Do We Need Business Anthropology?

Do We Need Business Anthropology? A Discussion by the Business Anthropologist Group

Dear Colleagues:

Business Anthropology is a very new subfield in both business and social science; it is growing very fast in recent years.  However, what is business anthropology is an issue that still needs to be clarified.  Do we need business anthropology?  How can we develop business anthropology?  What we can do and how should we do to promote business anthropology?

I hope you can invite more of your friends and colleagues to join in this discussion.

Robert

To join the discussion group go to my blog:  http://businessanthropology.blogspot.com/  clik the button under the picture of tractors in the first post. 

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David:

Your mail has arrived to the group.  I am wondering if you can lead us to discuss on how anthropology helped you in doing your business and provide us some suggestions as how to improve the relationship between academic world and the business world.

Thank you.

Robert

Robert,
The question of how to merge the academic world with the real world is
complicated.

In the academic world writers and professors are hung up on labels and
definitions. In the real world we don't care what you call it as long as it gets
done.

In the academic world we talk about business anthropology and studying what
customers do and don't do. We get hung up on labels such as is a person
motivated to make a purchase or did we inspire them to make the purchase?

In the real world of business we rely on Point of Sale (POS) data to tell us
what we sold, at what price and when. This helps us to plot trends over time and
see changes on the horizon.

The academic world has customer intercepts as a way to gain information. There
is a problem with this. First of all most customers don't really know why the
bought something. Also, in my experience most of these customer intercepts are
performed by small, young college kids. A 6' 2" tall 250 pound person like me is
never stopped. For some reason I intimidate pollsters. Mostly what you see in
these intercepts is young mother pushing baby strollers. I have seen people who
were supposed to gather data get together and find that some key demographics
were missing so they simply made up data as to what they thought would be the
opinion of that group.

With our modern technology we have the ability to use our video cameras to
target and track customers as they travel through the store. We can see at what
time the enter the store, where they visit in the store and then see the point
of sale data on the same screen with the video. A truly great tool.

I think probably the best combining of the academic world and the real world
would be for everyone to call upon their common sense to make business
decisions. The parable of the hot dog and Jerry Clower's story of the inventory
are both prime examples of forgetting common sense and following academic
principles. It takes both.

One of my professors who was very helpful to actually had a business that dealt
with his subject, accounting. He was helpful because he could tell you what you
should really "take away" from what you were learning.

I once worked with the U.S. Chamber of commerce. I met many small business
people who had been helped, some would say hurt, by the Small Business
Administration (SBA). Many of them would tell me that they had pseudo government
officials tell them how to run their business. They would follow their advice
and end up worse off.

In short, if you want to be an business professor, it would be a good idea to
get some real world experience. Take a job in a small business. Volunteer to
work without pay if necessary. Ask to see the books. Then observe for a long
time before you make suggestions. Some businesses succeed in spite of
themselves.

I had a friend whose father owned a small appliance company that catered
exclusively to builders. When the father died the son decided that they should
move the business and begin to cater to the consumer market. The lost
everything. Why? Because the son acted on advice before he understood what made
the business a success.

David E. McClendon Sr.

Dear David,

Thank you for this email and starting the discussions on this list. I appreciate all your points, yet I am also thinking of Genevieve Bell, for example, as a former academic who turned her back on the academic world and learned to read Intel both from a business and an anthropological (/academic) point of view. Although I can see the dicothomy between experience and practice you refer to, I am also thinking that perhaps trajectories in business anthropology and associated fields are a bit more diverse than the dicothomy you describe?

Regards, Pedro  

Pedro:

I agree with you that there are various relationships between academic world and real business world.  I do not think Michale Porter has ever been a business owner or business operator himself but he works as business consultant and made strategic plans for the large companies.  Also, some business owners who may never take business courses at college but they can be successful business operators.  Ideally academic persons should have some business practice while the business owners should have some kind formal training in business school, but that in many cases that may be impossible. 

Business anthropologists are fundamentally scholars first, their job is to use their anthropological skills and knowledge to study businesses and to help businesses with their best.  They could make mistakes, but to be honestly, no one can be always right. 

Robert

Hi Robert and all,

Thanks for this, Robert.

Taking from what you said, you and I have already discussed the question of validity a few times but I keep wondering whether what we need as business anthropology researchers (and I am very freely calling myself one, has someone who has just joined the field working on my first business anthropology case) is a more precise analysis of how we come up with the conclusions that we come up with, as business anthropology researchers. How do we analyse data to conclude what we do? Can we find common sensical ways of explaining to the client how we draw our conclusions from the data found so that the client too can form an image of the validity of our findings?

I keep believing this should give us a far clearer view of the kind of solutions we suggest and the risk hazards associated to them. That analysis cannot sacrifice the serendipity of findings by which people like Susan Squires and others keep suggesting all sorts of fundamental clues for new business solutions based on a combination of ethnographic encounters and other methodologies (triangulation). Yet I am inclined to agree with David that many of these processes of research that we label 'academic' are already put to empirical use by people who are not academics (I see it in my father every day).  

