My colleagues and my filing cabinet: insider research access for part-time post-graduate students

Access is described as “one of the key and yet most difficult steps” in organizational research (Bryman and Bell, 2007:444). Typical definitions of business research access in the methods literature emphasise physical entry to premises and the establishment and maintenance of relationships with gate-keepers and potential respondents (Bryman and Bell, 2007:444; Coffey, 2006:1). This implies that the part-time student conducting insider research at their own workplace has nothing more to do to achieve the necessary access.