© 2008 Randy Hodson, including all links, data files, and attachments.

Professor Randy Hodson
Department of Sociology
Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
(614) 292-8951
Randy Hodson's Homepage

Workplace Ethnography (W.E.) Homepage

For comments on or additions to this list write: hodson.8@osu.edu

The following list of organizational ethnographies have been content coded for approximately
150 organizational, workforce, human relations, and management variables.  Each case is based on:
(1) sustained direct observation of at least 6 months, (2) a focus on a single organization or a
small set of organizations, and (3) a focus on a specific group of workers within the
organization.  N = 212 total cases.

Applebaum, Herbert.  1981.  Royal Blue, the Culture of Construction Workers.  New York:  Holt.

Balzer, Richard.  1976.  Clockwork:  Life in and Outside an American Factory.  Garden City, NY:  Doubleday.

Becker, Howard, B. Geer, E.C. Hughes, and A. Strauss.  1961.  Boys in White:  Student Culture in Medical School.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Barker, James R.  1999.  The Discipline of Teamwork:  Participation and Concertive Control.  Thousand Oaks, CA:  Sage.

Besser, Terry L.  1996.  Team Toyota:  Transplanting the Toyota Culture to the Camry Plant in Kentucky.  Albany:  State University of New York Press.

Beynon, Huw.  1972.  Perceptions of Work:  Variations Within a Factory.  London:  Cambridge University Press.

Beynon, Huw.  1975.  Working for Ford.  East Ardsley, England: E.P. Publishing.

Biggart, Nicole.  1989.  Charismatic Capitalism:  Direct Selling Organizations in America.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Blau, Peter M.  1963/1955.  The Dynamics of Bureaucracy:  The Study of Interpersonal Relations in Two Government Agencies.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.  “state JTPA” and “federal legal enforcement”

Bosk, Charles.  1979.  Forgive and Remember.  Chicago:  University of Chicago.

Bosk, Charles.  1992.  All God's Mistakes:  Genetic Counseling in a Pediatric Hospital.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Bruckert, Chris.  2002.  Taking It Off, Putting It On:  Women Working in Strip Clubs.  Toronto:  Canadian Scholar's Press. 

Burawoy, Michael.  1979.  Manufacturing Consent.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Burris, Beverly H.  1983.  No Room at the Top:  Underemployment and Alienation in the Corporation.  New York:  Praeger.

Butcher, David. 1980.  The Trawlermen.  Reading, England:  Tops'l Books.

Butcher, David.  1979.  The Driftermen.  Reading, England:  Tops'l Books.

Cassell, Joan.  1991.  Expected Miracles:  Surgeons at Work.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Cavendish, Ruth.  1982.  Women on the Line.  Boston, MA:  Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Chetkovich, Carol.  1997.  Real Heat:  Gender and Race in the Urban Fire Service.  New Brunswick, N.J.:  Rutgers University Press.

Cherry, Mike.  1974.  On High Steel:  The Education of an Ironworker.  New York:  Quadrangle.

Chinoy, Ely.  1955.  Automobile Workers and the American Dream.  Garden City, NY:  Doubleday.

Clawson, Augusta.  1944.  Shipyard Diary of a Woman Welder.  New York: Penguin.

Cock, Jacklyn.  1989.  Maids and Madams:  Domestic Workers under Apartheid.  London:  Women's Press.

Cole, Robert E.  1971.  Japanese Blue Collar:  The Changing Tradition.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.  “skilled tool and die makers” and “semi- and unskilled helpers”

Constable, Nicole.  1997.  Maid to Order in Hong Kong:  Stories of Filipina Workers.  Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University Press.

Cressey, Peter.  1985.  Just Managing:  Authority and Democracy in Industry.  Philadelphia:  Open University Press. “whiskey,” “electronics,” “fork lift manufacture,” “foundry,” “banking” and “beer”

Crosset, Todd W.  1995.  Outsiders in the Clubhouse:  The World of Women's Professional Golf. Albany:  State University of New York Press.

