Professor of Organisation Studies' 4* journal paper shoots into top 10 most read list

Professor Ann Cunliffe, who specialises in the field of Organisation Studies, has had her recent research work published in the 4* Sage journal (4.14 impact factor), Organizational Research Methods.

The title of the journal article is ‘The Politics of Access in Fieldwork: Immersion, Backstage Dramas, and Deception’.

It went immediately in at number 8 on the most read articles list. Professor Cunliffe also has an article at number 22 on the most read list.

The was co-authored the paper with a colleague of Prof Cunliffe's from Brazil, Rafael Alcadipani of Escola de Administraçâo da Fundaçâo Getulio Vargas, São Paulo.

The abstract of the paper:

Gaining access in fieldwork is crucial to the success of research, and may often be problematic because it involves working in complex social situations. This article examines the intricacies of access, conceptualizing it as a fluid, temporal, and political process that requires sensitivity to social issues and to potential ethical choices faced by both researchers and organization members. Our contribution lies in offering ways in which researchers can reflexively negotiate the challenges of access by (a) underscoring the complex and relational nature of access by conceptualizing three relational perspectives—instrumental, transactional, and relational—proposing the latter as a strategy for developing a diplomatic sensitivity to the politics of access; (b) explicating the political, ethical, and emergent nature of access by framing it as an ongoing process of immersion, backstage dramas, and deception; and (c) offering a number of relational micropractices to help researchers negotiate the complexities of access. We illustrate the challenges of gaining and maintaining access through examples from the literature and from Rafael’s attempts to gain access to carry out fieldwork in a police force.