Boundary work: a conceptual frame for workplace ethnographies in collaborative settings
Journal of Organizational Ethnography
ISSN: 2046-6749
Article publication date: 14 June 2024
Issue publication date: 8 July 2024
Abstract
Purpose
Interprofessional collaboration and coordination are critical to developing solutions to complex problems, and many workplaces engage in coordination and collaboration across organizational boundaries. This development changes work conditions and workplaces for many people. The ethnographic study of workplaces needs to re-configure the toolbox to adjust to such changes. The purpose of this study was to explore how the ethnographic study of dispersed workplaces can benefit from the analytical concept of boundary work.
Design/methodology/approach
A multi-sited ethnographic study was conducted in two health promotion programs, introducing new collaborative relations across sectors and professions. The concept of boundary work was applied as the conceptual frame and introduced the diagnosis of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) as a boundary object.
Findings
Professional boundaries are key to understanding interorganizational and interprofessional collaborations. The ethnographic study of complex, multi-sited settings using boundary work as a conceptual framework can enrich workplace ethnographies by demonstrating how professions position themselves through framing. Such framing strategies are used to construct, defend or contest boundaries. Boundary objects may potentially bridge devices connecting people across boundaries.
Originality/value
The traditional ethnographic notion of “following” an object or a subject is difficult in a workplace environment dispersed across multiple sites and involving many different actors. This suggests that workplace ethnographies studying interorganizational workplaces would benefit from a shift in focus from place-based or group-based ethnography to a field-level ethnography of relations using boundary work as an analytical frame.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge the support of the two health care programs involved in our research. In particular we wish to thank the project coordinator of the urban program who provided access to infromants and reflections on our findings. Further we wish to thank all the informants who participated in the interviews. Their engagement and insights have been invaluable. We also wish to thank the reviewers for their constructive feedback on earlier drafts of this article and the editorial team for their support. Finally we would like to acknowledge the financial support of Helsefonden and Steno Diabetes Center Aarhus.
Citation
Fehsenfeld, M., Mejsner, S.B., Maindal, H.T. and Burau, V. (2024), "Boundary work: a conceptual frame for workplace ethnographies in collaborative settings", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 274-289. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-06-2023-0032
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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