Crozier, Michel.  1971.  The World of the Office Worker (translated by David Landau).  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Dalton, Melville.  1959.  Men Who Manage.  New York:  Wiley.

Devinatz, Victor G.  1999.   High Tech Betrayal:  Working and Organizing on the Shop Floor.  East Lansing:  Michigan University Press.

Diamond, Timothy.  1992.  Making Gray Gold:  Narratives of Nursing Home Care.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press. 

DiFazio, William.  1985.  Longshoremen:  Community and Resistance on the Brooklyn Waterfront.  South Hadley, MA:  Bergin & Garvey.

Ditton, Jason.  1977.  Part-Time Crime:  An Ethnography of Fiddling and Pilferage.  Macmillan.

Drori, Israel.  2000.  The Seam Line:  Arab Workers and Jewish Managers in the Israeli Textile Industry.  Stanford:  Stanford University Press.

Durand, Jean Pierre and Nicholas Hatzfeld.  2003.  Living Labour:  Life on the Line at Peugeot France (translated by Dafydd Roberts).  Basingstoke:  Palgrave Macmillan.  “Habillage Caisse” and “Montage Voiture” 

Edelman, Birgitta.  1997.  Shunters at Work: Creating a World in a Railway Yard.  Stockholm:  Department of Social Anthropology, University of Stockholm.

Fine, Gary Alan.  1996.  Kitchens:  The Culture of Restaurant Work.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.  “La Pomme de Terre,” “Owl's Nest,” “Stan's Steakhouse” and “Blakemore”

Fink, Deborah.  1998.  Cutting into the Meatpacking Line:  Workers and Change in the Rural Midwest.  Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina Press. 

Finlay, William.  1988.  Work on the Waterfront:  Worker Power and Technological Change in a West Coast Port.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Foster, Charles.  1969.  Building with Men.  London:  Tavistock.

Friedland, William H.  1971.  Migrant:  Agricultural Workers in America's Northeast.  New York:  Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Foner, Nancy.  1994.  The Caregiving Dilemma:  Work in an American Nursing Home.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.

Fox, Renee C.  1959.  Experiment Perilous:  Physicians and Patients Facing the Unknown.  Glencoe, IL: The Free Press. 

Gamst, Frederick C.  1980.  The Hoghead:  An Industrial Ethnology of the Locomotive Engineer.  New York:  Holt Rinehart and Winston.

Gatta, Mary Lizabeth.  2001.  Juggling Food and Feelings:  Emotional Balance in the Workplace.   Lanham, MD:  Lexington.

Germain, Carol P. Hanley.  1979.  The Cancer Unit: An Ethnography. Wakefield MA:  Nursing Resources.  “nurses” and “doctors”

Gouldner, Alvin W.  1964.  Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy.  New York:  Free Press. “miners” and “gypsum plant”

Graham, Laurie.  1995.  On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu.  Ithaca, NY:  Industrial and Labor Relations Press.

Greenberg, Edward S.  1986.  Workplace Democracy.  Ithaca, NY:  Cornell University Press.

Greene, Anne-Marie.  2001.  Voices from the Shopfloor:  Dramas of the Employment Relationship.  Burlington, VT:  Ashgate. 

Grenier, Guillermo J.  1988.  Inhuman Relations:  Quality Circles and Anti-Unionism in American Industry.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Gyllenhammar, Pehr G.  1977.  People at Work.  Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley. “Kalmar,” “Skovde” and “Torslanda”

Haas, J.  1987.  Becoming Doctors:  The Adoption of a Cloak of Competence.  Greenwich, CN:  JAI Press. 

Halle, David.  1984.  America's Working Man.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hamper, Ben.  1991.  Rivethead:  Tales from the Assembly Line.  New York:  Warner.

Haraszti, Miklos.  1978.  A Worker in a Worker's State.  New York:  Universe Books.

Harris, Rosemary.  1987.  Power and Powerlessness in Industry. London:  Tavistock.

Hill, Stephen.  1976.  The Dockers:  Class and Tradition in London.  London:  Heinemann.

Hodgson, Richard C., Daniel J. Levinson, and Abraham Zalenik.  1965.  The Executive Role Constellation:  An Analysis of Personality and Role Relations in Management.  Boston:  Harvard University Press. 

House, J.D.  1977.  Contemporary Entrepreneurs:  The Sociology of Residential Real Estate Agents.  Westport, CN:  Greenwood Press.

Howarth, Glennys.  1996.  Last Rites:  The Work of the Modern Funeral Director.  Amityville, N.Y.:  Baywood.

Hsiung, Ping-Chun.  1996.  Living Rooms as Factories:  Class, Gender, and the Satellite Factory Industry in Taiwan.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Huws, Ursula.  1984.  The Homeworkers' New Technology and the Changing Location of White-Collar Work.  London:  Low Pay Unit.

Jackall, Robert.  1978.  Workers in a Labyrinth:  Jobs and Survival in a Bank Bureaucracy.  Montclair, NJ:  Allanheld and Osmun.  “functional management,” “authoritarian management,” and “enlightened management”

Jackall, Robert.  1988.  Moral Mazes:  The World of Corporate Managers.  New York:  Oxford University.  “Weft Textiles” and “Alchemy Chemicals”

Joffe, Carole.  1986.  The Regulation of Sexuality:  Experiences of Family Planning Workers.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.  

Johnson, Paula J. (ed).  1988.  Working the Water:  The Commercial Fisheries of Maryland's Patuxent River.  Charlottesville, VA:  Calvert Marine Museum and the University Press of Virginia. “oyster shuckers”

Juravich, Tom.  1985.  Chaos on the Shop Floor:  A Worker's View of Quality, Productivity, and Management.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Kamata, Satoshi.  1982.  Japan in the Passing Lane.  New York:  Pantheon Books.  Translated by Tatsuru Akimoto.

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss.  1977.  Men and Women of the Corporation.  New York: Basic Books.  “clerical” and “managers”

Kapferer, Bruce.  1972.  Strategy and Transaction in an African Factory: African Workers and Indian Management in a Zambian Town.  Manchester:  Manchester University Press.

Katz, Pearl.  1999.  The Scalpel's Edge:  The Culture of Surgeons.  Boston:  Allyn and Bacon.

Kesselman, Amy.  1990.  Fleeting Opportunities:  Women Shipyard Workers in Portland and Vancouver During WWII and Reconversion.  Albany, NY:  SUNY Press.

Kidder, Tracy.  1981.  The Soul of a New Machine.  Boston:  Little, Brown.

Kunda, Gideon.  1992.  Engineering Culture:  Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Kusterer, Kenneth.  1978.  Know-How on the Job:  The Important Working Knowledge of 'Unskilled' Workers.  Boulder, CO:                Westview. “bank tellers” and “container manufacturing”

Lawson, Helene M.  2000.  Ladies on the Lot:  Women, Car Sales and the Pursuit of the American Dream.  Rowman and Littlefield.

Latour, Bruno. and Steve Woolgar.  1986.  Laboratory Life:  The Construction of Scientific Facts.  Princeton:  Princeton University Press.

Lee, Ching Kwan.  1998.  Gender and the South China Miracle:  Two Worlds of Factory Women.  Berkeley:  University of California Press. “Shenzhen” and “Hong Kong”

Leidner, Robin.  1993.  Fast Food, Fast Talk:  Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.  “McDonald's” and “Combined Insurance”

Linhart, Robert.  1981.  The Assembly Line.  Amherst:  University of Massachusetts Press.

Lloyd, Timothy C. and Mullen, Patrick, B.  1990.  Lake Erie Fishermen:  Work Identity and Tradition.  Urbana, IL:  University of Illinois Press.

