Gesture Analysis and Organizational Research: The Development and Application of a Protocol for Naturalistic Settings

Abstract

Gestures are an underresearched but potentially significant aspect of organizational conduct that is relevant to researchers across a range of theoretical and empirical domains. In engaging the cross-disciplinary field of gesture studies, we develop and apply a protocol for analyzing gestures produced in naturalistic settings during ongoing streams of talk and embodied activity. Analyzing video recordings of entrepreneurial investor pitches, we work through this protocol and demonstrate its usefulness. While doing so, we also explore methodological tensions in gesture studies and draw out methodological arguments as they relate to the analysis of these fleeting and often intricate bodily movements. The article contributes a generally applicable protocol for the analysis of gestures in naturalistic settings, and it assesses the methodological implications of this protocol both for research on entrepreneurship and new venture creation and management and organization research more generally.