ABSTRACT
Workplace ethnographic research usually applies an interpretative framework that assumes the possibility of the researcher immersing herself in the field to take the perspective of the organizational participants. Triggered by the author's fieldwork experiences when working alongside janitors in a multicultural workplace, the author became sensitive to how her body and bodily reactions while collaborating influenced the fieldwork. Inspired by Ahmed's idea of the noticeability of the body as decisive to what ‘the body can do’, this chapter explores how the researcher's own body and its intersection with other bodies with different demographic characteristics triggered affective reactions on behalf of both research participants and the researcher. Hence, it is impossible – and undesirable – to erase the color of skin, nationality, gender, and age of the researcher's body and even harder to ‘go native’ to take the perspective of the research objects. Instead, I propose to dwell on the bodily relations in fieldwork in line with an affective workplace ethnography. These implications reach beyond academia as leaders and HR managers alike should pay attention to the role of their own and others’ bodies, especially when dealing with leadership in a multicultural organizational setting.
