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Enterprise as an Instrument of Civilization

An Anthropological Approach to Business Administration

  • Book
  • © 2016

Overview

Editors:
  1. Hirochika Nakamaki

    1. Suita City Museum, Suita, Japan

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  2. Koichiro Hioki

    1. Faculty of Business Administration, Tottori University of Environmental Studies, Tottori, Japan

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  3. Izumi Mitsui

    1. College of Economics, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

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  4. Yoshiyuki Takeuchi

    1. Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan

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  • Enterprises are explained not only as interest communities but also as cultural communities, and are defined as cultural as well as economic actors
  • Interpretative approaches such as hermeneutic and/or narrative approaches are adopted as research methodology
  • Multidisciplinary approaches are employed, including qualitative research techniques such as participant observation and interviewing
  • Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras

Part of the book series: Translational Systems Sciences (TSS, volume 4)

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Table of contents (15 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xv
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  2. Invitation to Keiei Jinruigaku, Anthropology of Business Administration

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
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    2. Enterprise as an Instrument of Civilization

      • Koichiro Hioki
      Pages 3-16

    3. Enterprise as Cultural Community

      • Hirochika Nakamaki
      Pages 17-28

    4. Company Mythology

      • Koichiro Hioki, Hirochika Nakamaki
      Pages 29-39

  4. Frontiers of the Research in Keiei Jinruigaku

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 117-117
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    2. Management of Secret in Religion and Company

      • Hiroshi Iwai
      Pages 119-129

    3. Company Funeral Culture and Funeral Companies: A Case Study of Taisei Saiten

      • Shinya Yamada
      Pages 131-143

    4. Anthropology of Distrust and Suspicion in Credit Transactions in Japan

      • Mitsuhiro Nakahata
      Pages 145-167

    5. Airline Culture: International Flight Attendant Service Design

      • Keiko Yamaki
      Pages 169-185

    6. Globalization and the Establishment of Manufacturing Bases Overseas: A Case Study of the “J Automobile Company”

      • Atsushi Sumi
      Pages 187-206

    7. From Politics of Ethnicity to Politics of Cultures: When Kool Far East Group Took Over Shiranai International in Hong Kong

      • Heung Wah Wong
      Pages 207-225

    8. The Corporate Brand: Toward an Anthropology of Branding

      • Louella Matsunaga
      Pages 227-243

  5. Back Matter

    Pages 245-250
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Keywords

About this book

In this book, the functions and dynamics of enterprises are explained with the use of anthropological methods. The chapters are based on anthropological research that has continued mainly as an inter-university research project, which is named Keiei Jinruigaku, of the National Museum of Ethnology (Japan) since 1993. These studies have a twofold aim: to clarify that enterprises are not only actors in economic activity but also actors that create culture and civilization; and to find the raison d'être of enterprises in a global society. Business anthropology is an approach to the investigation of various phenomena in enterprises and management using anthropological methodology (e.g., participant observations and interviews). Historically, its origin goes back to the 1920s–30s. In the Hawthorne experiments, the research group organized by Elton Mayo recruited an anthropologist, Lloyd W. Warner, and conducted research on human relations in the workplace by observation of participants. Since then, similar studies have been carried out in the United States and the United Kingdom. In Japan, however, such research is quite rare. Now, in addition to anthropological methods, the authors have employed multidisciplinary methods drawn from management, economics, and sociology. The research contained here can be characterized in these ways: (1) Research methods adopt interpretative approaches such as hermeneutic and/or narrative approaches rather than causal and functional explanations such as “cause–consequence” relationships. (2) Multidisciplinary approaches including qualitative research techniques are employed to investigate the total entity of enterprises, with their own cosmology. In this book, the totality of activities by enterprises are shown, including the relationship between religion and enterprise, corporate funerals, corporate museums, and the sacred space and/or mythology of enterprises. Part I provides introductions to Keiei Jinruigaku and Part II explains the theoretical characteristics of Keiei Jinruigaku. In addition, research topics and cases of Keiei Jinruigaku are presented in Part III.

Editors and Affiliations

  • Suita City Museum, Suita, Japan

    Hirochika Nakamaki

  • Faculty of Business Administration, Tottori University of Environmental Studies, Tottori, Japan

    Koichiro Hioki

  • College of Economics, Nihon University, Tokyo, Japan

    Izumi Mitsui

  • Graduate School of Economics, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan

    Yoshiyuki Takeuchi

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