ABSTRACT
This chapter has three objectives: first, to review the central principles of the ethnomethodological approach to social analysis; second, to outline the main techniques used in ethnomethodological research; and third, to describe how ethnomethodology can provide insights for understanding behaviour in organizations. In meeting these objectives, the chapter explores research possibilities in the ‘interpretive’ paradigm of organizational analysis (Burrell and Morgan 1979). It seeks to advance the prospects for paradigm diversity by making ethnomethodology intelligible to the organizational researcher just starting out. As ethnomethodology is frequently accused of being obscurantist, and as many works in this area are difficult for the lay reader, this chapter attempts to decode the more exotic writings of Bittner, Garfinkel, Zimmerman, and others.
