Anthropology in business...is that possible?
Business anthropology by definition is an anthropological practice that applies the theories and methods of the discipline to the problem solving activity in private sector organizations, especially industrial firms. Recent research efforts in business anthropology are concentrated in three large areas these are marketing and consumer behavior, organizational theory and culture, and international business (especially international marketing, intercultural management, and intercultural communication).
Early 1930's the cultural anthropologists have performed several of research about industrial and corporate settings, focusing largely on corporate cultures in the United States. For instance, the human relations school of organizational research of the 1930s and 1940s produced a number of ethnographies showing how informal cultural patterns could influence managerial goals. More new studies of corporate cultures have endeavored to show how precise configurations of values added to the relative success or failure of meeting corporate goals.
It has been projected that around 15 percent of all anthropologists in the United States work in the private sector of the economy, up from about 2 percent just two decades ago. With their traditional importance on participant observation, business anthropologists are in exceptional position to collect information on grass-roots corporate culture from the bottom up. To illustrate, some corporation used an anthropologist to help the company devise more effective training programs for their service technicians.
Failure to consider the cultural context in the domestic organization can, and has led to misunderstandings, miscommunication, lawsuits, and generally an undermining of the goals of organization. When moving into the area of international business, the need to be aware of cultural environments becomes even more critical. Here the magnitude of the cultural differences is vastly greater, and consequently, breakdowns of the communications usually increase geometrically. Although the anthropological perspective is valuable in understanding any business organization, be it domestic or international, Business Anthropology 3150 will focus on contributions that business anthropology can make to the improvement of international business operations.
Research has shown that failures in the overseas business setting most often result from an incapability to understand and adjust to foreign ways of thinking and acting rather than from technical or professional ineffectiveness. The world is shifting faster than most of us can calculate, and if American businesspersons are to meet the challenges of a progressively more interdependent world, they will need to build up a better understanding of how cultural variables influence international business enterprises. A healthy communication between business anthropologists and members of the international business community which this course seeks to initiate will be an important step in achieving that needed understanding.
