The uses of observation: combining problem structuring methods and ethnography

T Horlick-Jones () and J Rosenhead
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T Horlick-Jones: Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University
J Rosenhead: London School of Economics and Political Science

Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2007, vol. 58, issue 5, 588-601

Abstract: Abstract In this paper, we examine conceptual and practical aspects of carrying out cross-disciplinary, multi-method, interventions that bring together methods from operational research (OR) with ethnographic tools drawn from sociology and anthropology. We note that such methodological hybridization is not a new development, although historically, the role of ethnography in OR has not always been explicit in written accounts. We illustrate such usage by means of a number of concrete examples. We then describe recent work in which we have successfully combined problem structuring methods with ethnographic investigations in order to address disparate problem issues.

Keywords: problem structuring methods; ethnographic methods; operational research; social science; cross-disciplinarity; multi-methodology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602271

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