ABSTRACT
This chapter draws on the experiences of individuals engaged in field research in international organizations in order to consider some of the rewards and difficulties for the researcher who is both an “insider” and “outsider” to the research setting. To understand the communication processes and practices that are unique to the intercultural workplace, there is a need to consider how its members make sense of their environments—how people working in particular intercultural settings come to understand and manage the activities and occasional contradictions of their day-to-day experience. The nature of personal involvement between the organizational fieldworker and research subjects has long been a focus for discussion and controversy. Part of this tension derives from the requirements placed on the fieldworker to operate as both “insider” and “outsider” to the organizational setting; to cultivate familiarity and rapport with the research participants while avoiding the temptations of overrapport.
