. The author states that the ethnographer’s role is to “witness, inquire after, and analyze culture” (Ladner, 2014, p. 99). Chapter 7 – “Sampling” focusses on the logic of sampling, and the type of sample typical in an ethnographic project. The author cautions that the results are not generalizable to other products or companies. In other words, the results cannot be used to predict future sales or buying habits. However, ethnographies will provide rich descriptions of people and their everyday lives. Chapter 8 – “Fieldwork” describes how to prepare for the fieldwork phase of a research project, what to do in the field, and what to do immediately when returning from the field. Other topics covered in this chapter include gaining access, interviewing, observing, and leaving the site. Chapter 9 – “Analysis” focusses on how to make sense of your data and present your findings to the client in an organized manner. The author discusses how to handle contradictions in your findings, outliers, and answering the “so what” questions. Chapters 10 – “Reporting” suggests that the report should be “dramatically well composed, use the right truth regime, but also be slightly unexpected in its delivery” (Ladner, 2014, p. 169). How the report looks is very important; suggesting to be creative in designing the final product. The author discusses narrative reports, audio-visual reports, Podcasts, and PowerPoint as a way to deliver the final information to the client. Chapter 11 – “Beyond ethnography” explores what the author calls the “ethnographic imagination,” (Ladner, 2014, p. 179) which refers to the unspoken decisions people make about the products they buy and how this insight can be applied to other research methods. The author discusses the ethnographic literature review, online ethnography, and adapting ethnography for focus groups. All of these other methods offer different options for understanding consumers more completely.
While the text offers advice for conducting an ethnographic project in the workplace, it omits many details researcher would expect to tend to in an academic ethnographic research project. For example, the researcher’s role in the project and how it relates to either participant or non-participant observations is not discussed. Observation is an essential part of gaining an understanding of naturalistic settings and its members’ ways of seeing and making sense of a particular setting. Additionally, observations can provide the foundation for theory and hypothesis development. While Ladner covers observation in Chapter 8, it omits a discussion on how observations can foster an in depth and rich understanding of a phenomenon, situation and/or setting and the behavior of the participants in that setting. Another area that is not discussed in detail is the concept of confidentiality of the participants. Protecting the well-being of the subjects within an ethnographic project is critical, and this is outlined on Internal Review Board applications. Ladner touches on ethical issues related to ethnography in Chapter 6, but does not address confidentiality directly. Her discussion centers on the ethical conduct of businesses and avoiding deceitful practices. However, given the volume of materials that may be gathered from extended observational fieldwork and their potential sensitivity, ethnographers should ensure that confidentiality is maintained in all projects. These two examples provide evidence of the differences in conducting ethnography in the workplace vs in an academic setting.
Overall, Practical Ethnography – A Guide to Doing Ethnography in the Private Sector is a step-by-step guide for conducting ethnographic research outside of academia. This text would appeal to private-sector researchers, corporate managers, or anyone else interested in understanding human behavior. The book is full of practical tips on how to organize, analyze, and report ethnographic research to the necessary stakeholders. Outlined below are six important takeaways that I noted:
First, developing the kit ritual is an important element of organizing your project. Having the right tools (interview protocol, camera, blank informed consent forms, pens, notebook, etc.) is only part of the kit. Mental preparation is the other half and very important since in ethnography the researcher is the primary data collection tool. Second, understanding that the “ethnographic imagination” is a way “people use products to give off a strategic, architected impression that they themselves might not realize” (Ladner, 2014, p. 179). The private-sector ethnographer needs to interpret this language in order to suggest how products or services might be changed. Paying attention to everyday rituals and ways of behaving is part of noticing what people are doing in their natural setting. Third, managing the client relationship is a vital component in private-sector ethnography. The ethnographer needs to educate the client on the “craft of ethnography and prepare them for the potentially disruptive aspects of ethnographic research” (Ladner, 2014, p. 76). The goals and expectations of the project should clearly address how the participant’s perspective will be at the forefront of the work. Fourth, ethnographers do not study products; they study how products fit into people’s lives. This gap can make the analysis difficult. Managing expectations about what you will and will not discuss in the final report is important to gaining trust and repeat business from corporate clients. Fifth, the gap between what people say and what they do is a rich ground for uncovering contradictions. Spotting contradictions during your fieldwork is a first step toward explaining the true nature of a phenomenon. Finally, reflection after every project is an important step that should not be overlooked. Understanding what went well and what did not go well will help you improve future projects. Some common “private-sector ethnography mistakes include: poor recruiting, not enough participants, shallow insights, findings that are not actionable, client dissatisfaction, lack of impact in the client organization, or a misunderstanding of the project goals by the client” (Ladner, 2014, p. 53).
There is enough content in this book to warrant addition to any personal, research, or organizational library. Ladner stresses the position that ethnography in the private sector puts the consumer’s needs first and by starting with the consumer, a company will understand how to design, develop, innovate, and deliver products and services that are valued by the end user. She does this while demystifying the actual process of conducting an ethnographic project. This text fills a real gap in the literature by advancing ethnographic methodology for the corporate setting.
