Skip to main content

Doing Video Ethnography Research with Top Management Teams

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Organizational Video-Ethnography Revisited

Abstract

This chapter draws on our own journeys and on other studies in searching for and developing appropriate methods by which to study top management team strategic decision-making in meetings in real time. After introducing video-based approaches in organizational research, the chapter proposes three ways of including research participants’ perspectives into our interpretations to close the gap between “insider” and “outsider” views of the research process and outcomes. We call these methodological approaches: refining, distributive, and holistic. These approaches will be presented and evaluated based on selected video episodes from the authors’ and other studies. The chapter concludes with a final discussion, including implications for research and practice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 49.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 64.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    There are strong advocates for both separate as well as integrated approaches. See Cheung et al. (2011), Headland et al. (1990), Morris et al. (1999), and Walsh et al. (2007) for further discussion.

References

  • Andersen, C., & Adamsen, L. (2001). Continuous video recording: A new clinical research tool for studying the nursing care of cancer patients. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35, 257–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, V., & Curran, W. (2006). Developing a collaborative model of research using digital video. Computers & Education, 46, 336–347.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baysinger, B. D., Kosnik, R. D., & Turk, T. A. (1991). Effects of board and ownership structure on corporate R&D strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 34(1), 205–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beech, N., & Johnson, P. (2005). Discourses of disrupted identities in the practice of strategic change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18(1), 31–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cannella, A. A., Jr., Park, J. H., & Lee, H. U. (2008). Top management team functional background diversity and firm performance: Examining the roles of team member colocation and environmental uncertainty. Academy of Management Journal, 51(4), 768–784.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carpenter, M. A., Geletkanycz, M. A., & Sanders, W. G. (2004). Upper echelons research revisited: Antecedents, elements, and consequences of top management team composition. Journal of Management, 30(6), 749–778.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, F. M., van de Vijver, F. J., & Leong, F. T. (2011). Toward a new approach to the study of personality in culture. American Psychologist, 66(7), 593–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christianson, M. K. (2018). Mapping the terrain: The use of video-based research in top-tier organizational journals. Organizational Research Methods, 21(2), 261–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, A. J. (2010). Audiovisual recording. In A. J. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe (Eds.), The Sage encyclopaedia of case study research (pp. 32–34). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Due, B. L. (2015). The social construction of a Glasshole: Google Glass and multiactivity in social interaction. PsychNology Journal, 13(2), 149–178.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finkelstein, S., Cannella, S. F. B., Hambrick, D. C., & Cannella, A. A. (2009). Strategic leadership: Theory and research on executives, top management teams, and boards. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finlay, L. (2002). Negotiating the swamp: The opportunity and challenges of reflexivity in research practice. Qualitative Research, 2, 209–230.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E. (1983). The interaction order. American Sociological Review, 48, 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodstein, J., Gautam, K., & Boeker, W. (1994). The effects of board size and diversity on strategic change. Strategic Management Journal, 15(3), 241–250.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goodwin, C. (1994). Professional vision. American Anthropologist, 96(3), 606–633.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gover, L., Halinski, M., & Duxbury, L. (2016). Is it just me? Exploring perceptions of organizational culture change. British Journal of Management, 27, 567–582.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gylfe, P., Franck, H., Lebaron, C., & Mantere, S. (2016). Video methods in strategy research: Focusing on embodied cognition. Strategic Management Journal, 37, 133–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hambrick, D. C. (2007). Upper echelons theory: An update. Academy of Management Review, 32(2), 334–343.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hambrick, D. C., Humphrey, S. E., & Gupta, A. (2015). Structural interdependence within top management teams: A key moderator of upper echelons predictions. Strategic Management Journal, 36(3), 449–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hambrick, D. C., & Mason, P. A. (1984). Upper Echelons: The organizations as a reflection of its top management. Academy of Management Review, 9(2), 193–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Headland, T., Pike, K., & Harris, M. (1990). Emics and etics: The insider/outsider debate. Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Heath, C., & Hindmarsh, J. (2002). Qualitative research in action. In T. May (Ed.), Qualitative research in practice (pp. 99–121). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, C. W., & Snell, S. A. (1988). External control, corporate strategy, and firm performance in research-intensive industries. Strategic Management Journal, 9(6), 577–590.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Iedema, R., Merrick, E. T., Rajbhandari, D., Gardo, A., Stirling, A., & Herkes, R. (2009). Viewing the taken-for-granted from under a different aspect: A video-based method in pursuit of patient safety. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches, 3(3), 290–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarrett, M., & Liu, F. (2018). “Zooming with”: A participatory approach to video ethnography in organizational studies. Organizational Research Methods, 21, 366–385.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G., & Spee, P. (2015). Constructing spaces for strategic work: A multimodal perspective. British Journal of Management, 26, 26–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kisfalvi, V., & Pitcher, P. (2003). Doing what feels right: The influence of CEO character and emotions on top management team dynamics. Journal of Management Inquiry, 12(1), 42–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kisfalvi, V., Sergi, V., & Langley, A. (2016). Managing and mobilizing microdynamics to achieve behavioral integration in top management teams. Long Range Planning, 49(4), 427–446.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knight, D., Pearce, C. L., Smith, K. G., Olian, J. D., Sims, H. P., Smith, K. A., et al. (1999). Top management team diversity, group process, and strategic consensus. Strategic Management Journal, 20(5), 445–465.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Knoblauch, H., & Schnettler, B. (2012). Videography: Analysing video data as a ‘focused’ ethnographic and hermeneutical exercise. Qualitative Research, 12(3), 334–356.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lahlou, S. (2011). How can we capture the subject’s perspective? An evidence-based approach for the social scientist. Social Science Information, 50(4), 607–655.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LeBaron, C., Jarzabkowski, P., Pratt, M. G., & Fetzer, G. (2018). An introduction to video methods in organizational research. Organizational Research Methods, 21, 239–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonard-Barton, D. (1990). A dual methodology for case studies: Synergistic use of a longitudinal single site with replicated multiple sites. Organization Science, 1(3), 248–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, D., Fisher, G., & Chen, G. (2018). CEO attributes and firm performance: A sequential mediation process model. Academy of Management Annals, 12(2), 789–816.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, F., & Maitlis, S. (2014). Emotional dynamics and strategizing processes: A study of strategic conversations in top team meetings. Journal of Management Studies, 51, 202–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maitlis, S., & Lawrence, T. B. (2003). Orchestral manoeuvres in the dark: Understanding failure in organizational strategizing. Journal of Management Studies, 40(1), 109–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markee, N. (2013). Emic and etic in qualitative research. In The encyclopedia of applied linguistics (pp. 1–4). Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, M. W., Leung, K., Ames, D., & Lickel, B. (1999). Views from inside and outside: Integrating emic and etic insights about culture and justice judgment. Academy of Management Review, 24(4), 781–796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paterson, M., & Glass, M. R. (2015). The world through Glass: Developing novel methods with wearable computing for urban videographic research. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 39(2), 275–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paterson, M., & Glass, M. R. (2020). Seeing, feeling, and showing ‘bodies-in-place’: Exploring reflexivity and the multisensory body through videography. Social and Cultural Geography, 21(1), 1–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pike, K. (1967). Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior. In Language in relation to a unified theory of the structure of human behavior (Vol. 24). De Gruyter, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pink, S., Sumartojo, S., Lupton, D., & Heyes LaBond, C. (2017). Empathetic technologies: Digital materiality and video ethnography. Visual Studies, 32(4), 371–381.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pitcher, P., & Smith, A. D. (2001). Top management team heterogeneity: Personality, power, and proxies. Organization Science, 12(1), 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poyner, R. (2008). Video ethnography. https://www.iconeye.com/opinion/icon-of-the-month/item/3455-video-ethnography.

