ABSTRACT
Sociological awareness is simply a commitment to the understanding that the nature and culture of societies is different between varying organisations and nations and alters over time. It is suggested that choice of methodology must be guided by the acceptability of a particular approach in a given context. Without such contextual awareness any approach is likely to fail. It is essential that the conditions demanded by a methodology or way of
working are met. Thus it might be of limited value to apply a very ‘hard’ methodology in a very liberal environment for example, a creative organisation. Similarly, it might be inappropriate to apply a very ‘soft’ approach in a prison camp or a dictatorship since the approach would be doomed to failure by the power relations within the system studied.
