Autoethnography: Illuminating Stories, elucidating practice in turbulent times

James, Joanne, Mavin, Sharon and Corlett, Sandra (2016) Autoethnography: Illuminating Stories, elucidating practice in turbulent times. In: BAM 2016 - British Academy of Management Conference, 6th - 8th September 2016, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

Slideshow (Presentation slides) BAM presentation handouts version September 2016.pptx - Presentation Download (2MB)

Abstract

BAM 2016 Research Methodology Track 23

This paper responds to the call for research that is relevant in turbulent times where managers face challenges that are dynamic and complex and often result from the interplay of several interconnected factors. The author recommends autoethnography as a methodology that enables exploration of professional management practice and explains its relevance in unpredictable changing contexts.

The methodology is borne out of the philosophical assumptions of post modernist research that allow for polyphony of voices and multiple interpretations of experience, a philosophy that embraces story telling as a route towards sense making and privileges memory as a legitimate form of data. The paper explores the relevance of an epistemology of practice that recognises knowledge is created within the very contexts we seek to research and that by making the practitioner as researcher centre stage we illuminate the deliberations, choices and foundations of the practice under investigation.

Written in the first person, the main body of the paper explains how the researcher utilises autoethnography to explore her practice of organisational team coaching and explains the process of doing and representing autoethnography by utilising a framework drawn from heuristic research and engaging in writing as a mode of inquiry. The paper explores the practical, methodological and ethical challenges and suggests ways to overcome them.

The paper is of significance to those who have an interest exploring new ways of getting under the skin of professional experience in order to explore how individuals and communities can thrive in times of rapid transformational change.

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