Auto-Ethnography in the Workplace

The chapter discusses auto-ethnographic methods of collecting and analysing professional communication. This entails the consideration of both the early stages of a research project drawing upon such methods, conceptualising a study, selecting and gaining access to a particular research site and the day-to-day practicalities of data collection once such access is secured. The chapter then turns to a detailed overview and a critical review of auto-ethnographic methods of study of professional communication. The insider perspective adopted in this book certainly afforded a new perspective on the practices of work and also means of studying them but was associated also with some challenges. The chapter offers here a closer discussion of issues of ethics, critical distance and researcher positionality that can become particularly pertinent in auto-ethnography. Finally, the chapter turns to the introduction of the specific setting and research participants whose communicative practices are studied in this book.