Immersion in Organizational Ethnography: Four Methodological Requirements to Immerse Oneself in the Field

Abstract

This article addresses the question of how to achieve immersion in organizational ethnography. Working through a broad set of ethnographies in organization studies, sociology, and anthropology, I develop a multi-faceted conceptualization of immersion and offer a framework that integrates four methodological principles—involvement, engagement, duration, and sites—to help organizational ethnographers achieve immersion. In closing, I discuss how this framework advances ongoing debates about involvement, multi-sitedness, and fieldwork design, resulting in a more systematic and reflexive approach to immersion in organizational ethnography.