Environmental Engineering Reference
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approaches lies in understanding the degree of control the ethnographer has over
the design (means) and the implementation (ends) of the study.
Administrative Ethnographers
Administrative ethnographers have control over the means—not the ends—
of their efforts. These ethnographers may conduct the research, but adminis-
trators design and implement the program or innovation. Much of my own
ethnographic evaluation work falls into this category (Fetterman, 1984;
Fetterman & Pitman, 1986). For example, in the dropout study, I conducted the
research, but three other agencies were responsible for operating the program,
modifying it according to the research findings, and providing funding. A mul-
titude of vested interests pull at the administrative ethnographer, including the
demands of students, teachers, parents, school administrators, local school
agencies, program disseminators, sponsors, and the average taxpayer.
Traditional anthropological training prepares ethnographers for handling a
variety of conflicting worldviews in research but not for solving the convoluted
and tortuous ethical dilemmas that emerge from this context. For example, a clas-
sic dilemma for administrative ethnographers involves the reporting of findings.
Traditional training states that ethnographers must share their research with all
parties involved. In the dropout study, the government contract protocol required
that the research report go to the sponsor and to the agency disseminating the
programs. At the time the research organization signed the contract to study these
programs, it had every reason to believe that the disseminating agency was serv-
ing the programs' best interests and would share this information with them.
The agency disseminating the programs, however, did not want two of the
local dropout programs to have the information. The rationale was that one
program was new and might not be capable of interpreting the findings in a
constructive and productive manner. The other program was vying with the
disseminator for control of the entire operation. This constraint placed us in a
difficult position. The research corporation arrived at a creative solution: It
delivered the report to the disseminating agency and sponsor, as the contract
required. A letter accompanying the report stated that the researcher would
request comments directly from each program by the end of the month. The
letter also explained that in the event a response was not forthcoming from
each program, the researcher would assume that the report had been lost in the
mail and would then contact the programs directly—sending them “another”
copy of the report. This strategy placed a check on the distribution of drafts
without compromising the researcher's role or violating the protocol.
When ethnographers work as management consultants in universities and
corporations, the problem is twofold. In this type of setting, the ethnographer
