A Study in Training for Applied Anthropologists Working in Business and Industry

This research attempted to shed some light on one of the currently central issues in applied anthropology, that of training for applied anthropology students specializing in business anthropology. The data for this project came from a sample of anthropologists currently practicing in the domain of business and industry. This "panel of experts" was chosen because of their uniquely emic point of view. Much of the information concerning this subject has come from the academic community, there is very little from the practitioners themselves. The data was gathered from the respondents with two questionnaires; An initial survey was sent out to a large group in order to identify an appropriate sample of anthropologists practicing in business and industry. Then a second in depth survey was sent to the group of individuals selected for the panel based on their careers that were almost exclusively based in business and industry. The respondents were questioned on issues such as: personal training and job experiences, skills and where they were acquired, accreditation and personal certification, and a standard curriculum for applied anthropology graduate programs.

The respondents were in favor of a graduate student being a generalist first then allowed to take collateral training in a specific area of interest, in this case business courses. It was very important to many of the individuals in the sample that all of this be sanctioned and supervised by the anthropology department. Personal certification was seen in a very negative light by almost all of the individuals in the sample, but accreditation was acceptable if it applied only to a generalized standard curriculum, not special areas of practice. The respondents also saw a need for more practitioner involvement in the training of graduate students and development of curriculum for these students. The data gathered from this panel of experts were used to develop recommendations for training programs presented in the thesis conclusion.