"Extreme" Organizational Ethnography: The Case of the Darwin Expedition in Patagonia

Genevieve Musca (1) , Marie Perez (1) , Linda Rouleau (2) , Yvonne Giordano (3)

1 CEROS - Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches sur les Organisations et la Stratégie
2 HEC Montréal - HEC Montréal
3 GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion

A considerable body of ethnographic-oriented research has been conducted within large corporate settings. In recent years however, researchers tend to focus on different organizations. As we will argue, diversifying the area of investigation is one of the main characteristics of ethnographic research in recent years (I). The Darwin expedition is in line with this diversification. It constitutes a small and non permanent organization aiming to reach a collective goal (II). During such a specific experience, the ethnographic researchers had to deal with a range of challenges inherent in performing in situ and real-time monitoring (III). Finally, we will conclude by discussing the potential contributions offered by this approach to organizational and management studies (IV).

Mots clés: Ethnographic field study; Unexpected situations; Extreme Organizational Ethnography; Mountaineering Expedition; Sensemaking

Domaines: Gestion et management

Genevieve Musca, Marie Perez, Linda Rouleau, Yvonne Giordano. "Extreme" Organizational Ethnography: The Case of the Darwin Expedition in Patagonia. 26th EGOS Colloquium, Jul 2010, Lisbon, Portugal. pp.1-25. ⟨halshs-00470018⟩