Purpose

The use of organizational ethnography has grown significantly during the past decades. While language is an important component of ethnographic research, the challenges associated with language barriers are rarely discussed in the literature. The purpose of this paper is to open up a discussion on language barriers in organizational ethnography.

Design/methodology/approach

The author draws on her experience as a PhD student doing an organizational ethnography of an emergency department in a country where she initially did not speak the local language.

Findings

The paper examines the author's research process, from access negotiation to presentation of findings, illustrating the language barriers encountered doing an ethnography in parallel to learning the local language in Sweden.

Research limitations/implications

This paper calls for awareness of the influence of the ethnographer's language skills and shows the importance of discussing this in relation to how we teach and learn ethnography, research practice and diversity in academia.

Originality/value

The paper makes three contributions to organizational ethnography. First, it contributes to the insider/outsider debate by nuancing the ethnographer's experience. Second, it answers calls for transparency by presenting a personal ethnographic account. Third, it contributes to developing the methodology by offering tips to deal with language barriers in doing ethnography abroad.

中文翻译：

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冒名顶替者综合症：组织民族志中的语言障碍

目的

在过去的几十年中，组织民族志的使用显着增长。虽然语言是民族志研究的重要组成部分，但文献中很少讨论与语言障碍相关的挑战。本文的目的是就组织民族志中的语言障碍展开讨论。

设计/方法/方法

作者借鉴了她作为博士生在一个她最初不会说当地语言的国家的急诊部门进行组织民族志的经历。

发现

该论文审查了作者的研究过程，从获取谈判到结果的陈述，说明了在学习瑞典当地语言的同时进行民族志研究时遇到的语言障碍。

研究限制/影响

本文呼吁人们意识到民族志学者的语言技能的影响，并表明在我们如何教授和学习民族志、研究实践和学术界的多样性方面讨论这一问题的重要性。

原创性/价值

本文对组织民族志做出了三个贡献。首先，它通过细致入微地改变民族志学者的经验来促进内部/外部争论。其次，它通过提供个人民族志帐户来回应对透明度的要求。第三，它通过提供技巧来解决在国外进行民族志时的语言障碍，从而有助于开发方法论。