Having said all of this, a conference bringing together academics and practitioners of business anthropology would be fundamental to start answering some of the questions that David very rightly puts to the fore.  

Regards, P.

Everyone,

I think most business uses some form of anthropology. They just don't call it
that. When a small business owner observes how customers interact with the
environment the business has created that is a form of anthropology
(Ethnographics?)

Very rarely will a small business owner conduct a formal survey but he or she
may simply ask their customers what they like about the business or don't like.

Most people will tell a survey taker what they think is the right answer and not
necessarily what they really feel. However, if they think a small business owner
is sincerely asking they may provide the truth. On the other hand they may wish
not to offend the business owner and tell them that everything is fine. It is
for this reason that in my area we primarily use observation and point of sale
data. It is very helpful. We also use a lot of trial and error. We move stuff
and see what happens.

One thing my wife Suzanne taught me is that sometimes conventional thought isn't
always right. She reorganized a beer cooler in a convenience store we were
working for. The beer company marketers flipped out. They said that you had to
have the premium beers right beside each other, the standard beers right beside
each other and so forth. The owner stood by Suzanne's decision and the beer
sales went up 30%. Once the beer sales went up people from the corporate office
for Miller Coors and Anheuser Busch came and took pictures so that they could
determine why the sales went up when it was laid out all wrong according to
their years of study.

What I learned through observation and just plain asking customers is that in a
small mom and pop store where almost 100% of the customers are regulars, it
really doesn't matter where you put the beer as long as they could find their
beer. When they came in they knew exactly what beer they wanted. As long as the
beer they wanted was on the shelf they bought that beer. Never would they
deviate from their brand of choice. That is until the economy took a nose dive
and almost everyone switched to a cheaper beer.

So, what explained the increase in sales? When Suzanne organized the cooler she
found that there was a lot of wasted space. She moved shelves and squeezed every
inch of wasted space out. In the new found space she added specialty beers.
Since no other convenience store in town was actively monitoring their cooler
and space usage or offerings she was able to provide for a very popular mix of
beers for the college age crowd. People who had not yet found what they wanted
but knew they did not want to drink their father's brand of beer.

When Suzanne left the beer companies offered to rearrange the cooler for free.
The owner thought he had to (English as a second language) so he allowed it.
Beer sales fell by about 50% for two reasons. The mix was gone and the beer was
not kept in stock because no one was actively monitoring the sales.

When the only tool in your tool box is a hammer every problem looks like a nail.
I say this meaning that it takes more than just one discipline to run a
business. Anthropology is a tool as is marketing, accounting, financial
management, consumer behavior, Economics, etc. Each one of these tools has a
place in the business owner's tool box. If he is missing one of them he has to
make due with what he has. This means that some key elements may go un-addressed
and the business is not as good as it could be. Most small business owners,
though not formally trained, possess many if not all of those skills.

David

Dear friends and colleagues:

Before I set up this discussion group I was not aware of any such an online group existed.  The business anthropology is fast growing but we do not have a platform for it.  As such a few business anthropological scholars decided to launch a journal entitled International Journal of Business Anthropology, which has been published 2 issues so far.  One of my contact suggested that we should have an online discussion group and then I set up this group.  So far we had a few very interesting discussions but we need more members to join us so that we will have a large number of memberships to support our discussion.  Please help us to grow by using your personal connections, such as your face book, your emails, and so on.

Our textbook "General Business Anthropology"  is published, if interested in more information about it please contact me and I will provide you the detailed information.

Have a good weekend!

Robert

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What is Business Anthropology?

The term "business anthropology" became more popular and widely used in the 1980s, when anthropologists were hired in full-time, non-academic practitioners in niches related to consumer behavior and marketing. Prior to that time, the term "industrial anthropology", "anthropology of work", or "applied anthropology in industry" were used more frequently to denote areas of research and practice focused on business related phenomenon. More recently, the term ‘business anthropology’ has begun to be used more generically to refer any application of anthropology to business-oriented problems. Currently “business anthropology” is recognized as a subfield of the discipline in applied anthropology.

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.

In practice, business anthropologists study almost everything from marketing strategies to corporate culture, to business development. For instance, University of Toronto anthropologist Dr. Victor Barac has worked with Mutual of Omaha Insurance to update its advertising strategies and with the Canadian film industry in a project that entailed visiting theatres observing everything from snack buying patterns to which posters drew people’s attention, and interviewing patrons about their attitudes and experiences. Business anthropologists can also facilitate organizational restructuring for greater economy and efficiency. In the next section we will discuss more in details about the function and role business anthropologists in the modern business world.

Business and industry are fundamental structures of organizing economic activity to meet basic human needs in modern market societies. For Baba, business means the buying and selling of goods and services in the marketplace, also known as commerce or trade, while industry refers to the organized production of goods and services on a large scale, it consists of all the business firms produce and marketing the same product. These terms, when used by business anthropologists in their practice usually are related to one or more of the three major domains of business anthropological research and practice, namely 1) anthropology related to the process of producing goods and services, and the corporate organizations in which production takes place; 2) ethnographically-informed design of new products, services and systems for consumers and businesses, and/or 3) anthropology related to the behavior of consumers and the marketplace.

