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Just an add-on to the previous I suggested that the ideal role in observing meetings might be as a tea person, projector assistant, note taker etc - any kind of role where the observer is able to participate naturally without being too much of a focus or getting too heavily involved in something they wouldn't normally do outside their immediate work area - and one senior male member of the policy team appeared a little afronted at the prospect of serving tea. I explained that for a workplace ethnography for my PhD, I had done two shifts of data and filing in a corporate company's customer service HQ so I could be on the same work level as team-members, and didn't take my role there as a reflection of my usual work prospects (having been a bbc journalist done and held other interesting jobs in the past), and he still couldn't reconsile himself to the prospect of having to stand back a little and find a non-central role!! Interesting stuff!
Dr Cathy Baldwin, [log in to unmask]
Post Doctoral Associate,
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
http://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/about-us/affiliates-emeriti-research-fellows/dr-cathy-baldwin/
________________________________________
From: The Anthropology-Matters forum mailing list [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Cathy Baldwin [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 September 2012 12:15
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Feedback on delivering a training course on participant observation to an NHS policy team
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* A postgraduate project comprising online journal, *
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Dear all,
Re feeding back to the list on delivering a training session on participant observation to the policy team of an NHS think tank.
The training session with the policy team of an NHS think tank went well yesterday and I delivered a basic introductory course to about 18 people on participant observation. The organisation was planning to use some participant observation in a project where the policy team would observe NHS managers in meetings to try to unpack: the team climate/behaviours exhibited by the members of the group, and issues discussed in meetings - for example, and in particular, how the care to be provided patients/families is discussed and the relationship between management tasks (co-ordination activities of professional/providers) and relationship tasks (care continuity/relationships with patients themselves). I was told that several of the policy team had anthropology backgrounds, but there was no in-house expert in anthropological methods, suggesting that no-one had a PhD in anthropology. I was hired because I have done some projects which involved observing staff / managers and internal dynamics in corporate organisations.
When I delivered the session people listened intensely and were very interested. In the discussion at the end, the general feedback was that they were very keen on the idea of using some participant observation but nervous / unsure about doing it. The talk from an ‘experienced observer’ made them aware of the short-comings of their own research design, e.g. they had intended to attend a series of meetings at partner health organisations / facilities once each and send the entire policy team into the meetings that they wouldn’t ordinarily be in as part of their policy jobs. So it would have meant disturbing the usual dynamic of these meetings with an onslaught of extra people from an external organisation who had been intending to fully participate in the discussions and offer their two cents, and observe at the same time. I pointed out that focussing on trying to participate ‘naturally’ in what was an artificial situation would be too much of a strain, and not give them enough mental space to actually stand back a bit and observe as well if they were trying too hard to focus on giving high quality replies in a meeting of senior managers a little outside of their usual field of expertise, and it wouldn’t allow much time to make notes (if note-taking on the spot would appear ‘natural’ to the context).
I was also able to point out that sending in a whole team would completely alter the usual dynamics and discussions that they wished to observe, that going once would only allow them to capture fairly shallow first impressions of what took place, and wouldn’t allow them any time to build up a knowledge of the cultural and verbal particularities that are common / or one-off’s at such meetings. My advice was to go a few times. They also became aware that participant observation requires a particular skills-set, e.g. being a good observer or ‘people watcher’ and having good social sensitivity, perceptive, intuitive and inductive skills, and ideally good people/social skills as well, and that some people are better suited to it than others. I questioned whether there were people on the team with more advanced skills than others if they had been planning to send economics etc along too etc!!
Given the ‘complexities’ of doing skilled and high-quality participant observation, one person wondered whether it was worth it if they had quantitative data, but others, having understood the richness, depth and strength of empirical evidence it could provide alongside quantitative data, were very keen. A policy team member with a background in psychology reasoned that perhaps a few team members could go into the meetings and introduce themselves, but explain that they were there to learn more rather than participate as experts, so would listen rather than speak most of the time. He also thought they could offer their opinions if asked but be careful to decline to comment outside their individual areas of expertise and to keep inputs short. I agreed that this might be a good compromise in helping them to achieve a good median-level fieldwork persona where they were relaxed and natural as participants, but not overly dominant and attracting so much attention as to steal away the focus of the meetings.
There were other comments / concerns about the difference between journalism and ethnography, and whether investigative journalism was easier as you didn’t have to deal with so many ethical questions. Other people were surprised how different the ASA ethical guidelines were from local NHS ethics committee guidelines, and as has been discussed on the list, what challenges would arise from trying to marry up the two.
I suppose the experience showed me that it was great that the organisation were considering using PO and a mixed range of methods which sit happily under the ‘ethnographic umbrella’, and incorporating the data into policy reports. However, there was a real lack of understanding about the skills, rigour and technical specifics for best practice that need to be implemented in order to produce the highest quality results from PO. It was somehow taken for granted at the beginning of the meeting that anyone could just turn up and ‘do’ PO. As the most flexible of applied anthropologists currently working on a railway line project with engineers, who has sold my soul to the corporate sector, worked in the media and so on, and has almost no shackles about when and where anthropological techniques can be used, even my disciplinary and professional nerves were slightly rattled!! I distributed a copy of the ASA ethical guidelines plus materials I’ve been sent by list members – so again many thanks for all of those.
I hope this is helpful and gives some insight into working with policy makers.
Many thanks to everyone who sent me material and I will write back to you individually.
All the best,
Cathy Baldwin
Dr Cathy Baldwin, [log in to unmask]
Post Doctoral Associate,
Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford
http://www.anthro.ox.ac.uk/about-us/affiliates-emeriti-research-fellows/dr-cathy-baldwin/
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