Ground Truth

Verification Games in Operational Meteorology

Bibliographic Data

ID2365197
AuthorsGary Alan Fine (0000-0002-2431-1562, Northwestern University, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume35
Issue1
Pages3-23
Publication date2006-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Ethnography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0891-2416 • E-ISSN: 1552-5414
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0891241605282241
OpenAlexW2144334604
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited23

To gain occupational legitimacy, workers depend on claims of accuracy. How are these claims assessed? Organizations judge competence and effectiveness using metrics, which can be massaged. Using a case study of operational meteorology, the author examines the organizational and self-presentational politics whereby meteorologists verify their predictions. Forecasts of future events are central to occupational work in operational meteorology. However, assessing what really happened "on the ground" is not unproblematic. So, meteorologists and their employers construct measures for assessments, even though these assessments are social and organizational routines. Verification statistics are signals whereby local offices are judged on effectiveness, and as a result, workers develop strategies to increase their verification scores. The author examines the production of verification at three local offices of the National Weather Service using ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews. Similar strategies operate when workers are judged in accountability systems, leading to forms of organizational impression management to demonstrate competence

Accountability · Competence (human resources · Impression management · Legitimacy · Political science · Politics · Presentational and representational acting · Public relations · Sociology · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Psychology · Social Psychology

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