Description
This book expands anthropological studies of business enterprise to include comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. A number of books on business anthropology have been published, but most of them are written by anthropologists alone. By contrast, this book engages interdisciplinary studies, e.g., not only by anthropologists but also management scholars and other social scientists. It is the second volume of studies forwarding anthropological approaches to business administration, Keiei Jinruigaku.
This volume focusses on the cultural dimensions of enterprise. Here enterprise is viewed as a medium carrying culture, rather than solely an entity of production and management, as is typical in mainstream studies. The approach is based on Tadao Umesao’s definition of culture as a projection of instruments/devices and institutions into the mental/spiritual dimensions of life. Therefore, in our view production and management are among the projections of the cultural aspects of enterprise. This perspective, we believe, constitutes a new frontier in the study of business administration.
This book consists of three parts, the first being “religiosity and spirituality”, the second “exhibitions, performance and inducement,” and the third “history and story.” In Part I, Quaker Codes, ex-votos, and spiritual leadership are discussed in relation to management and behavior, and miracles and pilgrimage. Part II describes exhibitions justifying nuclear power industry within power plants in both Japan and England, the exhibition by English families of their porcelain collections, and the performance skills of orchestral maestros. All of these examples indicate that, through the use of narratives and myths, exhibits and performances overtly and covertly induce visitors or audiences to certain viewpoints and emotions. Part III offers examples of histories and stories of enterprise articulated through the branding and consumption of industrial products, and their display in enterprise museums where the essence of culture and heritage is cherished and emphasized, by and for the wider community and the enterprise itself.
Conjoined as an interdisciplinary team of Western and Japanese researchers, we apply an anthropological approach to the cultural history of enterprise in both Britain and Japan.
Table of Contents
Part I. Religiosity, Spirituality, and Business.- Chapter 1. Corporate Society, the Foundation of Order, and “Quaker Codes”.- Chapter 2. Management of Miracles and Pilgrimage: A Comparative Study of Votive Offering in Europe and Japan.- Chapter 3. Spiritual Leadership: Background, Theory and Application to Japanese Business Leaders.- Part II. Exhibition, Performance, and Inducement.- Chapter 4. How the “Anomaly” of Nuclear Power Plants Has Been Explained Before and After the 3.11 Disaster in Japan and England.- Chapter 5. Modeling Museums: The Management Culture of Family Porcelain in England.- Chapter 6. An Orchestral Myth: Maestros are Born, and Made.- Part III. History, Story, and Industry.- Chapter 7. Museum and Visitor Center in England: Schism and Conflict over Globalization.- Chapter 8. Brewing Heritage: Issues in the Management of Corporate Heritage in the Brewing Industry in Britain.- Chapter 9. Islay, a Very Tasty Idea: Inventing, Embedding and Selling History in the Contemporary Scotch Whisky Industry.- Chapter 10. One History, Two Narratives: The Corporate Myths of Japanese Whisky Companies.
