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Notes from the field on organizational shadowing as framing

Consuelo Vásquez (Département de Communication Sociale et Publique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Canada)
Boris H.J.M. Brummans (Département de Communication, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)
Carole Groleau (Département de Communication, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Canada)

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management

ISSN: 1746-5648

Article publication date: 17 August 2012

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Abstract

Purpose

Shadowing is becoming an increasingly popular method in management and organization studies. While several scholars have reflected on this technique, comparatively few researchers have explicated the specific practices that constitute this method and discussed their implications for research on processes of organizing. The purpose of this article is to address these issues by offering a conceptual toolbox that defines shadowing in terms of a set of framing practices and provides in‐depth insight into the methodological choices and challenges that organizational shadowers may encounter.

Design/methodology/approach

In this article, the authors explicate the specific framing practices in which researchers engage when taking an intersubjective approach to organizational shadowing. To demonstrate the value of viewing shadowing as framing, the paper grounds the theoretical discussion in actual fieldwork experiences, taken from three different ethnographic studies.

Findings

Based on a systematic and critical analysis of fieldwork experiences, the paper argues that organizational shadowing is constituted by three interrelated framing practices: delineating the object of study; punctuating the process/flow of a given organizing process; and reflecting on the relationship between researcher and the object(s) or person(s) being observed. These analytical constructs highlight specific activities with which shadowers are confronted in the field, namely foregrounding and backgrounding particular aspects in defining a given object of study, trying to keep this object in focus as the fieldwork unfolds, and making decisions about the degree to which the relationship with shadowees should be taken into account in understanding this object.

Originality/value

This article provides an in‐depth reflection on the subtle practices that constitute organizational shadowing. It offers a useful conceptual toolbox for researchers who want to use this method and demonstrates its operational value to help them understand how knowledge construction is the outcome of a coconstructive process that depends on a series of decisions negotiated in ongoing interactions with the actors under study.

Keywords

Citation

Vásquez, C., Brummans, B.H.J.M. and Groleau, C. (2012), "Notes from the field on organizational shadowing as framing", Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 144-165. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465641211253075

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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