Witches, Business & Culture: Anthropologists as Professional Strangers in the Boardroom

This article collates personal insights from 30 years of research and consultancy in organisational anthropology. It has two target groups in mind: on the one hand, students who, after completing a degree in anthropology with a more classical focus, are wondering what they can do with and how they could ‘sell’ their professional skills outside the academy, in the field of organizational consulting or organizational development. On the other hand, it wants to open the black box of anthropological methods and procedures for decision makers in organizations, enabling them to decide whether and when the use of anthropological expertise in their own company is worthwhile, especially in times of global flows of people, goods and communication. Here, the free-flying witch stands as a metaphor for the anthropological position as a professional stranger at the interface of the corporate world.

Policing language in the world of new work: the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting

This paper examines how the shift to knowledge and innovation economy has created new sites for the commodification of language and communication in the context of organizational consulting. The data come from a consultant-led development and training program of the management teams of a Finnish educational organization. In the study, the year-long training was videotaped (45 h) and followed ethnographically. By using rhetorical discourse analysis as a method, we examine how the consultant-led training activities present the role of language and communication in changing working life. The results show how the activities factualize the transformation of work and the centrality of language in this transformation. They conceptualize language and communication as key elements of professional competence and resources for organizational improvement. Moreover, they construct causal relations between organizational success and the ability to assess and modify one’s own communicative behavior. With its focus on language awareness and contextual variation the training differs from settings examined in previous studies where the mechanisms of commodification are based on standardization practices. In conclusion, we reflect the training programs both as indicators and vehicles for social change and discuss how they act as spaces where the new worlds of work are discursively construed.

Addressing Workplace Sexual Harassment in a Government Contracting Company Through Organizational Consulting

Sexual harassment and workplace hostility towards women have significant implications for an organization's employees to collaborate and trust each other. Recent news reports highlighting prominent figures accused of unwanted and inappropriate behavior towards women and men in the workplace has brought a much-needed awareness of what has been an ongoing and often silent issue of sexual harassment. Although one has witnessed what seemingly appears to be an unprecedented number of claims of sexual harassment with the rise of the #MeeToo movement, it is surprising that the Equal Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has estimated 75% of individuals who are harassed in the workplace do not file a complaint. This paper explores a case study of an organizational consulting intervention around workplace sexual harassment.

Organizational consulting models and performance improvement

This study is concerned with a possible organizational consulting model of schools in rural areas with unfavorable social, economic and cultural (SEC) environments. Specifically, the study offers a case study analysis of five rural schools of one Lithuanian municipality. The results yield a conceptual framework for a model of rural school consultation. The proposed model is in line with the theoretical approaches of the dynamic and the ecological theories. The obtained research results offer suggestions and insights for organizational development theory and practice.