Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Inquiry, has been acknowledged by the Academy of Human Resource Development as the Outstanding Book of 2005. Pamela Crespin, Allen Batteau and Christine Miller-- two faculty members and a student in the Department of Anthropology’s Business and Organizational Anthropology (BOA) concentration—are among the book’s authors.

Research in Organizations, was acknowledged as the outstanding human resource development book of 2005 to advance the theory and/or practice of the profession. The book is the most recent in the Berrett-Koehler organizational performance series.

Crespin, Batteau, and Miller co-authored the article, "Ethnographic Research in Organization," which describes the methods used and the challenges encountered when conducting ethnographic research in corporations. After describing ethnographic methods, which originated in the first-hand study of small-scale, indigenous societies, the article presents two case studies that use these methods in contemporary business organizations: a broadcaster and an automotive components manufacturer. The article concludes with a general discussion of the challenges of organizational ethnography: framing appropriate research questions, gaining access, maintaining the research role, and accounting for issues of scale when using first-hand observations.

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