Today, business anthropology as subfield of applied anthropology is not only taught in graduate programs in anthropology but also included in the curricula of a number of American universities offering the MBA (Master’s in Business Administration) degree. It is perhaps surprising, therefore, that the old association of business anthropology with a lack of concern for human welfare still persists today among some academic anthropologists. As business anthropologist Marietta Baba puts it “business (still)… doesn’t sit well with most anthropologists”. This attitude may reflect a lack of understanding and appreciation, on the part of academic anthropologists, of the skills and contributions of business anthropologists. If so, it is sure to continue to weaken with time. However, to the extent that this attitude reflects a more widespread phenomenon – some academics’ general disparagement of any kind of intellectual output other than the theoretical – it may never entirely disappear.

Business anthropologists at Wayen State University have successfully integrated anthropology with business education by offering business anthropology courses and programs at the University. They indicate that research has shown that failures in the international business settings frequently result from an inability to understand and adapt to foreign ways of thinking and acting. The world, furthermore, is changing quickly and decision makers need to understand these developments and their implications. Utilizing anthropologists and anthropological methods are important avenues for addressing these issues. While an understanding of the cultural context of domestic business is invaluable, the importance of culture is even more vital within the international sphere. After all, in international business the magnitude of the cultural differences is vastly greater than in domestic situations and, as a result, the potential for misunderstanding or inappropriate actions/decisions is multiplied. When studying both domestic and foreign societies, anthropologists are especially skilled in finding and explaining patterns of behavior that impact strategies and tactics. This focus can be used to improve business operations.

In fact, Jordan has observed that since the 1980s anthropology’s influence within business schools has grown. Given the increased role of business anthropology, it needs to be more fully introduced in business education. Anthropologists in business schools have played an important role in the development of consumer studies within business education. For example, Jerry Saltman and Grant McCracken at Harvard, John Sherry at Northwestern, Eric Arnould at the University of Nebraska/Lincoln, Barbara Olsen at State University of New York-Old Westbury, Janeen Costa at the University of Utah, and Annamma Joy at Concordia are examples of anthropologists who have impacted the business education community. On the other hand, business faculty like Ron Hill and Carol Kaufman-Scarborough, who received their training from business schools, have embraced the ethnographic method and employed it in their business research. Myself as a business professors had successfully worked with my colleagues in the business departments at two small comprehensive colleges and put business anthropology into business program curricula. I have also used anthropological approach to teach other business courses, especially consumer behavior and marketing research courses. I expect to work with my colleagues in the business education field in large to make business anthropology as one of the basic or fundamental business courses at more and more business schools.

There is an online discussion group about business anthorpology, if you are interested please join in the group by cliking the button below and then register for your membership.  Let us work together to develop the field of business anthropology. 

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Business Anthropology as a Career

Students majored in anthropology often feel puzzled about their career after graduation, one undergraduate student wrote to a graduate student who is doing well in the field of business anthropology for advice: “I was wondering how you became a business anthropologist.  I have my Bachelors in Anthropology and I have always loved the subject. I tutored for this subject in my JC and I am considering a Masters in Anthropology, but what then? I do love the school atmosphere so perhaps I will teach or work in a museum, but what are your thoughts? How did you find your ‘niche’? Thanks.”  The graduate student answered the undergraduate student’s question with his suggestion to the undergraduate student as quoted below:

“I have a master’s [degree] in a narrow field of Anthropology called Proximics and in the process of doing the research for the thesis, I found a whole area of untapped need  in business anthropology.  This area can be used in a broad sense in business or more specifically in helping design more appealing business situations such as retail stores.  In a more broad sense, knowing cultures and understanding the nuances of culture have allowed me to work in the international purchasing field for many years.  Negotiating all types of business deals (and a few political ones) to help resolve differences and get signatures on paper.    Teaching is an honorable profession and I have done so in the past. I plan to return to it at some point.

“You ask how I found my niche.  It was somewhat by accident and political climate at the time.  I was working in Archaeology for the most part and the funding dried up.  I had worked in the University purchasing department and had enjoyed my time there and though that it would work well with a master’s [degree] in Anthropology so headed in this direction.  I also studied several languages with the hope of doing international work and as it so happened, it did.  For you, what is your favorite area?  Focus on this and then look how it can be applied in the larger world.”

More and more parents are asking their children enrolled at colleges some very practical questions directly connected with their future career plans as the costs of college education continuing to skyrocket.  For example, parents often want to know why their children are majoring in anthropology.  Ferraro indicates that usually behind such a question is the more pragmatic one: What kind of job can you get with a B.A. in anthropology?

