The 1980s and 1990s have been a time of change for organizations, with a preoccupation for changing `organizational culture', a concept attributed to anthropology. These changes have been accompanied by questions about different styles of organizing. In both public and private sector organizations and in the first and third worlds, there is now a concern to understand how organizational change can be achieved, how indigenous practices can be incorporated to maximum effect, and how opportunities can be improved for disadvantaged groups, particularly women. The Anthropology of Organizations questions `organizational culture' as a tool of management and presents and analyses the latest anthropological work on the management of organizations and their development, demonstrating the use of recent theory and examining the practical problems which anthropology can help to solve.

The Anthropology of Organisations offers a critical overview of the work that for over sixty years anthropologists have been carrying out in and on organisations and of the contribution that this work has made to social theory at large. Moving beyond earlier preoccupations with ’culture’ and ’relationality’, the volume brings together a selection of classic and contemporary articles that cast new light on the relevance of ethnography for organisational and social theory. It offers an indispensable resource for students and scholars interested in the politics behind the institutionalisation of social life.

The first comprehensive guide to anthropological studies of complex organizations Offers the first comprehensive reference to the anthropological study of complex organizations Details how organizational theory and research in business has adopted anthropology’s key concept of culture, inspiring new insights into organizational dynamics and development Highlights pioneering theoretical perspectives ranging from symbolic and semiotic approaches to neuroscientific frameworks for studying contemporary organizations Addresses the comparative and cross-cultural dimensions of multinational corporations and of non-governmental organizations working in the globalizing economy Topics covered include organizational dynamics, entrepreneurship, innovation, social networks, cognitive models and team building, organizational dysfunctions, global networked organizations, NGOs, unions, virtual communities, corporate culture and social responsibility Presents a body of work that reflects the breadth and depth of the field of organizational anthropology and makes the case for the importance of the field in the anthropology of the twenty-first century

No challenge is entirely new. In 60,000 years of human existence, nearly every problem we face in modern business has already been seen...and solved. We just have to figure out how to apply that age-old tribal wisdom to our current circumstances. The Corporate Tribe will take you on a journey to discover the essence of culture and the secret to successful change programs. Along the way, it will introduce you to the cultural traditions of different people across the globe and provide you with the practical tools you need to apply what you find to today’s organizations. Through thirty compelling stories, The Corporate Tribe will reveal what, deep down, you already know. At turns unfamiliar and disruptive, illuminating and inspirational, The Corporate Tribe offers a powerful paradigm and skillset for tackling organizational and leadership challenges in the twenty-first century and beyond. It is a book for leaders, consultants and advisors who are looking for a fresh perspective and proven solutions, for those who want to build strong communities that are safe for diversity and ready for change. Danielle Braun and Jitske Kramer are corporate anthropologists. They look at organizations as tribes, organizational charts as kinship systems, leaders as chiefs and mission documents as totem poles. Travel with them to places where spirits linger after death, magic is real and rituals are the key to maintaining order and facilitating transition. You will never look at your organization—or approach its problems—the same way again.

Organisational Anthropology, newly published in paperback, is a pioneering analysis of doing ethnographic fieldwork in different types of complex organisations. The book focuses on the process of initiating contact, establishing rapport and gaining the trust of the organisation's members. The contributors work from the premise that doing fieldwork in an organisation shares essential characteristics with fieldwork in more 'classical' anthropological environments, but that it also poses some particular challenges to the ethnographer. These include the ideological or financial interests of the organisations, protection of resources and competition between organisations. Organisational Anthropology brings together and highlights crucial aspects of doing anthropology in contemporary complex settings, and will have wide appeal to students, researchers and academics in anthropology and organisation studies.

Just as newspapers do not, typically, engage with the ordinary experiences of people′s daily lives, so organizational studies has also tended largely to ignore the humdrum, everyday experiences of people working in organizations. However, ethnographic approaches provide in-depth and up-close understandings of how the ′everyday-ness′ of work is organized and how, in turn, work itself organizes people and the societies they inhabit. Organizational Ethnography brings contributions from leading scholars in organizational studies that serve to unpack an ethnographic perspective on organizations and organizational research. The authors explore the particular problems faced by organizational ethnographers, including: - questions of gaining access to research sites within organizations; - the many styles of writing organizational ethnography; - the role of friendship relations in the field; - problems of distance and closeness; - the doing of at-home ethnography; - ethical issues; - standards for evaluating ethnographic work. This book is a vital resource for organizational scholars and students doing or writing ethnography in the fields of business and management, public administration, education, health care, social work, or any related field in which organizations play a role.

In this volume, Schwartzman evaluates the range of ethnographic research that has been conducted on organizations. She also examines such important topics as: the roles and methods utilized by organizational ethnographers; the problems and prospects for conducting fieldwork in organizations; and the role that everyday but often overlooked routines - like meetings and story telling - play in the production and reproduction of organizations, institutions and society.