New gadget? Let the ethnographer see it first
NEW SETS of gadgets have been given to your employees but there is a snag and they are finding it difficult to use them. A technician who was called in to fix the problem leaves saying that the gadgets are in perfect condition. For the employees the problem thus remains unsolved. So, what do you do? An ethnographer can tell you why your employees are unable to work with the gadgets and where the real problem lies.
When the concept of corporate ethnography was in its nascent stages, the corporate sector overlooked it. It was considered as a mere academic subject. Nevertheless, the past couple of decades have seen a major growth in the science of ethnography and its path-breaking application in some of the major companies worldwide.
Ethnography is no longer viewed as a concept of social and cultural bearings; it has finally found its place in corporate organisations where it is put to commercial use in studying the behavioural patterns of humans. Understanding people's behaviour in their own habitat is the primary feature of corporate ethnography. Concepts learnt from studying various communities of workers can be transferred to the corporate world for a much more deeper study of employee hurdles.
Several companies use corporate ethnography to study their employee behaviour in relation to the equipment and the technology they use in their day-to-day lives. The field of corporate ethnography uses the sciences of sociology and anthropology to study the workers' lives, the way in which they work together and use the available technology. In order to know how employees handle technical devices like laptops, cell phones, etc their behaviour should be studied closely in the workplace, home and life in general.
Corporate ethnography broadly aims at making new advancements in the field of technology, creatively using already existing ones and checking how employees are adapting the technology to meet their own needs. In brief, it focusses on how social and cultural factors of an employee's life affect his use of technology and gadgets
An ethnographer has to coordinate with the designer and engineer and help them build a highly customer-specific product. He finds out `what people want from technology and how companies can cater to their needs.
Several major corporations might not have the scope to interact with their customers directly. In such circumstances ethnography comes to their rescue. Many companies are recruiting in-house ethnographers to study how their products are faring with their customers.
Observation, interviewing, methodical recording of the things observed and the information gathered from the interviews constitute the work of an ethnographer. Consumers' needs and responses to their products are still reviewed by gathering their opinion, collecting the feedback, statistics about population, etc. Video surveillance and network scrutiny are being donr in workplaces to keep track of the employee's behaviour with the technology.
An ethnographer's job is to know:
How the customer handles a particular product.
Alterations that can be made to the existing product.
The use the product could be put to.
The influence of regional differences on the way it is used.
The scope for additional innovation in that particular category.
For instance, an employee might be facing some problem while working on a particular technology that the company is failing to understand. He might be having some unconscious fear or some misconception about the technology, which is affecting his work.
An ethnographer speaks to the employees and observes the way they employ the technology in their work.
An ethnographer sees what others might fail to see; he perceives what others have overlooked. He will explain the problems particular employees face to the company and offers solutions to overcome them. There might be similar patterns of problems or hurdles employees face in a similar kind of environment. The ethnographers for future use map out these patterns.
All this observation and documentation of things are time consuming. Ethnographers have to study the organisation, its culture, and history entirely before actually tackling the problems. This will give them an overview of the setting in which they need to work.
Whenever a technology is used, or a gadget is tried, many social and cultural factors are at play in the background that an ordinary human eye is likely to ignore. A scrutinising eye of an ethnographer is essential for such observation and understanding. This is why the role of ethnography is growing considerably; more and more companies are taking interest in it.
Call it a qualitative research method or buzzword of innovation or a vague academic concept - ethnography is all that.
For a technology to fit into people's lives it should first fit into the cultural and social settings of the people. Therefore understand what people want before you design them!
SANDHYA. U
faqs@cnkonline.com
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