ETHNOGRAPHY: NATURALISTIC RESEARCH AND BUSINESS ANTHROPOLOGY

Abstract

Ethnographies provide complicated pictures of social behavior. The goal is to understand people on their own terms. Topics can range from full cultural profiles to the study of relatively distinct patterns of behavior (such as product consumption, workplace patterns, and so forth). Although many “scientific” researchers feel that naturalistic methods such as ethnography are not adequately rigorous, they possess the potential to deal with culturally distinctive populations as well as viewing social actors within a real-life context.