Do you want to know more about business anthropology?

[Robert Guang Tian]

Business anthropology professors at Wayne State University define business anthropology as applying anthropological theories and practices to the needs of private sector organizations, especially industrial firms. Current research initiatives in the field tend to be concentrated in (1) marketing and consumer behavior, (2) organizational theory and culture, (3) international business, especially international marketing, intercultural management, as well as intercultural communication, and (4) product design and development. Of course due to the nature of anthropology the implication of anthropology in the business world is unlimited, it can be extended to all the function areas of business. Accordingly, we define business anthropology as a practical oriented scholastic field in which business anthropologists apply anthropological theories and methods to identify and solve real business problems in everyday life.

Moreover, we define business anthropologists as all those anthropologists who study business fields of management, operations, marketing, product design and development, consumer behavior, organizational culture, human resources management, international business, and so on, through anthropological methods, particularly through ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, informal and structured interviews, and other anthropological based research methods. Business anthropologists are able to play key roles in business world, such as help corporations develop culturally appropriate ways of doing business with suppliers, business partners, or customers; promote smooth working relationships among employees who are more and more likely, thanks to recent equal opportunity employment legislation, to represent different age groups, ethnic groups, and both sexes.

 

I have built a blog after Pedro built his blog on business anthropology, when you have time please come and visit us: http://businessanthropology.blogspot.com, we have a online discussion group and you are welcome to register, please click the button just below the picutre of tractors in my blog home page.  You can also join the discussion group by click the button in Pedro's blog.