Decoding Culture: Anthropology in the Workplace

By Elsa d'Hane, Anthropologist at New Possible

Ever wonder where workplace complaints go to die? In 'The Office' (US), Season 2, Episode 21 “Conflict Resolution”, we get a hilarious (and slightly tragic) glimpse into the answer. At the end of the episode the ever-exhausted HR rep, Toby, quietly places a box of employee complaints into a warehouse filled with hundreds of identical boxes. Inside? Grievances ranging from excessive crying, to posters of babies playing instruments, to prank wars and general office chaos.

Toby later admits he doesn’t have a passion for people. If he did, maybe that complaint warehouse wouldn’t exist. Because let’s face it, Toby wasn’t exactly the poster child for building a healthy workplace culture.

So, here’s the real question: How do you understand and improve your workplace culture while avoiding your own warehouse of unresolved problems? Anthropology is about opening those boxes, examining what’s inside, and understanding the culture that put them there in the first place.

While business anthropology, a subfield of social anthropology, may not be a mainstream discipline in corporate settings, it offers powerful tools for decoding the social dynamics that shape organisations. At its core, anthropology is the study of humans and culture: how we live, interact, and create meaning together. This makes it uniquely suited to help leaders navigate the complex, often elusive concept of workplace culture. Every business is built by people, and every team, department, and organisation develops its own local culture. Cultures are formed through shared habits, values, rituals, and ways of working. These cultures are not static; they are local, dynamic, and deeply human. Understanding them requires more than metrics and data, it requires immersion.

Anthropology shines through long-term, immersive study and participant observation. By engaging with and observing teams from the inside - through field notes, in-depth interviews, and everyday participation – ethnography (from Greek ethnos, “people,” + graphein, “to write/describe”) surfaces the subtle forces that shape behaviour and morale. Rather than applying external frameworks to interpret familiar environments, anthropology encourages us to treat the familiar as though it were strange. This shift in perspective helps uncover assumptions and patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. By adopting an anthropological lens, employers can better understand what motivates their teams, how values are expressed, and how change can be introduced in a way that resonates with the existing culture.

In short, anthropology offers a human-centred approach to organisations. It is one that prioritises empathy, observation, and deeper understanding. It’s not just about studying remote tribes anymore; it’s about studying the tribe you work with every day.

How office culture shaped a global crisis

Karen Ho’s ethnography, Liquidated, shows how workplace culture can have profound impact. Ho lays out how the ingrained values and beliefs of investment bankers contributed to practices and incentives associated with market instability, which many argue were key factors in the 2008 financial crisis. The cultural values and practices established by the bankers were characterised by extremely long hours and intense pressure to perform, along with hyper-competitiveness for bonuses and rampant job insecurity. The investment bankers of Wall Street immersed themselves in a culture that viewed others as less smart, less efficient, less competitive and therefore less likely to survive the demands of global capitalism. 

The beliefs and experiences of bankers shaped a ‘common-sense’ understanding and way of doing things on Wall Street. As such, the workplace models, corporate culture and organisational values of Wall Street in the late 90s and early 2000s were reflected in a market that mimicked the personalities, egos and practices of the investment bankers themselves. Investment bankers celebrated job insecurity, seeing their lack of employment security as a way to test and develop their ‘mettle’. In turn, they transferred their own models of employee liquidity onto corporate America and the global market. An unsustainable internal culture set the groundwork for an unsustainable market. Extremely long work hours and an intense, toxic culture did not yield a successful return for Wall Street bankers. Karen Ho, using ethnographic research, revealed how Wall Street’s internal culture ultimately had global consequences – the 2008 Wall Street crash.

On a smaller scale it can be hard to identify and pick apart the ingrained habitus (the embodiment of beliefs and values that make up culture) when you are part of it yourself. Anthropology and ethnography give you the tools to observe which aspects of your culture are negatively affecting your business, highlighting areas you could reshape or gradually change to improve both culture and performance. Anthropology doesn’t just diagnose problems; it offers a human-centred lens for reimagining how we work together. Organisations of any size can benefit from understanding how their own cultural practices impact performance, morale, and long-term sustainability. 