Anthropology and Job Market

It is very normal that the parents of students with anthropological major concern their children’s future careers after graduation given the fact that academic anthropology is a small, elite discipline practiced by a relatively small number of people worldwide. In the past, with the exception of the United States, the number of academic positions for anthropologists has always been limited and very small. As such, the supply of anthropology graduates worldwide has probably outstripped the demand for academic anthropologists since the early 1980s and this helps explain why in the past two decades there has been a significant presence of anthropologists practicing outside the academy.

Anthropologists are in the people business. Any occupation that requires understanding people, such as studying human behavior, assessing people’s opinions, beliefs, or needs, etc., can use anthropology graduates. The American Anthropological Association finds that anthropology graduates are well-qualified for modern government work and increasingly recognized as valuable in the fields of management and international business. For a long time, anthropological skills have been sought in the health and social services fields. Anthropology provides the tools for understanding the multicultural, international, global issues that is basic to our continued existence.

The job market for graduates with anthropology major is based for the most part on demand for persons with skills in social science research meth­odology. However, just as John Van Willigen sharply indicates, the market is not very much aware of anthropologists with these skills and there is a limited market for anthropology graduates. Moreover, although there are many opportunities for professional work, very few are designed strictly for anthropologists. This circumstance is not limited to anthro­pology but is typical of many of the social sciences and humanities.

A degree in anthropology can be the first step toward the attainment of more advanced training in order to become a professor, researcher, or applied anthropologist. Archaeology is a growing area for jobs, because public service archaeology is required by legislation designed to protect our cultural heritage. Physical anthropology is a gateway to a wide range of career path opportunities, including forensics, medicine (especially anatomy and genetics, and primatology.

The prevalence of applied anthropology within the discipline has increased in recent decades, most notably during the 1970s and 1980s. Because of a shrinking academic job market, coupled with federal legislation requiring environmental impact studies and historical preservation, more professionally trained anthropologists are employed in nonacademic positions than in colleges and universities. As more and more Ph.D.-level anthropologists are making their way into nonacademic jobs, employment opportunities for those with less than Ph.D. training in anthropology are also increasing. Today people with training in cultural anthropology are putting their observational and analytical skills to work in a variety of ways in both the public (government) and private (business) sectors of the economy.[vi]

The roles of anthropologists in the non-academic fields could be administrators or managers, consultants, project directors, community service coordinators, and program planners among others. Willis Sibley notes that approximately 50% of anthropologists with their Ph.D. degree find employment outside the academy. [vii]  Accordingly, we can assume that great majority of anthropologists with their master degree and almost all anthropologists with bachelor degree will be employed in non-academic fields.  After graduation with degrees in anthropology some may involve into various forms of private sector consulting (and will have been well-rewarded for doing so), and in fact many of them have ceased to self-identify as anthropologists, often preferring instead the more employable term “management consultant”. Private practice anthropology has thus grown as academic anthropology has either shrunk or remained stable, and as the worldwide wave of economic rationalism has privileged the short-term consultant over the permanent public servant in the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Ferraro argues that a B.A. in cultural anthropology is a liberal arts degree, just as in most other undergraduate fields of study; it is not some type of professional certification. It is important to keep in mind that an undergraduate degree in anthropology does not prepare a person to become a professional research anthropologist any more than an undergraduate degree in political science equips a person to achieve high political office.  In fact, the B.A. in anthropology will help students get an excellent background for graduate study in anthropology at the Ph.D. level, which is the normal route to becoming a professional anthropologist.[ix]

The globalization of the world economy has brought anthropology and business come together.  In recent decades, especially in North America, anthropology moved from a position of domestic concern with social economic relations in the work place to an international concern because of social and economic change in the world.  But as Gordon notes, at the very beginning the knowledge gained in researching the international issues was not fed back into business through private consulting and the business world, with help from other academic disciplines, responded by creating the new field of management consulting.  And yet, management consultants from time to time were ill-equipped to deal with issues of internationalization and cultures outside the business itself.[x]

Ferraro notes that the term anthropologist or cross-cultural expert is not a standard job Classification in the employment section of a newspaper’s classified ads. In recent decades, however, a number of jobs in both government and industry have developed that focus on certain cross-cultural issues and involve working with people from different cultural and sub-cultural backgrounds. As discussed, anthropological skills can be applied to a number of different professional areas. For example, case studies demonstrated how anthropological skills and insights have been used to help architects design appropriate housing for sub-cultural groups, develop a highly successful reforestation program in Haiti, shed light on the public health aspects of the AIDS epidemic, and provide courts with culturally relevant information for the resolution of legal cases.[xi]

It is possible to be meaningfully employed doing things that are consistent with one’s training in anthropology.  The anthropologist seeking work must be ready to deal with employers who are unfamiliar with the true capabilities of well-trained, contemporary anthro­pologists, or even employers who hold grossly inaccurate stereotypes of the anthropologist’s capabilities. The most adaptive response to these conditions includes a commitment on the part of the anthropologist to educating the employer, and a strategy of self-presentation that is based on experience and ca­pabilities rather than diploma and transcript. This does not represent a problem because these days, except for a very few occupations, it works this way for most everyone.

