In most management schools the closest thing to a humanistic perspective that is ever talked about is social psychology.  Don't get me wrong, social psychology is cool stuff.  However, when it comes to trying to make business organizations more humanistic, more conscious of tangible consumer needs, and more sustainable, the discipline of psychology (whether social, cognitive, behavioral, humanistic, or evolutionary) comes up short.

Why?  Because, at the end of the day, psychology is about individuals and their psychological make up.  Social psychology focuses on small groups and small group behavior, but not on whole societies and cultures.  This is what anthropology is for.  As a discipline, it is the only discipline that is truly holistic and integrative.  It focuses on whole cultural systems in terms of trade and economics, religion and ritual, recreation and sports, politics, art, music, technology...everything!

When you look out into the landscape of consumers and consumer behavior, there are anthropologists who study virtually every aspect of that landscape.  And this is where anthropology (and in particular the research method of ethnography) enters the picture.

Consumer Ethnography

For generations consumer product companies and retail firms built things that they thought people wanted.  If they wanted feedback from customers they sent out a survey or conducted a focus group.  While these traditional marketing techniques are more or less useful, it is now widely accepted that what people say and what people do are often radically different.  Many companies now see that observing, over a long period of time, how consumers actually use products/services in the naturally occuring environments yield much more useful information than quesionnaires or surveys. 

From a sustainability perspective, consumer anthropology has an important role to play.  Ethnographically informed consumer insights focus corporate attention on things that people actually need and want (versus shit that some pot-bellied research scientist in Cincinatti wants to make), and on problems that they actually have day to day.  In this respect, business anthropology helps align what is produced with what is needed.

Design and Ethnography

This alignment is achieved through design.  Increasingly, design firms such as IDEO, Ziba, Gravity Tank, Point Forward, Design Continuum, etc. regularly employ ethnographers to conduct hands on, long-term field research with consumers where they live, work, play, and shop.  As IDEO Tim Brown says, this helps humanize the design process into what he calls human-centered design. 

While the discipline of psychology is and always will be important, it does not adequately capture a full sense of the cultural context in which people live their lives and buy and experience products.  Anthropology, on the other hand, is all about the cultural context of economics and consumer behavior, and for that we should be grateful.

The Butcher