How many organizations use their "corporate culture" like a cudgel, bludgeoning and cramming every employee into a narrowly defined sense of what fits the executives' idea of success? Its always couched in a way that makes it seem like its the best course of health for the business...but is it? For every Zappos that might get it right, there are countless other organizations that flail about with yet another way to control their employees.

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.

This idea and plan for Endiscouragement is not mine, but I wish it was. It comes from David Donathan at University Business (via LibraryBytes). David’s article is called Stifling Initiative and it proposes ten never-fail ways to kill innovation without actually saying “no.” With tongue firmly planted in cheek, he describes the reason why this [...]

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