Ferraro stresses that anthropology graduates are better equipped in certain areas than are those graduating with any other liberal arts degree. First, anthropology graduates are well acquainted with cross-cultural differences and similarities, an area of expertise of particular importance in multicultural societies. This means that anthropology graduates have the ability to “size up” unfamiliar social and professional situations, appreciate the wide range of cultural behavior in the world, and learn how to behave toward people from other cultures with sensitivity, flexibility, and understanding.  Second, training in anthropology instills such qualities as interviewing skills, experience with survey research, observational sharpness, and a holistic perspective. Third, anthropology graduates should have other skills and assets that can be useful to potential employers, such as experience with statistical methods, computer skills, foreign language fluency, and communication skills.  

Once students have a clear understanding of their skills, they are in a good position to tailor their resumes to a particular job opening.  Each student majored in anthropology should be responsible for carving out a spot in the job market for her or himself.  Because no jobs in the nonacademic world are exclusively for culturally oriented, as such it is important for the graduates in cultural anthropology to prepare for the job search by gaining an understanding of the organization offering the job as well as a clear appreciation of what he or she brings to the job situation.[xiii]  Below are some examples of job advertising we collected from National Association for the practice of anthropology’ homepage (http://www.practicinganthropology.org/) that might be interesting to graduates of anthropology:

Cultural Anthropologist

We are looking for Senior Cultural Anthropologists who have experience and references working with world-class brands. We often have projects that require ethnographic research in Russia, China, Japan, India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, and various countries in Europe. Our current project is to do research in eight of these countries, including the US. Please respond to the email address listed.

Ethnographic Market Research

Ethnographers needed for market research: up to $22/hr!  SmartRevenue (http://www.smartrevenue.com)/ is a market research company founded by cultural anthropologists. Our field researchers generate data using traditional ethnographic fieldwork methods of observation and interviews, as well as structured marketing surveys, to generate insight on consumer preferences and habits. We will be fielding projects soon in cities throughout the US and are in need of ethnographers. We prefer to hire people with anthropological or social science training and ethnographic or qualitative research experience.

The cities scheduled for fielding in the near future are: Boston, Providence, Fairfield County (CT), Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore/DC, TAmpa, Orlando, Gainsville FL, Miami, Tallahassee, Chicago, Denver, Dallas/Ft Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, LA, San Francisco, Seattle. WE HAVE AN URGENT NEED IN ATLANTA for the end of January.

This is a great opportunity for people with social science backgrounds to practice their ethnographic and writing skills by applying them to a specific task, and to make good money at the same time. SmartRevenue always has a variety of projects planned nationwide, so this could be a helpful future source of supplemental income.

 
Typical Project Description:  SmartRevenue researches shoppers' choices of products. Ethnographers need to interview 15-20 shoppers per store, which usually works out to one day of 8 hours. We often work at 2 or 3 stores per community, so we hire 2 to 4 ethnographers per project. Some projects last 3 or 4 days, some only 1 day, and some projects last several weekends.

Many of the projects require both observation and interviews. Interviews are conducted using a hand-held computer, which we will mail you. Observations are based on your ethnographic training and can include looking at shoppers' behavior, noting signage or other advertisements, or even noting patterns of movement through the area. The details of each job are explained on phone conferences.

 
Interested and qualified applicants should reply to jobs@smartrevenue.com Please attach your resume/CV and describe your availability to work. Also include your city name in your email subject heading. Thank you!

User Experience Strategist

AutoTrader.com, Atlanta, GA   The User Experience group within AutoTrader.com’s Product Management department is responsible for promoting a clear understanding of our customers and for identifying experiences that meet or exceed customer needs. They work closely with Product Management to help define the next generation of products and services that will appear on AutoTrader.com.
The User Experience-Strategy team within User Experience is at the forefront of these efforts, developing a deep understanding of our customers through research and communicating it to product managers, user experience designers, and the product development team.
A User Experience Strategist conducts user research, analyses primary and secondary research, and communicates findings and recommendations to the organization. Personas, scenarios, documents, presentations and one-on-one conversations are used to communicate the value of customer needs throughout the organization. Competitive analyses and best practices are also used to communicate the current environment.
At AutoTrader.com, the User Experience Strategist:
• Designs and conducts user research studies
• Collaboratively analyzes the results of those studies to identify customer needs and business opportunities
• Works closely with our Product Management team to identify new product opportunities and influence the future direction of existing products
• Ensures that the voice of the customer is represented at all phases of product development
• Creates and maintains customer personas, scenarios and mental models
• Researches and documents both competitive assessments and best practices
• Clearly documents all research findings, customer profiles, and recommendations
• Communicates the value of customer needs to the organization
The ideal candidate:
• Has knowledge and experience with current user research methodologies
• Has thorough knowledge of best practices for information architecture, interaction design, usability, and web design (both e-commerce and informational)
• Has knowledge and hands-on experience with user interface evaluation techniques
• Has expertise in gathering, analyzing and synthesizing primary and secondary research
• Is well-versed in user centered design principles and processes
• Has experience in aligning customer needs with business objectives
• Has excellent oral, written, and presentation communication skills
• Can work collaboratively with cross-functional teams
Required:
• Four or more years experience in user experience and web-based products required
• Additional experience in anthropology or ethnographic research a plus
• College or university degree required in HCI, Cognitive Psychology, Anthropology, Design, or related field (advanced degrees preferred)
• Ability to travel up to 20%
AutoTrader.com, created in 1997 and headquartered in Atlanta, GA, is the Internet's leading auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information website. AutoTrader.com delivers more than 3 million vehicle listings – updated daily - attracting more than 11 million unique visitors a month.

