ABSTRACT
Observing as a method of gaining knowledge about the world plays an important role in the natural sciences. Indeed, science is widely thought of as a method of inquiry based on observation and experiment. In management studies observation is also an important means of obtaining data. Seeing or witnessing what people do might even be thought to take precedence as a source of evidence over being told by them what they do. If ‘actions speak louder than words’, then it seems that ‘observations speak louder than self-reports’. Questionnaires and interviews can only take us so far. Observation can take us further.
