Using Participant Observation in the Study of Organizational Culture

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This case study is based on a multi-sited ethnography I conducted between 2009 and 2013 with the help of three fire and rescue organizations and one independent fire service training organization, all based in England. My study was underpinned by Steven Hobfoll’s (2001) perspective that individuals are ‘nested’ within a wider cultural context which informs how they come to construct and understand their world. As such, culture provides a context for social learning, influencing cultural norms regarding what is considered appropriate and what is not. The aim of my study was to investigate how cultural norms impacted how organizational members conceptualized and coped with stress within the workplace. Over the period of the study, I spend at least one day a week with the organizations involved and I employed participant observation as the main research method. Over the course of the study, I participated in everyday firefighter activities such as training, fire safety duties, community events, and ‘hanging around’ in the fire stations, complemented by interviews with firefighters and managers. However, my level of participation fluctuated both across and within these institutions. This was due to situational factors (such as risk assessment restrictions) and evolving access arrangements (such as gatekeepers moving on or leaving the organization). Additionally, I often encountered unanticipated ethical and emotional dilemmas associated with my participating so closely in the world of my participants. Despite these challenges, I consider that participant observation was the best method to explore organizational culture. Because of my use of this method, I was able to establish that the dominant firefighter culture which pervaded these institutions impacted how stress was conceptualized and discussed within the workplace. Stress was conceptualized as a ‘weakness’ and therefore not an appropriate topic for public discussion. Furthermore, I concluded that conceptualizing stress in this way, ultimately impacted how organizational members coped with stress in terms of their reluctance to engage with formal stress management interventions such as counselling, sickness absence, and critical incident debriefing.

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