Ethnographer

Location: Toronto       Basis: Contract

Idea Couture is seeking an anthropologist or other social scientist to join our qualitative research team in Toronto on a contract basis with an option leading to a full-time position. The successful candidate will have a real passion for fieldwork, the ability to identify and clearly communicate customer insights to internal teams and clients, and the nimbleness required to juggle academic theory, various research methods, and creative design thinking with business needs.

RESPONSIBILITIES

·         Designing, conducting & reporting on qualitative field studies

·         Translating field insights into future products, services & experiences

·         Participating in & contributing to internal & client ideation sessions

·         Collaborating with designers, strategists, technologists & others

·         Traveling the globe on a frequent basis

REQUIRED SKILLS / EXPERIENCE

• Advanced social science degree
• Specialization in health, technology, social media or design
• Proven experience conducting ethnographic research projects
• A keen eye for observation
• Experience conducting 1-on-1 and group interviews
• Strong writing and editing skills
• Scholarly or other publishing record
• Strong understanding of and passion for 'digital culture'
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office
• Basic film editing software (ie. iMovie) skills an asset
• User-centered design & research experience an asset
• Previous applied/business experience an asset
• Second language an asset

COMPENSATION

Commensurate with experience

Senior Market Research Associate

The SMRA will design and manage agency and client research projects. Have knowledge of commonly used concepts as well as ability to keep abreast of new technologies and methodologies. Will gather and analyze primary and secondary data pertaining to current and potential clients and their business categories. Must be versed in qualitative and quantitative methodologies. It's pretty generic, but should help. I think one of the most important aspects is knowing the African American market (this person does not need to be African American - EOO).

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Principles of Management: An Anthropological Perspective

A short lecture Note

Introduction

In today’s world at any business school, the principles of management, or management principles is one of the most common and popular courses to be offered.  At my current college the principles of management course is taught by Dr. Michael Lillis and Professor Ken Kedge as a full semester three credit hour course.  The course is designed as a survey of the history of management and review of significant management literature. It covers a variety of topics and contents, such as the applications of management theories to practical problems in planning, organizing, and controlling business activities. It presents a thorough and systematic coverage of management theory and practice by focusing on the basic roles, skills and functions of management, with special attention to managerial responsibility for effective and efficient achievement of goals. Special attention is given to social responsibility, managerial ethics, and the importance of multi-national organizations.

As a field of research and study, the principles of management is development by management scholars through borrowing and applying basic concepts, theories, and methodologies from economics, sociology, anthropology, politic science, statistics, philosophy, and so on.  Accordingly, different approaches and perspectives have been formatted towards the principles of management, such as economics perspective on principles of management, sociology perspective on principles of management, or anthropological perspective on principles of management.  In today’s lecture I will focus on anthropological perspective on principles of management by presenting and discussing the relationships between principles of management and anthropology, as well as the implications of anthropology in management.  As such the learning objectives for today’s short class are: 1) Learning what are principles of management and what is anthropology, 2) Understanding the relationships between principles of management and anthropology, 3) Comprehending the implications of anthropology in management practice.

What are the principles of management?

A principle is often referring to a fundamental truth. It establishes cause and effect relationship between two or more variables under given situation. They serve as a guide to thought and actions. Therefore, the principles of management are the statements of fundamental truth based on logic which provides guidelines for managerial decision making and actions. These principles can be derived on the basis of observation and analysis (such as the practical experience of managers, or by conducting experimental studies with the control of certain conditions (such as study employees’ productivity by putting them into different situations in which managers are instructed to approach their subordinates to assign the same type of task). 

In the words of Herbert G. Hicks, "Principles of management are the guiding rules of laws for managerial action." In the words of Kantooz and O' Donnell, "Management principles are fundamental truth of general validity." These truths are the guiding pillars in the managerial execution of functions and solution to problems. Every social science has developed its own principles. Management is also a social science and thus it has developed a number of management principles from time to time.

Henry Foyol, a French industrialist, offered fourteen principles of management for the first time in 1916. During the period of 1920-40s in the USA many authors did hard work in developing and testing various principles of management. Today, there is a very lengthy list of management principles and it is not possible to give an exhaustive list of them.

There are many different major points we need to discuss about management principles, but in accordance with the main ideas of lecture today, please allowing me focus on one point alone. The principles of management are concerned mostly with human behavior which cannot be tested under controlled conditions such as in a laboratory. Human behavior in most situations is unpredictable. Therefore management principles are not as exact as the principles of physical science. In this way, the management principles are merely statements.

Management principles influence human behavior Human element is an essential factor of production. It activities and extracts work form other factor also. Every worker is individually different from the other workers as regards his ability, knowledge, skill, socio-economic status, attitudes and ideologies. Management is concerned with the integration of individual efforts and how to decentralize them towards achieving the desired results. As such, management principles is said to be a work and group activity, which aims at influencing individual efforts and directing them to the minimization of profit with the minimum wattage and the best possible utilization of available resources.

At this point, we can simply but safely say that the principles of management are a scientific field of study about humans’ behaviors.  Now let us examine what is anthropology.

What is anthropology?  

Anthropology is a social science that studies the social environment in which people live and the impact of this social environment upon feelings, attitudes, behaviour, etc. Although often dismissed as an “ivory tower” discipline, anthropology has much to contribute to the study of management problems, such as organization culture studies, organization behavior studies. Although it may appear to be a discipline and methodology only recently employed by management researches, in reality anthropology has a long history within the evolution of management principles.  The classic anthropological methods of research such as ethnography, observation, interviewing, etc., furthermore, have proved to be appropriate for management research.

The “naturalistic method” that has risen to prominence in consumer relationship management research in recent years is clearly indebted to anthropological methods.  The basic strategies of this approach are to engage in participant observation and to observe and interpret what people actually do in a real-life environment. This naturalistic method demands that researchers interpret behaviour from the informant’s perspective, not with reference to the feelings or opinions of the investigator.  As a result of this informant-centred focus, researchers are able to more effectively perceive what motivates consumers and impacts their responses.  While the results of the qualitative, naturalistic methods have been widely applauded, the naturalistic techniques employed by Belk, Sherry, and Wallendorf are reflective of the ethnographic method of anthropology.

Related to this is the work in what Hirschman has called “Humanistic” marketing management research that, like anthropological methods, is based upon qualitative methods of research and analysis, such as participate observation.  Thus, the current trend of anthropology in marketing and consumer management research can be viewed a part of a larger qualitative and humanistic research agenda for the field.  In this context, Ethnography is a process of describing a culture in subjective ways that stem from the feelings of informants who are functioning members of the group being investigated. 

Anthropology also provides useful methods for analyzing particular cultures. Harris and Moran focus on the fact that culture provides people with a sense of who they are, gives them a feeling of belonging, establishes rules of how to behave, and offers rankings of what goals are important, etc.  Culture provides a learned, shared, and interrelated set of symbols, codes, values, knowledge, etc. that justify and motivate human behavior.  In recent years, those with international experience have written any number of guides of foreign countries that help those in international business to understand diverse cultures in order to be more effective within that context.

Anthropology uses the concept of culture to describe and analyze human behavior, values, choices, preferences, practices, beliefs, attitudes, and so on. In classical anthropological theory, culture is an underlying dimension of all societies and all social life.  All human behavior takes place within a cultural context.  Indeed, it is culture that makes social life and economic cooperation possible and meaningful.  The concept of culture, therefore, is invaluable for those who seek to understand consumption.  At this point we can conclude that anthropology is behavior science that emphasizes the importance of culture on humans’ behaviors. 

The relationship between the principles of management and anthropology

As indicated earlier, the principles of management is a cross-discipline field of study, which borrowed concepts, theories, and methods from different disciplines. When we examine the evolution process of the management principles we can easily identify the influence of anthropology to the development of management principle theories, from the classic schools of management to more recently quality school of management.  Below I will focus on examining behavioral management theory as it was developed directly by the anthropologists.

As management research continued in the 20th century, questions began to come up regarding the interactions and motivations of the individual within organizations. Management principles developed during the classical period were simply not useful in dealing with many management situations and could not explain the behavior of individual employees. In short, classical theory ignored employee motivation and behavior. As a result, the behavioral school was a natural outgrowth of this revolutionary management experiment.

The behavioral management theory is often called the human relations movement because it addresses the human dimension of work. Behavioral theorists believed that a better understanding of human behavior at work, such as motivation, conflict, expectations, and group dynamics, improved productivity. The theorists who contributed to this school viewed employees as individuals, resources, and assets to be developed and worked with — not as machines, as in the past.

One of the seminal contributions to organizational behavioral stems from the Hawthorne Project conducted between 1927 and 1932 at the Hawthorne Works in Chicago, a factory that served as the manufacturing arm of Bell Systems (American Telephone & Telegraph). This work set the stage for decades of research to follow and also gave birth to the human relations school of management theory. Initially, the project did not involve anthropologists and simply sought to measure the impacts of changes in working conditions.  Unexpectedly, productivity was found to increase both when lighting was improved, and when it was dimmed substantially. These results could not be explained using the theories of the day. Other experiments yielded similar results.  Ultimately this response has come to be known as the Hawthorne Effect (coined in 1955, reflecting back on the Hawthorne experiments) to indicate that workers tend to improve their performance if they know they are being watched.

