A Tale from the field: reflexivity during management research in an African based development organisation

This article is a product of the reflexive experience of data collection and analysis ina development organisation in Uganda. Several studies provide helpful debatesabout managing people in Africa. However, existent literature seldom coverspertinent issues related to collecting and analysing ethnographic data reflexivelyin African-based organisations. And yet, critical self-scrutiny and reflexivity toaccount for the researcher’s identity in the research processes is vital for thequality of thefindings. The key research questions for this paper are: how doesthe identity of an African researcher who was trained in‘Western’managementtheories, worked in an organisation in Africa, and then educated within a‘Western’setting affect the character of data generated? And does such asresearcher fully become‘one of them’, or effectively remain an independentresearcher? This paper discusses the process and results of the reflexive processthrough which answers to these questions were explored.