What is ethnography and what can it contribute to management science?

Ethnographic studies enable us to overcome the limitations of classical methodologies and obtain a deeper explanation of the behaviours that occur in organisations and communities.

Ethnographic research involves a particular way of tackling the analysis of reality. In social sciences, when we want to analyse and understand a given social reality, we have different tools at our disposal that enable us to approach the subject of study. Traditionally quantitative and qualitative methodologies have been used, and more recently mixed methods.

For some researchers, ethnography clearly belongs within the qualitative spectrum. However, for others it is a discipline that draws on both methodologies, and as such amounts to a methodological approach in its own right.

What is the origin of ethnography? What are its characteristics? And its main potential?

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Article published in Esade Do Better