ABSTRACT

In this chapter, the authors share how they write together to reflect on and give voice to our joint personal experiences to extend sociological understanding through organizational autoethnography (OAE). They question whether ‘more’ is ‘merrier’ and develop a collaborative autoethnographic story about our own writing collaboration. Having introduced our analytic/diagnostic model, the chapter focuses on the (inter-related) elements, weaving in reflections on the delights and dilemmas (and political/emotional difficulties, disasters) of writing collaborative organizational autoethnographies. Boyle and Parry state that the prime focus of an OAE is to illuminate the relationship between the individual and the organization. Thinking of the different types of OAE, the authors probably focus more on evocative and critical rather than analytical, focusing on developing novice teachers in higher education, and power and emotion in doctoral supervision. The authors co-produce OAEs with doctoral students in different organizations within the public sector, including health and social care.