Kiviat, B. (2009). ‘An Anthropologist on What’s Wrong with Wall Street’
http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1912085,00.html
American worker has become liquid:
Constant job insecurity
Constant downsizing
Constant restructuring
Constant need to retrain and be flexible
Wall Street:
Investment bankers and how they approach work became a model for how work
should be conducted
Wall street – shapes stock market, nature of employment and what kind of
workers are valued
Corporate America:
Kind of worker they imagine is a worker like themselves
Worker who is constantly retraining, a worker who is constantly networked, a
worker whose skill set is very interchangeable, a worker who thinks of
downsizing as a challenge – worker who thrives on this
Change:
Wall Street has continued to resist change
Green, M. (2016). ‘Anthropology and Organisational Change: Gillian Tett’s
The Silo Effect’ https://savageminds.org/2016/08/17/anthropology-and-
organisational-change-gillian-tetts-the-silo-effect/
Key concerns in anthropology:
Classification
World making
Gillian Tett:
The Silo Effect. Why Organisation Needs to Disrupt Itself to Survive
This book explores what happens when institutions become too entrenched in
their own worlds to be able to see what lies outside them
The book popularises anthropology for the real world and it shows how
anthropology can offer applicable insights for changing it
Most significant changes – how we see and organise the world
Tutorial work:
What is it that anthropologists find problematic in in the world of finance
and might have contributed to the financial crash?
Liquid workers
Constant job insecurity, downsizing, restructuring
Laying people off
Short term gains
Work culture – ethnographic approach
What’s anthropology’s contribution to understanding the 2008 crash, and
what might help prevent this from happening again?
(According to Kiviat) Link bonuses to long-term corporate productivity/long-term
shareholder value
http://content.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1912085,00.html
American worker has become liquid:
Constant job insecurity
Constant downsizing
Constant restructuring
Constant need to retrain and be flexible
Wall Street:
Investment bankers and how they approach work became a model for how work
should be conducted
Wall street – shapes stock market, nature of employment and what kind of
workers are valued
Corporate America:
Kind of worker they imagine is a worker like themselves
Worker who is constantly retraining, a worker who is constantly networked, a
worker whose skill set is very interchangeable, a worker who thinks of
downsizing as a challenge – worker who thrives on this
Change:
Wall Street has continued to resist change
Green, M. (2016). ‘Anthropology and Organisational Change: Gillian Tett’s
The Silo Effect’ https://savageminds.org/2016/08/17/anthropology-and-
organisational-change-gillian-tetts-the-silo-effect/
Key concerns in anthropology:
Classification
World making
Gillian Tett:
The Silo Effect. Why Organisation Needs to Disrupt Itself to Survive
This book explores what happens when institutions become too entrenched in
their own worlds to be able to see what lies outside them
The book popularises anthropology for the real world and it shows how
anthropology can offer applicable insights for changing it
Most significant changes – how we see and organise the world
Tutorial work:
What is it that anthropologists find problematic in in the world of finance
and might have contributed to the financial crash?
Liquid workers
Constant job insecurity, downsizing, restructuring
Laying people off
Short term gains
Work culture – ethnographic approach
What’s anthropology’s contribution to understanding the 2008 crash, and
what might help prevent this from happening again?
(According to Kiviat) Link bonuses to long-term corporate productivity/long-term
shareholder value
