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Description & Citation--Study No. 3979

Bibliographic Description

ICPSR Study No.:3979
 
Persistent URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR03979
 
Title:Workplace Ethnography (WE) Project, 1944-2002
 
Principal Investigator(s):Randy Hodson, Ohio State University
 
Funding Agency:National Science Foundation
 
Grant Number:0112434
 
Bibliographic Citation:Hodson, Randy. WORKPLACE ETHNOGRAPHY (WE) PROJECT, 1944-2002 [Computer file]. ICPSR03979-v1. Columbus, OH: Randy Hodson, Ohio State University [producer], 2003. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2004.
 

Scope of Study

Summary:This Workplace Ethnography project generated content-coded data from the full population of book-length English language organizational ethnographies. Drawn from Australia, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, the Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, United States, and Zambia, these ethnographies provided deep descriptions on a wide range of topics, such as worker behavior, management behavior, coworker relations, labor process, conflict and resistance, citizenship behavior, emotional labor, and sexual harassment. Coding of these characteristics yielded variables based on descriptions of worklife in specific organizational settings. The study data was collected in mainly two periods: the early 1990s and the early 2000s. The study generated 204 ethnographic cases. These cases were derived from 156 separate books since the observations reported in some books allowed the coding of multiple cases. The general scope of questions included organizational factors such as occupation, workplace organization, pay scheme, employment size, the situation of the company, the nature of company ownership, staff turnover, layoff frequency, how well the organization operated in terms of communications, recruitment and retention of personnel, and maintenance of equipment, as well as substantive facts concerning labor market opportunity, and labor force composition. On the topic of management, questions addressed leadership, organization of production, sexual harassment, and control strategies. Community factors were assessed through questions regarding unemployment and if the area was rural or urban. A series of questions addressed job satisfaction, pay, benefit package, job security, effort bargain, conflict with management/supervisors, training, worker strategies, conditions of consent/compliance, and nature of consent/compliance. The nature of work was queried through questions regarding autonomy, creativity, meaningful work, freedom of movement, comfort of work, injuries, employment status, and frequency of conflict with customers. Additional questions included size and nature of the focal group, group dynamics, conflict between the focal group and management, basis of alternative social groups at work, and if work friendships carried over to the outside. Questions about methodology covered ethnographer's theoretical orientation, focus of ethnography, ethnographer's gender, data collection method, supplemental data used, main type of supplemental data used, and position of key informant. Additional items gathered basic information about book title, author's last name, modal occupation, industry, country/region, and observer's role.
 
Subject Term(s):corporate behavior, human behavior, labor force, management, organizational behavior, organizational culture, organizational structure, sexual harassment, work attitudes, work environment, workers, workplaces
 
Geographic Coverage:Australia, Great Britain, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Hungary, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, Philippines, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, Taiwan, United States, Zambia, Global
 
Time Period:1944 - 2002
 
Universe:Book-length English-language workplace ethnographies.
 
Data Type:event/transaction data
 
Data Collection Notes:(1) For additional information, including related publications visit the Workplace Ethnography Web site at http://www.sociology.ohio-state.edu/rdh/Workplace-Ethnography-Project.html (link).
 

Methodology

Sample:The target observations were identified according to three elements: (1) the use of direct ethnographic methods of observation over a period of at least six months, (2) a focus on a single organization or a small set of organizations, and (3) a focus on at least one clearly identified group of workers: an assembly line, a typing pool, a task group, or some other identifiable work group.
 
Data Source:The data generated were based on 204 selected ethnographic cases. These cases were derived from 156 separate books, which represent the full population of book-length English language workplace ethnographies.
 

Access and Availability

Note:A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as record length, case count, and variable count) is listed in the file manifest.
 
Restrictions:This data collection may not be used for any purpose other than statistical reporting and analysis. Use of these data to learn the identity of any person or establishment is prohibited.
 
Original ICPSR Release:2004-08-20
 
Version History:The last update of this study occurred on 2005-12-15.
 
  2005-12-15 - On 2005-08-15 new files were added to one or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable, and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-12-15 to reflect these additions.
 

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