Armed with lipstick cameras, digital editing equipment and a PhD in institutional interaction, micro ethnographer Curtis LeBaron — a professor of organizational leadership and management communication at Brigham Young University's Marriott School of Management — examines the problems in corporate communication infrastructures frame by frame.
"I use technology to capture every-day life in business organizations, then I analyze what people actually do — rather than what they may think they do," LeBaron said. "Businesses seem to like this approach because formulaic solutions aren't always tailored to the needs of a specific organization."
One of LeBaron's favorite organizations to analyze is his own management communications 505 class. He turns his students into their own guinea pigs by recording every class period and having them analyze their own group structure and communication patterns at the end of the semester.
"Today's technologically savvy students really latched on to Dr. LeBaron's research methods," said Professor Stanley E. Jones, a former colleague of LeBaron's at the University of Colorado at Boulder. "He was liked so well that he was voted by students to be the recipient of the SOAR award, one of the university's most prestigious teaching awards."
LeBaron's hands-on, technology-rich style of data collection and analysis has appealed not only to his students in the classroom but also to various companies across America. By utilizing programs such as Adobe Premiere and Sound Edit 16, LeBaron is able to more accurately locate and understand communication-based problems that underlie organizational troubles.
"His research approach is becoming increasingly valued by organizations that want to gain a deeper understanding of how meaning and insight are really created through communication," said Michael P. Thompson, director of the Marriott School's Organizational Leadership and Strategy department. "He puts a powerful lens on processes that most of us talk about rather than observe."
The Marriott School is located at Brigham Young University, the largest privately owned, church-sponsored university in the United States. The school has nationally and internationally ranked programs in accountancy, business management, information systems, organizational behavior and entrepreneurship. The mission of the Marriott School is to educate men and women of faith, character and professional ability who will become outstanding managers and leaders throughout the world. Approximately 3,000 students are enrolled in the Marriott School's graduate and undergraduate programs.
_
Writer: S. Wade Hansen
