ETHNOGRAPHYAT IC OFFICESHILARY JABS PARK SCHOOL

JILLIAN DOYLE ADMISSIONS OFFICE

THOMAS POGAR BUSINESS SCHOOL

TARA MEADE

GROUP 3

PARK SCHOOL OFFICEHILARY JABS

OFFICE HIERARCHY

Rank 3

Rank 2

Rank 1

Dean and Asst. Deans

Professors

Student Assistants

Administrative Assistants

Mostly white men

Dress professionally

Order assistants around/ belittle them

Dress professionally

Genuinely interested in students

Door always open

Mostly white women

Dress semi-casually

Submissive

Fake smile

Rank 1(Deans)

Rank 2(Professors)

Rank 3(Assistants)

Professors

Assistants

Deans

Waiting Area

OFFICE HIERARCHY

Rank 3

Rank 2

Rank 1

Dean and Asst. Deans

Professors

Student Assistants

Administrative Assistants

Strong camaraderie amongst ranks

Mass office gossip, talk poorly about other ranks

Only exception: women in rank 1 seldom gossip, take position more seriously than fellow male co-workers

CONNECT TO ARTICLE

A 10-month ethnography of the indoor prostitution markets:

Ethnographic methods produce high quality, in-depth accounts.

Must make sure your researcher status goes unknown

The ethnographer’s role shifts from ‘watching the spectacle’ to becoming ‘part of the show’.

Role playing is a necessity in the field

To really understand a job it has to be lived

Roles blur in order to gain an insider status while at the same time losing the distance that being an outsider privileges.

ADMISSIONS OFFICEJILLIAN DOYLE

OBSERVATIONS

Most people seem to recognize a person sitting behind a desk has all the answers. Especially, if it is a person who is answering phones and is older.

None of the parents really approached the student employees sitting around or behind the other desk. They approached, as I labeled her, “the main woman,” at the front desk. She was the organizer.

I also noticed a bunch of social cues between tour guides, secretary, administration, student families and prospective students. They mostly repeated the same scripts.

The main woman would introduce the families to the tour guides and then the tour guides would ask them the same questions, “where are you from?” etc.

OBSERVATIONS

The groups were grouped by major or other interests such as sports so this made the cues easier and conversation (although very little) between prospective students and students families.

Another thing I noticed was the main woman rarely left her desk. She was the only body in the building that did not move or go in and out of other offices etc.

She also didn’t wear heels like all the other older women in the office.

Students dressed more casually with Ithaca sweatshirts or any IC apparel.

CONNECT TO ARTICLE

This article focused on marijuana use and sale by white students who attended private university in Southern California. One researcher gained access to the community and did detail observational notes and 25 interviews over a three year time period.

They found that students had five motives for dealing illicit drugs on these types of campuses: 1. underwrite costs of their own personal marijuana use 2. Underwrite other incidental and entertainment expenses 3. The spirit of capitalism 4. Ego gratification and pursuit of status attainment 5. For sneaky thrills and being a “gangsta.”

CONNECT TO ARTICLE

Because people are bias towards white privileged college students there illegal actions seem to go unnoticed compared to their less well off black counter parts who dealt illicit drugs.

In this study they were able to obtain access to their carefully chosen environment. I went to the financial aid office and was not able to negotiate being able to observe their environment. This study also had problems with gaining enough trust with some of the dealers to be able to obtain interviews with them. I can see this is definitely a struggle with qualitative field research, being able to get past the gatekeepers and gaining trust with informants.

BUSINESS SCHOOLTHOMAS POGAR

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN

Men and women experience different degrees of social pressure regarding their appearance.

Men, in wanting to display coolness and machismo, adopted behavioral patterns learned from media portrayal of gang behavior.

Women displayed predominately restrained behavior. They came in quietly and prepared for class to begin.

Women appear to be driven more to be early for classes, whereas men appear be more nonchalant about arrival and departure from their classes.

CONNECT TO ARTICLEThe article, on gender differences in the workplace, points out key differences and similarities displayed by men and women, which have an influence on employee satisfaction.

The study further determined the following differences in the way that men and women personalize their space: Based upon their gender, you would find a predisposition to have different personal items on display, depending upon whether it was a man’s office or women’s office.

There was more agreement in the attitude of men and women when making permanent modifications to their office layout. In spite of this concurrence regarding permanent office arrangement, more women tended to organize their office design on a provisional basis. In summary, there are still gender differences perceived by men and women, in regard to employee satisfaction, but the behavioral tendencies are diminishing.

EXPERIENCE BEING A RESEARCHERHow did you feel?Like I was in a bubble

Annoyed by people sitting next to me

Comfortable since I blended in

How did people respond to you?A few people responded with hellos

My interactions were very limited

I went un-noticed

What did you learn?By being required to stop and analyze behavior, I formed opinions that had previously only been intuitive on my part.

Ethnography gives me a complete picture of how a system is functioning, information that I could have never learned from just verbal communication