  • Rouleau, L., de Rond, M., & Musca, G. (2014). From the ethnographic turn to new forms of organizational ethnography. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(1), 2–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smets, M., Burke, G., Jarzabkowski, P., & Spee, P. (2011). Charting new territory for organizational ethnography: Insights from a team-based video ethnography. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 3(1), 10–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smets, M., Jarzabkowski, P., Burke, G. T., & Spee, P. (2015). Reinsurance trading in Lloyds of London: Balancing conflicting yet complementary logics in practice. Academy of Management Journal, 58(3), 932–970.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, J. (1994). Towards reflexive practice: Engaging participants as co-researchers or co-analysts in psychological inquiry. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 4, 253–260.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, J., Goodwin, C., & LeBaron, C. (2011). Embodied interaction: Language and body in the material world. Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vaara, E., Kleymann, B., & Seristö, H. (2004). Strategies as discursive constructions: The case of airline alliances. Journal of Management Studies, 41(1), 1–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Maanen, J. (2011). Ethnography as work: Some rules of engagement. Journal of Management Studies, 48(1), 218–234.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vardaman, J., Amis, J., Gondo, M. (2010). Real-time cases. In A. J. Mills, G. Durepos, & E. Wiebe (Eds.), Encyclopedia of case study research (pp. 784–786). Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsh, J. P., Tushman, M. L., Kimberly, J. R., Starbuck, B., & Ashford, S. (2007). On the relationship between research and practice: Debate and reflections. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16, 128–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wiersema, M. F., & Bantel, K. A. (1992). Top management team demography and corporate strategic change. Academy of Management Journal, 35(1), 91–121.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (Grant # IDG 430-2017-00529) and the INSEAD R&D Committee and the INSEAD Alumni Fund.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feng Liu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Liu, F., Jarrett, M., Rouleau, L. (2021). Doing Video Ethnography Research with Top Management Teams. In: Grosjean, S., Matte, F. (eds) Organizational Video-Ethnography Revisited. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65551-8_8

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics