The ethnography of organizational change

Yale School of Management (SOM) organizational ethnographer Julia DiBenigno spends years meticulously observing and interviewing people at work. By taking seriously their lived experience, she can uncover the root causes of complex problems and devise solutions that change organizations for the better.

Ted O’Callahan of Yale SOM interviewed her.

When you read about organizations and organizational dynamics in a textbook, it all sounds so rational and orderly. But as everyone who has worked in an organization knows, there are subcultures, politics, and hierarchies. Navigating all that isn’t orderly or completely rational.

I think ethnography is a really important way to keep our theories about organizations grounded in reality. It does that by capturing the full richness and complexity of organizational life.