Anthropology and Management Consulting


Book Description

NAPA Bulletin is a peer reviewed occasional publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods. peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods most editions available for course adoption




Anthropology and Management Consulting


Book Description

NAPA Bulletin is a peer reviewed occasional publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods. peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods most editions available for course adoption




Practicing Anthropology in Corporate America


Book Description

NAPA Bulletin is a peer reviewed occasional publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods. peer reviewed publication of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology dedicated to the practical problem-solving and policy applications of anthropological knowledge and methods most editions available for course adoption




Management and Morality


Book Description

Drawing on extended ethnographic studies of management consultancies in the Oslo region of Norway, this book seeks to find a richer understanding of their role in contemporary work life and the attraction their practices exert on people. The author shows that management consultancy is an arena of meaning that should be analysed as a ‘cultural space’. With a detailed investigation into consultancy as a cultural phenomenon, Henningsen argues that its services can be viewed as a ‘micro-utopian’ vision which can lead to a happier working environment for individuals.




Best Practice


Book Description

In Best Practice Kimberly Chong provides an ethnography of a global management consultancy that has been hired by Chinese companies, including Chinese state-owned enterprises. She shows how consulting emerges as a crucial site for considering how corporate organization, employee performance, business ethics, and labor have been transformed under financialization. To date financialization has been examined using top-down approaches that portray the rise of finance as a new logic of economic accumulation. Best Practice, by contrast, focuses on the everyday practices and narratives through which companies become financialized. Effective management consultants, Chong finds, incorporate local workplace norms and assert their expertise in the particular terms of China's national project of modernization, while at the same time framing their work in terms of global “best practices.” Providing insight into how global management consultancies refashion Chinese state-owned enterprises in preparation for stock market flotation, Chong demonstrates both the dynamic, fragmented character of financialization and the ways in which Chinese state capitalism enables this process.




Work, Sleep, Repeat


Book Description

Work, Sleep, Repeat is a fascinating account of the work regime of German management consultants. Examining one of the most sought-after – and secretive – graduate professions, the book provides a first-hand account of the boardroom culture of Europe’s strongest economy. Analyzing how knowledge and power operate in this sector, Felix Stein explores a number of paradoxes. For example, while it is the job of management consultants to analyse the activities of other employees, they actually spend most of their time in luxurious seclusion away from them. In addition, despite having a strong sense of the importance of their work, consultants often find it difficult to explain to outsiders what it is they do. The book addresses these and other paradoxes by arguing that consultants are engaged in abstract labour. Anthropologists have long struggled with the question of how to describe contemporary work regimes which do not produce anything tangible. Stein demonstrates that elite work is predominantly abstract, in the fourfold sense that it is epistemically removed from the object of analysis, emotionally detached from it, several steps away from the assumed sources of economic value creation, and increasingly hard to grasp. In doing so, he offers new ways to think about white collar work and elites in the 21st century and establishes the notion of ‘abstract labour’ as a key category in social anthropology.




Rethink


Book Description

Beyond the Glass Ceiling ​More and more, women today are challenging long-held beliefs about what they can and can’t do. They’re speaking up, stepping out, breaking through, and redefining what society has always told them was true about their capabilities. In Rethink: Smashing the Myths of Women in Business, Andi Simon tells the stories of 11 women from different industries who opened up the possibilities for their professional careers and personal lives by being authentic, taking risks, and pushing past the obstacles others placed before them. These are stories that tell of innovation, show how women rise, and ignite change. Andi, a corporate anthropologist, an award-winning author, and a successful entrepreneur, debunks myth after myth as she profiles the women in the book and offers key wisdom, insights, and observations through her unique lens. Whether about entrepreneurs, innovators, scientists, academics, attorneys, or leaders in other fields, the stories demonstrate how all the women have broken down walls and paved the way to more. But this book isn’t only about the 11 women who are pushing boundaries and transforming business, culture, and society; it’s about inspiring all women to achieve and showing them a way to launch forward. Rethink provides the tools and framework for questioning society's norms, challenging our own current thinking, and smashing the preconceived notions about women that can so often hold us back from realizing our goals and dreams. In this book, you'll learn how to take a hands-on approach to examining and rethinking your own personal and professional life in order to recognize your fuller potential.







The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting


Book Description

Management consultants of various kinds play an important role in the world of business, and within other types of organization. The Oxford Handbook on Management Consulting is a comprehensive overview of thinking and research on management consultancy with contributions from leading international scholars. The first section provides an account of the historical developments in management consulting research, and how current thinking has evolved from prior work. The second section focuses on disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, their diversities, areas of synergy, and parallel concerns. The following sections examine consulting as a knowledge business, consultants and management fashion, and the relationship between management consultants and their clients. The Handbook concludes with an assessment of areas of future research and debate. By bringing together a wide range of research and thinking on management consulting across different disciplines, sub-disciplines, and conceptual approaches, the Handbook provides a comprehensive understanding of both current thinking and future directions for research.




Expert Knowledge


Book Description

The professionalization of anthropology through practical engagement is a major force underpinning the reformulations of the nature of the anthropological project. It is therefore imperative that anthropologists critically explore the conditions of their practices, to determine the difficulties and limitations to their ethical practice. These essays examine the application of expert knowledge in fields where there is the expectation of considerable cultural, social, and political consequence for human populations as a result of state, corporate, or non-governmental re-organization.