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Corporate Anthropologists Business anthropology is defined as anthropological practice that applies the theories and methods of the discipline to the problem-solving activity in private sector organizations, especially industrial firms. Also, business anthropology seeks to explain the how and why of corporate decision-making, along with the sociological and cultural influences acting upon the company. Most importantly, it seeks to highlight the ways these factors influence employees and their behavior. However, anthropology brings several strengths to business. One is the participant-observer approach to research. This emphasizes looking at what people do in addition to asking them what they do. Survey research can be affected by perceived power relationships with the corporate hierarchy so that people’s responses are affected by what they think is the goal of research. The participant-observer approach involves working with people over a longer period of time. This insider or outsider viewpoint often helps anthropologists to understand things from a perspective that is different from the one that labor, management, or survey researcher have. The outcome of an anthropological investigation of a corporation often focu