Affiliations: Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Culture,
Organisation and Management, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1081c,
1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Tel.: +31 20 4446706, +31 20 4446737; Fax:
+31 20 4446860; E-mail: {h.wels,fh.kamsteeg}@fsw.vu.nl
Abstract: Anthropology and management studies have an uneasy relationship with
each other. The first accuses the other of a one-sided functionalist approach
and of lacking a proper empirical basis in their analyses. Management studies
do not value anthropologically based organization studies, because the latter
refuse to translate their analyses in terms of intervention policies. This
paper presents the arguments of both sides and subsequently describes an
anthropological model of organization studies in which culture, identity and
power are the key concepts. Finally, it discusses the (dis)advantages of
linking the knowledge derived from this model to the field of organization and
management studies. Both at the level of the academic and of the practitioner,
progress can only be expected when the twain will finally meet.