‘Daily Thoughts’ is in pause mode for a few days and will resume with new content on Monday 4th of April .
I have written many times that Social Anthropology is the forgotten discipline in Management. Not that it does not have any presence at all, but it is minuscule compared with other disciplines. Part of the blame lies with anthropologists themselves, who have often created an esoteric language only to be understood by the initiated, particularly after a field trip to an exotic island. But also with ‘Management Science’ ( a science that does not exist) that has ignored, or not taken seriously, the social sciences, other than to pick and mix the bits and pieces that suit a particular argument.
I invite you to search my collection of Daily Thoughts for ‘anthropology’ as keyword. Here are some key entries that I can suggest:
Games or Rituals? Anthropology inside the company has valuable things to say.
Organizational anthropology sounds like a grandiose academic affair. You may imagine the anthropologists armed with notebooks and cameras capturing the company tribes. Perhaps the corporate indigenous are not naked, they all are on their smartphones,[…]
What I learnt from the monks: a little anthropology of leadership and space in one page.
My friends, monks of a Benedictine monastery in the Highlands, Scotland, spend most of the time in silence. I mean, when not chanting to each other in the church seven times a day. Yet, that silence needs the space in order to be heard. A while […]
‘A rain dance is a ritual for me, ‘work’ for the one who dances’
I wish I remember the Anthropology book where I got this. I should, because these days I read 50% anthropology and 50% ‘the rest’. Anthropology tells us that rituals have zero or low efficacy. There is even an argument that the best ritual is […]
I am working on a new book that I hope to finish this year: Exotics in the payroll. The tribes, the rituals and the magical thinking that explain corporate life. A-Z field book of unauthorized social anthropology in the organization. (As you can see, the title will need some cleaning! Working in that as well!)
These Thoughts are written for that purpose, not to ‘agree/disagree’, but stimulate fresh thinking coming from…you. Experiment with this, create your own collection. Pass it on.
These back reflections will continue until Monday 4th, when the Daily Thoughts will resume with fresh daily content.
The best way to ensure the daily prompt to these topics is to subscribe to the daily email, via my personal site [1]. I know we are in the era of inbox cluttering but many people still find that these daily crafted messages are worth appearing that way in front of you.