How to diagnose and reshape your corporate culture

Anthropological practices and research offer powerful tools for employers seeking to understand and improve their organisation’s culture and dynamics. One example of a hidden dynamic is social loafing, also known as the Ringelmann effect: the tendency for individuals to exert less effort as group sizes increase. This is one of the many unconscious habits that can erode team performance over time. Identifying and addressing these patterns isn’t easy but it’s essential for productivity and a healthy culture. Even with clear goals, rules and norms, teams can drift from their original commitments. Communication across departments, each with its own ‘subculture’ (e.g. finance, IT, sales) can feel like translating thoughts into unfamiliar languages. 

Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance (2016) presents a practical framework for diagnosing and reshaping team culture. Drawing on anthropological data from real-world team observations, the authors introduce the 3x3 process, a method designed to help teams align around shared goals and values:

1. Commit is the first step of the process. Establishing rules guides a team’s direction for performance, targets and values. It sets the foundation for alignment and accountability. This step could involve collectively defining values, future endeavours, codes of conduct, and processes. It’s about ensuring everyone understands where they want to be. The next step is to…
2. Check alignment and regularly revisit whether the teams’ actions and behaviour reflect its commitments. This is often the most challenging phase, as teams can fall into the trap of the illusion of insight - believing they’re aligned when deeper conflicts persist. For example, a startup may have relaxed rules on punctuality, but as the company grows and timing becomes more important, this rule can start to strain relationships and reduce productivity. Realigning on this rule and creating a safe space for honest reflections is crucial for the company and colleagues. Then, they need to…
3. Close the saying/doing gap is the final step in the process. Here, leaders need to identify the conflicting rules that cause misalignment between commitments and actual behaviours; cultivating new habits and ideals can close this gap. Continuing with the above example, creating new rules around punctuality that still allows for flexibility would benefit employees while maintaining core values. Getting people to stick to these new rules and not revert to previous behaviour is important. By doing this systematically and gradually, you can adjust team culture until it becomes second nature. 

What this research shows is how leaders through observations and discussion can unpick and understand what makes their team successful. Anthropological methods, such as participant observation, long-term analysis, and mixed-method research (e.g., surveys and focus groups), can help leaders uncover the subtle forces shaping their workplace. These tools allow leaders to observe team dynamics with fresh eyes, identify invisible rules and rituals and understand how values are expressed (or contradicted) in daily behaviour. By approaching the workplace as an anthropologist would, with curiosity and observation, leaders can foster a more cohesive, resilient, and high-performing team.

Becoming an anthropologist in your workplace

1. Practise Intentional Observation: Observation is a skill that improves with practise. A great way to start is by looking around your environment with fresh eyes. What have you overlooked? Are there perspectives or angles you’ve never considered? Which mugs, snacks, and desk setups do people prefer? These small details can reveal the patterns and preferences that shape workplace culture.
2. Engage in Participant Observation: Anthropology isn’t just about watching; it’s about joining in. Participate in conversations and activities, and ask open-ended questions - what do people value? What makes them feel appreciated? Notice the little things: favourite seats, a preferred coffee brand, a shared joke. These small things contribute to the overall emotional and cultural fabric of the workplace. 
3. Be patient and consistent: Understanding culture takes time. Avoid rushing to conclusions after just a few weeks. Keep a journal or log your observations over time.
4. Use mixed methods for deeper insight: Online surveys and focus groups can help you gather both quantitative and qualitative data. By repeating surveys periodically, you can track changes and trends. Anonymous surveys allow people to be completely honest, giving you more insightful, actionable feedback.
5. Adopt an outsider’s mindset: To truly understand your workplace culture, set aside assumptions and biases. Approach each situation as if you’re seeing it for the first time. Be curious, not judgmental as this is a learning process, for you as well. 

Conclusion

Understanding team culture isn’t just good for morale; it’s good business - adopting an anthropological lens gives leaders a fresh, human-centred view of how work really works. Instead of adding to a stack of boxes (like Toby in The Office), think like an anthropologist: observe with fresh eyes, check alignment, and close the gap between what you say and what you do.

To discuss our unique approach to people insight, book a demo, or email hello@newpossible.io

Recommended reading

• Liquidated: An Ethnography on Wall Street – Karen Ho
• Committed Teams: Three Steps to Inspiring Passion and Performance - Mario Moussa, Madeline Boyer, Derek Newberry