As I've talked with folks about my academic training and work in the field of business anthropology, one common response I get is: "Wow! That's cool! So, what in the world is business anthropology?" One of my assignments this week was to read a chapter written by Marietta Baba from a book called Applied Anthropology: Domains of Application and write a synopsis. I immediately saw it as an opportunity to post information on the field based on the writings of someone I greatly respect. I know it's lengthy but hopefully it gives a sense of the history behind the field and how we anthropologists can be exceptionally useful within business. Enjoy...and feel free to leave any of your own questions or ideas in the comments.

For those of you who may not know, I’m currently a master’s candidate in Applied Business Anthropology at the University of North Texas. My broad focus is working with organizations and helping them better understand their internal employee cultures. The capstone of the program is a practicum where students work with a sponsoring organization to design a research project to solve a very real problem. For me, I have two potential areas of interest and am searching for organizations which might satisfy one or both project possibilities. This will be a great opportunity for any company to get help understanding and resolving a thorny problem through research-based solutions. Oh, and also at no cost to the organization. If your organization would be interested in sponsoring me and would like more information, please contact me at chris -at- chrisbaileyworks -dot- com.

Did you happen to catch the story on NPR this morning about the video satirizing NASA's overbureacratization and lack of imagination which has come to define the agency? It's a perception that not only exists outside, but has become increasingly entrenched inside the organization. Aside from NASA, does this sound like your own organization?

For the Connection Cafe blog this month, I wrote about the need to use a balanced qualitative and quantitative approach to learning about constituents. Here’s a teaser of my latest post…the full post is at the Connection Cafe… Mixed in with the work that I do at Convio, I’m also pursuing a Master’s degree in business [...]

In trying to understand the modern business organization, few concepts have been applied (and misapplied) by management and organizational theorists as frequently as culture.