IT University Travel Report
Study Programme at IT University : GBI
Activity Abroad: Ethnographic field work
Exchange Period: semester (autumn/spring) spring year 2015
Your stay abroad
Please describe your stay abroad:
Our group was conducting ethnographic field work assignment within a company in Dubai as a
mandatory part of semester. We had to apply different theories that were taught during the courses
and interview as well as observe employees to thoroughly understand how collaborative work is
being done. During three consecutive days of field work during which we undertaken different tasks
as observing, interviewing, consulting, analyzing and other ways of information gathering we came
up with a relevant research question. Based on RQ which then became major interest and focus
around we continued research in the same ways and by the last day of ethnographic field work our
group finally had enough data collected to process once back to university. The very final result and
goal of this research was to answer the research question applying various ethnographic practices
and indicate the workflow in the report.
What was your initial motivation for going abroad and did your stay meet your expectations?
Motivation was to perform our research in a company that is not only global and stretched in its size,
but to also observe how the work is being done in another country with a vivid cultures clash.
Please describe what you got out of your stay, both personally and academically, and how do you
expect it to contribute to your further studies?
After conducting field work research I definitely had gained lots of knowledge about collaborative
work practices in companies that have employees teamed up for the same project from all around
the world. Yet I had a chance to talk to people who are in charge of really big projects and are
decision makers for multi-million dollars contracts. From academic perspective, after conducting
multiple interviews and observations I had practically experienced how ethnographic research is
performed. Also it was a really good chance due to environment (company and collaborative
employees) try out theoretical concepts of ethnography which we were taught during IT&Work
design course.
Arranging your stay
Please give a short description of the process involved in arranging your stay:
One of our group members had relatives living in Dubai, so arranging a stay at theirs was a smooth
and easy process.
Expenses and Financing
Please comment on expenses connected to your stay abroad
The only expenses that we were involved into was food and after-work activities
Did you apply for scholarships and would you recommend any ones in particular?
We applied for ITU travel pool funding to cover flight expenses
Recommendations for other students:
If one gets an opportunity to do such a research in a company abroad, he/she definitely has to go for
it. It definitely gives you a good insight in a work environment which is not necessarily the same that
you’re used to. Therefore, having an overview of different cultural work practices equips you with a
background knowledge and understanding what to expect from working abroad and what pros and
cons of that could be.