The Hawthorne Project was directed by Elton Mayo, a scholar emigrated from Australia with anthropological background. He invited Harvard anthropologist W. Lloyd Warner to join the project. The group of anthropologists at Harvard during the time of the Hawthorne project was clearly influenced by Warner and numerous studies were conducted during the 1940s through the 1950s.  With the involvement of anthropologists by focusing on social relationships, the Hawthorne studies formed the basis of the human relations school. The emphasis came to focus upon feelings and sentiments, not just the physical conditions of the workplace.  Loyalties and identities, not merely self-interest, were documented. Informal social systems and their impact were investigated. In short, anthropological methods of studying human interaction established the human relations school as the dominant model of management science for about a quarter century.

Apparently, there is a close connection between principles of management and anthropology.  When talk about principles of management we cannot avoid discussing the contribution from anthropology, while when talk about anthropology we cannot forget the fact that management is one of the major study filed for anthropologists.  There is a large literature body on anthropology of management, and the implications of anthropology in management are very open without a limitation.  

The implications of anthropology in management practice

There are different approaches to implicate anthropology in management practice, and the implications of anthropology can be developed in all the areas of management.  The mostly discussed areas are anthropology and cross-cultural management, anthropology and human resources management, anthropology and organization behavior, anthropology and competitive intelligence and knowledge management, and so on.  Below I will concentrate on discussion the implication of anthropology in competitive intelligence and knowledge management. 

Competitive intelligence in today’s highly competitive business environment becomes one of the hottest topics in management; it has to do with looking inward to optimize internal intelligence. It starts with managing and deploying knowledge systematically within one’s own organization. Increasingly, knowledge is recognized as a key organizational asset, to be leveraged and exploited for competitive purposes.  A KM system organizes the intellectual assets of a corporation.  This includes recorded information, corporate experience, third-party information, and tacit knowledge of employees. 

In practice, KM encompasses both technological tools and organizational routines in overlapping parts.  It efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement of the organization.   KM efforts overlap with competitive intelligence, and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organizational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees’ turnover in an organization, and to adapt to changing environments and markets. These efforts can be better operated with the help of anthropologists. 

What does anthropology have to do that is of value to Knowledge Management? The applied anthropologist and the founding director of Workspace International Patricia Burke developed an anthropological model to knowledge management through her longitude practice. Burke indicates that anthropologists are interested in how knowledge is constituted by different people and how knowledge is managed in terms of how it is secured and deployed. Understanding KM in an organizational context brings anthropology together with a number of other disciplines such as psychology, business theory and information modeling. This can enhance our understanding while simultaneously creating new forms of organizational knowledge. The relevance of an anthropological approach to KM touches on a number of issues, including the popularity of the culture concept and its related elements, ethnicity, issues of globalization and rapid change, issues of difference and sameness, and the deconstruction of how an organization organizes.

As we discussed, anthropology’s main distinguishing method is participant observation. This involves the anthropologist spending a prolonged period doing fieldwork in an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of the organization under study. By virtue of its eclecticism and experience of facilitating understanding of the processes of change across institutions and other social phenomena, anthropology can make a significant contribution to the implementation of KM. According to Burke, observing employees doing about their day-to-day tasks is an important way of externalizing tacit knowledge is just one of the ways in which anthropology can make a significant contribution to the implementation of KM.

Participate observation.  One of the main dilemmas of KM is that much of the knowledge within organizations is personal or individual. In other words, the application and daily operation of business rules, procedures, decisions and communications depend on the availability of personal knowledge that is a combination of information stored in employee’s heads, experiences, behaviors, attitudes and abilities or competencies. This personal knowledge is not stored in any data or knowledge base or in any other form of corporate asset. If key individuals leave the organization, their personal knowledge leaves with them.

How can organizations access this knowledge, assess its value and use it productively? How can individuals be motivated to part with this knowledge? Is it possible to translate this tacit knowledge into an explicit form? Even if individuals are prepared to transcribe their knowledge into a tangible format, what criteria should they use to identify the forms of knowledge of interest to the organization, and how should such knowledge be presented? These are clearly issues of judgment and interpretation that require some thought. Participant observation provides a head start here.

Burke argues that at its most simple, people are observed going about their daily tasks, routines and decision-making processes. The observer is required to note everything, with the aim ultimately of reconstructing the categories and operating frameworks of those being observed. This tends to throw up a host of ethical and practical issues, not least how to observe without getting in the way or unduly influencing behaviors. The end result is a creative reconstruction that is validated by use of other research methods in the fieldwork situation and by checking premises and explanations with informants. By so doing the anthropologists will be able to help the business organizations to build an effective system of knowledge management.   

Conclusion

The principles of management are comprehensive with many features; the core point for principles of management is to study, to understand, to predict, and to influence humans’ behavior.  Anthropology is a social science that studies human’s behaviors and cultures.  There is a close connection between principles of management and anthropology: anthropology is one of the major sources and methods for management principles, while principles of management provide a large unlimited study subject for anthropologists.  The implications of anthropology in management can be expended to all the fields of management, which are still under the development by management scholars and business anthropologists.

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