Lo, Jeannie.  1990.  Office Ladies/Factory Women:  Life and Work at a Japanese Factory.  Armonk, NY:  M. E. Sharpe, Inc.  “office” and “factory”

Lombard, George Francis Fabyan.  1955.  Behavior in a Selling Group:  A Case Study of Interpersonal Relations in a Department Store.  Boston:  Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.

Lupton, Tom.  1963.  On the Shop Floor:  Two Studies of Workshop Organization and Output.  New York:  Pergamon Press. “garment manufacture” and “electrical manufacture”

Mannon, James M.  1991.  Emergency Encounters: EMTs and Their Work.  Boston:  Jones and Bartlett.  “EMT's” and “paramedics”

Mansbridge, Jane.  1980.  Beyond Adversary Democracy.  New York:  Basic.

Mars, Gerald and Michael Nicod.  1984.  The World of Waiters.  London:  George Allen and Unwin.  “53 employees,” “35 employees,” “48 employees, 0% female,” “0% female,” and “40 employees, 40% female”

Martin, Susan Ehrlich.  1980.  Breaking and Entering: Policewomen on Patrol.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.

McCabe, Darren.  2007.  Power at Work:  How Employees Reproduce the Corporate Machine.  London:  Routledge.

McCarl, Robert.  1985.  The District of Columbia's Fire Fighters' Project:  A Case Study in Occupational Folklife.  Washington, DC:  Smithsonian Institution Press.

McNally, Fiona.  1979.  Women for Hire.  New York:  St. Martin.

Mehri, Darius.  2005.  Notes from Toyota-Land: An American Engineer in Japan.  Ithaca, NY:  Industrial and Labor Relations Press. 

Mers, Gilbert. 1988.  Working the Waterfront:  The Ups and Downs of A Rebel Longshoreman.  Austin:  University of Texas Press.

Metz, Donald L.  1981.  Running Hot:  Structure and Stress in Ambulance Work.  Cambridge, MA:  ABT Books. 

Milkman, Ruth  1997.  Farewell to the Factory:  Auto Workers in the Late Twentieth Century.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.

Miller, Gale.  1991.  Enforcing the Work Ethic:  Rhetoric and Everyday Life in a Work Incentive Program.  Albany:  State University of New York Press.

Millman, Marcia.  1976.  The Unkindest Cut:  Life in the Backrooms of Medicine.  New York:  William Morrow.

Morrill, Calvin.  1995.  The Executive Way:  Conflict Management in Corporations.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.  “old financial,” “independent accounting” and “toy manufacturing”

Newman, Katherine S.  1999.  No Shame in My Game:  The Working Poor in the Inner City.  New York:  Russell Sage.

Nichols, Theo.  1977.  Living with Capitalism:  Class Relations and the Modern Factory.  London:  Routledge.

Ogasawara, Yuko.  1998.  Office Ladies and Salaried Men:  Power, Gender, and Work in Japanese Companies.  Berkeley, CA:  University of California Press.

Orbach, Michael.  1977.  Hunters, Seamen and Entrepreneurs.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.

Orr, Julian.  1996.  Talking about Machines:  An Ethnography of a Modern Job.  New York:  Cornell University Press. 

Ospina, Sonia.  1996.  Illusions of Opportunity:  Employee Expectations and Workplace Inequality.  Albany, N.Y.:  State University of New York Press.  “analysts,” “clerical” and “operators”

Ouellet, Lawrence J.  1994.  Pedal to the Metal:  The Work Lives of Truckers.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.  “agrihaul,” “sandhaul” and “petrohaul”

Palm, Goran.  1977.  The Flight from Work.  Cambridge, England:  Cambridge University Press.

Paules, Greta Foff.  1991.  Dishing it Out:  Power and Resistance among Waitresses in a New Jersey Restaurant.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.  “waitresses” and “managers”

Perry, Stewart E. 1978.  San Francisco Scavengers:  Dirty Work and the Pride of Ownership.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.

Pfeffer, Richard M.  1979.  Working for Capitalism.  New York:  Columbia University Press.

Pierce, Jennifer.  1995.  Gender Trials:  Emotional Lives in Contemporary Law Firms.  Berkeley:  University of California Press.  “paralegals” and “lawyers”

Pilcher, William W.  1972.  The Portland Longshoremen:  A Dispersed  Urban Community.  New York:  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Pine, Vanderlyn R.  1965.  Caretaker of the Dead:  The American Funeral Director.  New York:  Irvington.

Pollert, Anna.  1981.  Girls, Wives, Factory Lives.  London:  MacMillan.

Powell, Walter W.  1985.  Getting Into Print:  The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing.  Chicago:  University of Chicago.  “Apple” (small firm) and “Plum” (large firm)

Power-Waters, Brian.  1980.  Margin for Error?  None. Chestertown, MD:  Pierce.

Pun, Ngai.  2005.  Made in China:  Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace.  Durham, NC:  Duke University Press. 

Reiter, Ester.  1992.  Making Fast Food:  From the Frying Pan into the Fryer.  Montreal:  McGill-Queen's University Press. 

Rinehart, James W., Christopher Huxley and David Robertson.  1997.  Just Another Car Factory?  Lean Production and Its Discontents.  Ithaca, N.Y.:  Cornell University Press. 

Roberson, James.  1998.  Japanese Working Class Lives:  An Ethnographic Study of Factory Workers.  London:  Routledge.

Roberts, Glenda.  1994.  Staying on the Line:  Blue-Collar Women in Contemporary Japan.  Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press.

Roger, Sidney.  1983.  “American Seamen on the Hoegh Mallard.”  Pp. 1-113 in Robert Schrank (ed.), Industrial Democracy at Sea:  Authority and Democracy on a Norwegian Freighter.  Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press.

Rollins, Judith.  1985.  Between Women:  Domestics and Their Employers.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.

Rubinstein, Jonathan.  1973.  City Police.  New York:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Rutten, Rosanne.  1982.  Women Workers of Hacienda Milagros.  Amsterdam:  Universiteit van Amsterdam.

Santino, Jack.  1989.  Miles of Smiles, Years of Struggle:  Stories of Black Pullman Porters.  Urbana, IL:  University of Illinois Press.

Savage, C. H. and George F. F. Lombard.  1986.  Sons of the Machine.  Cambridge, MA:  MIT Press. “tableware, la Blanca,” “tableware, Santuario” and “men's suits”

Scott, Andrew.  1994.  Willing Slaves?  British Workers under Human Resource Management.  Cambridge:  Cambridge University Press.  “food factory,” “cookie factory” and “chocolate factory”

Seider, Maynard,  1984.  A Year in the Life of a Factory.  San Pedro, CA:  Singlejack Books.

Sherman, Rachel.  2007.  Class Acts:  Work in Luxury Hotels.  Berkeley: University of California Press. “Luxury Garden” and “Royal Court”

Simonds, Wendy.  1996.  Abortion at Work:  Ideology and Practice in a Feminist Clinic.  New Brunswick, NJ:  Rutgers University Press.

Smigel, Erwin O.  1969.  The Wall Street Lawyer: Professional Organizational Man?  New York:  Free Press.

Smith, Vicki.  1990.  Managing in the Corporate Interest:  Control and Resistance in an American Bank.  Berkeley:  University of California Press. “branch banking,” “systems management” and “credit card”

Spencer, Charles.  1977.  Blue Collar:  An Internal Examination of the Workplace.  Chicago:  Lakeside Press.

Spradley, James P. and Brenda J. Mann.  1975.  The Cocktail Waitress: Woman's Work in a Man's World.  New York: Wiley.

Street, Annette Fay.  1992.  Inside Nursing: A Critical Ethnography of Clinical Nursing Practice.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press. 

Stross, Randall E.  2001.  eBoys:  The First Inside Account of Venture Capitalists at Work.  New York:  Ballantine.

Swerdlow, Marian.  1998.  Underground Women:  My Four Years as a New York City Subway Conductor.  Philadelphia:  Temple University Press.  4 years of personal experience in New York. 

Theberge, Nancy.  2000.  Higher Goals:  Women's Ice Hockey and the Politics of Gender.  Albany:  State University of New York Press.

Traweek, Sharon.  1988.  Beamtimes and Lifetimes:  The World of High Energy Physics.  Cambridge, Massachusetts:  Harvard University Press.  “U.S. composite case”

Tucker, James.  1999.  The Therapeutic Corporation.  New York:  Oxford University Press.

Turner, Steve.  1980.  Night Shift in a Pickle Factory.  San Pedro, CA:  Singlejack Books.

Vecsey, George.  1974.  One Sunset a Week:  The Story of a Coal Miner.  New York:  E.P. Dutton.

Vincent, Claude L.  1979.  Policeman.  Toronto:  Gage.

Wah, Wong Heung.  1999.  Japanese Bosses, Chinese Workers:  Power and Control in a Hong Kong Megastore.  Honolulu:  University of Hawaii Press.  “Chinese workers” and “Japanese bosses”

Wajcman, Judy.  1983.  Women in Control:  Dilemmas of a Workers' Co-operative.  New York, NY:  St. Martin's Press.

Walker, Charles R.  [1977] 1957.  Toward the Automatic Factory:  A Case Study of Men and Machines.  New Haven, CN:  Yale University Press.

Walker, Charles R., Robert H. Guest and Arthur N. Turner.  [1987] 1956.  The Foreman on the Assembly Line.  Cambridge:  Harvard University Press.

Walker, Charles R., and Robert H. Guest.  1952.  The Man on the Assembly Line.  Cambridge:  Harvard University Press.

Watson, Tony.  1994.  In Search of Management.  London:  Routledge.

Wedderburn, Dorothy.  1972.  Workers' Attitudes and Technology. London:  Cambridge University Press. “process workers A,” “process workers B & C,” “machine operators C” and “boilmakers”

Weinberg, Dana Beth.  2004.  Code Green: Money-Driven Hospitals and the Dismantling of Nursing.   Ithaca, NY:  Industrial and Labor Relations Press. 

Westwood, Sallie.  1982.  All Day, Every Day:  Factory and Family in the Making of Women's Lives.  London:  Pluto Press.

Whyte, William Foote.  1948.  Human Relations in the Restaurant Industry.  New York:  McGraw Hill. 

Williams, Bruce B.  1987.  Black Workers in an Industrial Suburb:  The Struggle Against Discrimination.  New Brunswick, NJ:  Rutgers University Press.

Williams, Claire.  1981.  Open Cut:  The Working Class in an Australian Mining Town.  Boston, MA:  Allen and Unwin.

Wilkinson-Weber, Clare M.  1999.   Embroidering Lives:  Women's Work in the Lucknow Embroidery Industry.  Albany, NY:  State University of New York Press.

Wolcott, Harry F.  1973.  The Man in the Principal's Office.  New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Zell, Deone.  1997.  Changing by Design:  Organizational Innovation at Hewlett-Packard.  Ithaca, NY:  Industrial and Labor Relations Press.  “engineers in Santa Clara”

Zimmer, Lynn.  1986.  Women Guarding Men.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Zussman, Robert.  1992.  Intensive Care:  Medical Ethics and the Medical Profession.  Chicago:  University of Chicago Press.

Zussman, Robert.  1985.  Mechanics of the Middle Class:  Work and Politics among American Engineers.  Berkeley, CA:  University of California Press.  “Precision Metals” and “Contronics”