From Access Challenges (as Data) to Methodological Insights: Enhancing Qualitative Inquiries in Public Administration Research

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241263971
• Author: Bruno Luiz Americo,Stewart Clegg,César Tureta
• Date: 01 September 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/00953997241263971

Administration & Society

2024, Vol. 56(8) 941 –971

© The Author(s) 2024

Article reuse guidelines:

sagepub.com/journals-permissions

DOI: 10.1177/00953997241263971

journals.sagepub.com/home/aas

Article

From Access

Challenges (as Data) to

Methodological Insights:

Enhancing Qualitative

Inquiries in Public

Administration Research

Bruno Luiz Americo1, Stewart Clegg2,3,4,5,6,

and César Tureta7

Abstract

Little attention has been given to questions of blocked access in public

administration research. We draw on past scholarship on access: qualitative

research accounts in public administration that address access processes,

problems, and possibilities; and our own experience with access challenges

in a public school setting involving public sector employees. This allowed

us to detail three methodological principles to facilitate the initiation of

ethnographic research while access was constantly (re)negotiated: accounting

for regulations, rules, and ruling artifacts; meaningful events; and routine

and non-routine artifacts. We investigated public administration regulations,

1 Academic Department of Management Sciences, School of Government and Public Policy,

and Doctorate in Strategic Management, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (PUCP),

San Miguel, Lima, Perú

2Management Department, UTS Business School

3 School of Project Management and John Grill Institute for Project Leadership, University of

Sydney, Forest Lodge, NSW, Australia

4The University of Stavanger Business School, Norway

5University of Johannesburg, South Africa

6Nova School of Business and Economics, Carcevelos, Portugal

7Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, ES -Brasil

Corresponding Author:

Bruno Luiz Americo, Academic Department of Management Sciences, School of Government

and Public Policy, and Doctorate in Strategic Management, Pontificia Universidad Católica del

Perú (PUCP), Av. Universitaria 1801, San Miguel, Lima 15088, Perú.

Email: bamerico@pucp.edu.pe

1263971AAS0010.1177/00953997241263971Administration & SocietyAmerico et al.

research-article2024

942 Administration & Society 56(8)

events, and artifacts, developing and employing an empirical method to collect

data under conditions where access to primary field sites is blocked based

on the boundary condition of our investigation. By describing the research

findings and their applications, we demonstrate that conceptualizing access

problems as multiple data layers can provide researchers with profound

insights into relational dynamics, thereby enriching qualitative inquiry in

public administration research. We conclude by arguing that this approach

remains highly relevant even as field access is constantly negotiated.

Keywords

public administration, access, public organizations, regulations, sociomateriality,

organizational ethnography

Introduction

Successful organizational research frequently depends on negotiating access

to collect data. The project here took shape because access to the classroom

situation in a primary school organization was denied. Negotiating access to

the public school as a site for fieldwork was relatively easy. Access to the

school did not mean one could access the classroom; the teachers were the

barrier to this. The school was open, but the classroom teachers were not.

“Openness” may vary depending on many factors: the organization funding

the project, the influence of research subjects, the local political context of

the organization, and the degree of government secrecy (Gains, 2011; Guiney,

2020). As Rhodes (2005) states, “even if more research does equate to less

secrecy, it is not synonymous with open” (p. 21). Despite public organiza-

tions being increasingly open to research due to civil service reform and free-

dom of information acts in different countries, gaining access as a qualitative

researcher can still be limited. Qualitative methods have been a central aspect

of public administration research (Brower et al., 2000), presupposing open

access to the people who are the fieldwork subjects (Gains, 2011; Mathur &

Skelcher, 2007). A corollary of gaining such access is that the researcher’s

relation to research participants matters (Brower et al., 2000; Grant, 2017;

Wagenaar, 2004), with access to privileged informants and situations through

building trust and networks a vital issue (Kwa, 2022; Matheson, 2019;

Oelberger, 2018). Grant’s (2017) discussion of research design and method-

ology highlights that gaining access is presumed to be a relatively unprob-

lematic first step for researchers. The construction and negotiation of access

as a central ethical, analytical, and methodological concern for many social