Using Ethnography of Communication in Organizational Research

Abstract

Ethnography of Communication offers new analytical and interpretive possibilities for contextually sensitized, language- and communication-based ethnographic studies of management and organization. In this article we provide an introduction and overview of relevant linguistic and related fields, positioning Ethnography of Communication within the broader context of anthropology, ethnomethodology, and sociolinguistics. We describe Dell Hymes’s seminal contribution to theory and method of Ethnography of Communication (foregrounding Hymes’s signature concept of “communicative competence”) and outline what the application of an Ethnography of Communication approach in management research might entail (illustrating the application of Hymes’s SPEAKING grid). We conclude by offering an example of how the methods of Ethnography of Communication might be applied usefully to the study of organizational language, discourse, and communication.