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The Clinical Perspective in Fieldwork (Qualitative Research Methods)

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In this book Schein make his point regarding two very different roles, that, in practice, very often become merged and mixed: the role of the ethnographer as an "invisible" recorder of the nature of a given culture or organization, where he is expected to be unobtrusive and not affecting the daily activities in the place studied.

At the other hand, the clinical perspective, stemming from action research, is a very different role: the clinician is not impartial nor uninvolved. The clinician is usually a consultant brought in specifically to effect change in an organization, but in order to change it he needs to gain trust of members of that organization, and most of all, be helpful.

In this small booklet makes Schein his first plea for the clinical perspective, later called clinical inquiry/research. He states that consultants are in the best position to do organizational research because the clients invite them to help solving organizational problems. Consultants will gather more relevant data of what is really going in the power centres of organizations than any ethnograph. His plea is today as relevant as it was 20 years ago and reading this book will initate the reader in the 'secrets' of clinical inquiry/research.