Indexicality, Accountability, and Reflexivity in Ethnomethodology: Sense-making of Social Actions of Stakeholders for Sustainable Outcomes

In this case study, we have explained the use of ethnomethodology as a theoretical perspective or a “paradigm of social inquiry” for evaluating actions and reasoning by diverse stakeholders engaged in developing sustainability outcomes. The case study is centered on understanding the nature of social interactions among diverse stakeholders and how that knowledge can be used to promote sustainable business outcomes in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sector. By using multiple data collection methods—documents, semi-structured interviews, and Web-based forms—we reflect on three important notions of ethnomethodology: indexicality, accountability, and reflexivity. Our study helped us answer the simple question “How do different stakeholders make sense of their practices to achieve sustainable outcomes?” We further reflected on the challenges of using all methods used for data collection and analysis, in particular semi-structured interviews and Web-based forms, which are less commonly used in ethnomethodology studies. Through this case, we have highlighted how multiple data sources can be integrated and used to make sense of the social world for sustainable outcomes.