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Business and Organizational Anthropology (BOA) at Wayne State University
WHAT IS BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL ANTHROPOLOGY (BOA)?
Business anthropology is defined as anthropological practice that applies the theories and methods of the discipline [of anthropology] to problem-solving activity in private sector organizations (Baba 1986: 1).
Some of the jobs anthropologists have are in:
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Organizational ethnography – understanding formal and informal structures and processes, resolving internal conflict, assessing policy or process effects, implementing programs
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Marketing research – product design, social trends, intercultural marketing
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Consumer behavior – responses to advertising, purchasing trends, product use
THE MISSION OF BOA AT WSU:
To prepare students for careers in business, industry, government, and public and private sectors with a focus on the cultural dimensions of complex organizations.
To provide students with strong theoretical, methodological and ethical foundations to tackle current issues in work practices, occupational communities, consumer behavior, and multinational organizations in the global business context.
To prepare students to be able to explain human behavior in modern organizations and the industrial (large-scale production) domain with a dynamic, systemic, structural processural perspective.
THE NEED FOR ANTHROPOLOGISTS IN ORGANIZATIONS:
Business and organizational anthropologists work inside some of the leading manufacturing and service companies in the world, including:
- Accenture
- Ford Motor Company
- General Motors
- Hewlett Packard
- Motorola
- Nissan
- Procter & Gamble
- Xerox
- Intel
- IBM
- Microsoft
- J. Walter Thompson
These firms have discovered that anthropology brings a unique understanding of human and cultural issues to their enterprises at home and abroad. Anthropologists help companies design products and organizational processes that incorporate an understanding of consumers, employees, and external communities. At the same time, anthropologists are discovering that the doors of business and industry open onto many exciting field sites and important research questions, and that the anthropological perspective can make a significant contribution to corporate social responsibility and ethics.
GRADUATE CAREERS:
Wayne State University Anthropology alumni work in a diverse range of settings including:
- Motorola in organizational anthropology
- Merck in consumer behavior
- Park City Solutions as a consulting anthropologist for clinical laboratories
- General Motors in organizational development
- Cultural Connections, Inc. as a consultant in international business
- J. Walter Thompson in market research
2005 Outstanding Book of the Year
Pamela Crespin, Allen Batteau and Christine Miller-- two faculty members and a student in the department's Business and Organizational Anthropology (BOA) concentration -- are among the authors in an edited work that has been honored as the Outstanding Book of 2005 by the
Academy of
Human Resource Development .
The book, Research in Organizations: Foundations and Methods of Inquiry, has been acknowledged as the outstanding human resource development book of 2005 to advance the theory and/or practice of the profession.
Crespin, Batteau, and Miller co-authored the article, "Ethnographic Research in Organization," which describes the methods used and the challenges encountered when conducting ethnographic research in corporations. After describing ethnographic methods, which originated in the first-hand study of small-scale, indigenous societies, the article presents two case studies that use these methods in contemporary business organizations: a broadcaster and an automotive components manufacturer. The article concludes with a general discussion of the challenges of organizational ethnography: framing appropriate research questions, gaining access, maintaining the research role, and accounting for issues of scale when using first-hand observations.
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