Mind the Gap: The Case for Adopting an Ethno-Drama Writing Style in Sensitive Organizational Ethnography

By their nature, ethnographic studies involve defined research settings and therefore there is a greater risk that the identity of either the organization or organizational members may be recognisable to others. Drawing on my experiences of conducting a three-year, multi-sited ethnographic study with three English fire and rescue services and an independent fire training organisation, I explore the difficulties of presenting and publishing research findings whilst protecting the anonymity of the research setting. I suggest that the use of ethnodrama, a method of presenting research findings in the form of a dram script, not only protects the anonymity of the research setting, but also enables the researcher to present an ethnography in a safe, ethical and yet provocative way that brings the research setting ‘alive’ for the reader.