Business Anthropology

The search for ROOT

Presenter
Md. Tahmid Hasan
Department of Anthropology
University of Rajshahi
 What is ‘Business Anthropology’?
 “All human behavior, including consumption behavior, takes place within a cultural
context”. According to them, culture gives people a sense of who they are, of
belonging, of how they should behave, and of what they should be doing (Harris and
Moran, 1987); cited by Tian, 2005).

 Anthropologists have long-standing interests in economics to the extent of

establishing a subfield of economic anthropology whose literature is fundamental to
the anthropologies of business (Wilk and Cligger, 2007; cited by Baba, 2012).

 In business practice, anthropology as a behavioral science has been treated as a

related field and has made significant contributions in consumer studies and new-
product design (Jordan, 2003; cited by Tian, 2005)
The Womb
 Discussions of the early period often fragment history into particles that segregate
business and industrial anthropology in the United States from colonial
anthropology under the British.
 East India Company and their decision to acquire anthropological knowledge in
India. British Gov. appointed a National anthropologist in Nigeria to do the same.
 Lever Brothers and other industrialists like them.
 The foundation of Colonial Social Research Council (CSSRC).
 World War Two and the dissolution of CSSRC.
 The ‘Applied-anthropology’ approach went low and the mantel was passed to the
other side of Atlantic, namely USA.
 The Development in another Womb

 The received view of anthropology’s relationship with the domain of business

usually begins with Western Electric’s Hawthorne Project (1927-1932) and the
subsequent rise (and fall) of Elton Mayo’s Human Relations School, with numerous
anthropologists and others contributing to this project (Eddy and Partridge, 1978)
 The Industrial Revolution of America in the late 19th Century.
 F. W. Taylor’s theory of ‘Scientific Management’
 Theory of ‘Economic Man’ (1)
 Theory of ‘Welfare Capitalism’

(1) Often associated with the ideas of Adam Smith's 'free agent'. First used as a response and critique to the John S. Mill's works on political economy.
The Birth of the Child: Hawthorne Project
 The project was started by the Western Electric Company in 1924 to increase the
productivity of the workforce.
 This project was influenced by the theories of ‘Welfare Capitalism’, ‘Scientific
Management’ and ‘Economic Man’
 The company wanted to find out ‘how to improve working conditions so that
worker fatigue and dissatisfaction would be reduced’.
 The results were unexpected and that triggered another series of tests to explore
the anomaly one of which called RATR (Relay Assembly Test Room).
 Again they failed to explain the results and called in Elton Mayo, a Harvard
Psychologist.
 With Mayo in team the Hawthorne researchers realized the limitations of above
mentioned theories and became interested in understanding the relationships
among variables in the social system.
The Infancy: Introducing the Father
 Mayo knew from anthropologist like
Radcliff-Brown and Malinowski that
anthropologist study ‘natural social
systems in the field’. So when he teamed
up with the Hawthorne researchers he
wanted an Anthropologist to work with
him in the Hawthorne project. A student
of Radcliff-Brown named W. Lloyd
Warner was chosen and started working
in the Hawthorne project.
 Warner designed the final phase of the
Hawthorne project known as BWOR (Bank
Wiring Observation Room) as consultant
and became the father of Industrial or
Organization Anthropology
The Childhood: Human Relation theory
 This school of thought was based on the ‘Functional Equilibrium Theory’ (1).
 This school aimed at creating harmonious worker-manager relationship that would
ensure optimal productivity in a company.
 Mayo argued that a work groups’ informal organization either could support
management goals or work against them. Management needed to adjust its
relationships with workers to ensure the former result.
 It is often associated with ‘Welfare Capitalism’.
 Then the Great Depression hit America in 1930s and research of this type either
stopped or suspended.
 Mayo believed that social sciences especially anthropology can gain a better
understanding of human social systems to result smoothly functioning organizational
systems.

(1) Viewed human organizations as integrated social systems with specific structures that interacted to maintain a smoothly integrated social system with specific
structures that interacted to maintain a smoothly operating whole. Each individual was seen as being tied to the whole, yet still having his or her proper place and
function in the system. Conflict between management and workers was seen as pathological and was to be ameliorated by making adjustments in the structures or
in individuals.
The Adolescence: Decline of Industrial Practice

 Eliot Chappel recorded quantitative interactions of managers and workers, the

earliest form of video graphic technique used in research.
 Change in Academic Environments
 Shift in Social Science theory and rise of Contingency theory of Industrial Sociology,
which explains what is happening in an organization through correlation among
formal variables such as organizational structure, technology and the environment.
 Political and Ethical Issues
 The Teenage: The Fragmentation of
Industrial Anthropology in Academy
 Marxist Critique of Industry
 Use of Technology as ‘managerial prerogative’ and ‘deskilling’
 Neo-Marxists and Women workers in Industry.
 ‘Work Culture’ (1)
 Industrialization outside the west, the ‘Convergence Theory’ and its critiques
(2)
 Edward Hall and his concepts of High-context, Low context culture.

(1) H. Applebaum defined as system of knowledge, techniques, attitudes and behaviors appropriate to the performance of work and social interactions in a
particular work setting. Durkheim said, “occupational activity (is) the richest sort of material for a common life”. Work cultures are not only influential on
the job but off the job as well. It includes time orientations, relation with peers, language, dress and demeanor, gendering, roles and statuses etc.
(2) William Form, Comparative Industrial Sociology and Convergence Hypothesis, 1979