ABSTRACT
The Corporate Tribe starts from the premise that the challenges people face in the organizations are both new and, at the same time, centuries old; they are both unique and universal within human experience. The relatively new professional field in which they work goes by various names: organizational anthropology, business anthropology and corporate anthropology. Corporate anthropology illuminates the dynamics of an organization that are at work beneath the surface. In organizations, people are still people, social animals who organize themselves in groups, using stories, symbols, habits and ranking systems. With changes, tension emerges between the world of the planned and the experienced organization. The planned organization exists on paper, is shown in key performance indicators, in figures, in strategies, mission statements and vision. Rites of passage can provide an answer to the difficult question of how to intervene in organizational culture to bring about permanent change.
