A confessional account of an ethnography about knowledge

”A confessional account of an ethnography about knowledge work, 2000” Ulrike Schultze Theory by Minh Ho Quang

What is ethnography? • a invaluable research method • a specific type of account of cultural and social life • involves participating, observing peoples lives and social context 2

Agenda • Role • Generation • Choice 3

What was the role of Schultze theory? • producing informational objects • activity central to knowledge work • focus on what people do on work practices, rather than what they know 4

What was the role of Schultze theory? (cont. ) 3 groups of knowledge workers • Computer System Administrators • Competative Intelligence(CI) analysts • Librarians • ex. Schultze joined fieldwork at a US Company • Group’s identity 5

How Schultze theory was generated? • Review the literature on knowledge work • Establish the production and reproduction of informational objects • Drawing distinctions between information and knowledge • Looking at the characteristics of ethnographic research and confessional writing • Ending with the research results 6

How/why was this theory choosen? • More understanding of the knowledge work • Identify: ex-pressing, monitoring, translating • The knowledge worker’s endeavor to balanse the subjective nature of the information they produced with activities that will enhanced its objectivity 7

Comments/Critique • Intresting paper! 8