The 1980s and 1990s have been a time of change for organizations, with a preoccupation for changing "organizational culture", a concept attributed to anthropology. These changes have been accompanied by questions about different styles of organizing. In both public and private sector organizations and in the first and third worlds, there is now a concern to understand how practices can be incorporated to maximum effect, and how opportunities can be improved for disadvantaged groups, particularly women.

The Anthropology of Organizations questions "organizational culture" as a tool of management and presents and analyzes the latest anthropological work on the management of organizations and their development, demonstrating the use of recent theory and examining the practical problems which anthropology can help to solve.