This methodological article takes Fredrik Barth’s anthropology of knowledge as a point of departure and identifies culture as knowledge shared above a specified threshold. The method samples domains of knowledge in organizational settings and asks diverse members of the organization to list the elements of the domains. After compiling the elements, the informants are re-interviewed, along with a wider sample, to prioritize the elements according to a criterion of importance. A consensus analysis of the informants’ data matrix reveals the degree to which the knowledge is shared and constitutes a culture, or is less shared and constitutes a proto-culture, subculture, counter-culture, or a fragmented and idiosyncratic domain. Three case studies are used as illustrations. Widely adaptable in international management research for exploring organizational cultures and subcultures, inter-organizational fields, and international ventures, the consensus analysis method articulates with the three major theoretical perspectives on culture, the integration, differentiation, and fragmentation perspectives.
Abu-Lughod, L. (1991) ‘Writing against Culture’, in R.G. Fox (ed.) Recapturing Anthropology: Working in the Present, pp.137-162. Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press .
2.
Ajiferuke, B. and Boddewyn, J. (1970) ‘Culture and Other Explanatory Variables in Comparative Management Studies’ , Academy of Management Journal113: 153-165 .
3.
Barth, F. (2001) ‘Rethinking the Object of Anthropology’ , American Anthropologist103(2): 435-437 .
4.
Barth, F. (2002) ‘An Anthropology of Knowledge’ , Current Anthropology43(1): 1-18 .
5.
Bernard, H.R. (1994) Research Methods in Anthropology: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
Boyagiciller, N.A. , Kleinberg, J.M. , Phillips, M.E. and Sackmann, S.A. (2004) ‘Conceptualizing Culture’, in B.J. Punnett and O. Shenkar (eds) Handbook for International Management Research, 2nd edn, pp. 99-167. Oxford, UK and Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers .
9.
Caulkins, D.D. (1992) ‘The Unexpected Entrepreneurs: Small High Technology Firms and Regional Development in Wales and Northeast England’, in F.A. Rothstein and M. Blim (eds) Anthropology and the Global Factory: Studies in the New Industrialization of the Late Twentieth Century, pp.119-135. New York: Bergin & Garvey .
10.
Caulkins, D.D. (1995) ‘High Technology Entrepreneurs in the Peripheral Regions of the United Kingdom’ , in R. Byron and J. Hutson (eds) Economic Futures on the North Atlantic Margin: Selected Contributions to the Twelfth International Seminar on Marginal Regions, pp. 287-299 . Aldershot: Avebury Press.
11.
Caulkins, D.D. (1998) ‘Consensus Analysis: Do Scottish Business Advisers Agree on Models of Success?’, in V. de Munck and E. Sobo (eds) Using Methods in the Field: A Practical Introduction and Case Book, pp. 175-195. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira .
12.
Caulkins, D.D. (2001) ‘Consensus, Clines, and Edges in Celtic Cultures’ , Cross-Cultural Research35(2): 109-126 .
13.
Caulkins, D.D. (2003) ‘Globalization and the Local Hero: Becoming a Small-scale Entrepreneur in Scotland’ , Anthropology of Work Review23(1-2): 24-29 .
14.
Caulkins, D.D. , Hanson, C. and Zabor, E. (2003) ‘Services, Challenges, and Organizational Cultures in Celtic Heritage Sites’ , paper presented at Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meetings (March) Portland, Oregon.
15.
Caulkins, D.D. and Hyatt, S.B. (1998) Measuring Cultural Consensus and Diversity in Organizations and Networks: Case Studies from Norway and Britain. Bergen, Norway: LOS-senter Notat 9815 .
16.
Caulkins, D.D. and Hyatt, S.B. (1999) ‘Using Consensus Analysis to Measure Cultural Diversity in Organizations and Social Movements’ , Field Methods1(1): 5-26 .
17.
Caulkins, D.D. , Trosset, C. , Painter, A. and Good, M. (2000) ‘Using Scenarios to Construct Models of Identity in Multiethnic Settings’ , Field Methods12(4): 267-281 .
18.
Caulkins, D.D. and Weiner, E.S. (1998) ‘Finding a Work Culture that Fits: Egalitarian Manufacturing Firms in MidWales’ , Anthropology of Work Review19(1): 27-31 .
19.
Caulkins, D.D. and Weiner, E.S. (1999) ‘Enterprise and Resistance in the Celtic Fringe: High Growth, Low Growth and No Growth Firms’, in R. Byron and J. Hutson (eds) Local Enterprise on the North Atlantic Margin: Selected Contributions to the Fourteenth International Seminar on Marginal Regions, pp. 191-204. Aldershot: Ashgate .
20.
Child, J. (1981) ‘Culture, Contingency and Capitalism in the Cross-national Study of Organizations’, in L.L. Cummings and B.M Staw (eds) Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 3, pp. 303-356. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press .
21.
Deal, T. and Kennedy, A. (1982) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley .
22.
Granovetter, M. (1985) ‘Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness’ , American Journal of Sociology91(3): 481-510 .
23.
Handwerker, W.P. (2001) Quick Ethnography. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira .
24.
Hofstede, G. (1980) Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage .
25.
Hofstede, G. (1991) Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill .
26.
Jordan, A.T. (2003) Business Anthropology. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press .
27.
Lenartowicz, T. and Roth, K. (1999) ‘A Framework for Cultural Assessment’ , Journal of International Business Studies30(4): 781-798 .
28.
Liep, J. and Olwig, K.F. (1994) Komplekse liv: kulturel mangfoldighed I Danmark. Copenhagen: Akadmisk Forlag .
29.
Martin, J. (1992) Cultures in Organizations. New York: Oxford University Press .
30.
Martin, J. (2002) Organizational Culture: Mapping the Terrain. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage .
31.
Martin, J. and Siehl, C. (1983) ‘Organizational Cultures and Counter-culture: An Uneasy Symbiosis’ , Organizational Dynamics12(2): 99-124 .
32.
Ouchi, W. (1981) Theory Z. New York: Avon .
33.
Rodseth, L. (1998) ‘Distributive Models of Culture: A Sapirian Alternative to Essentialism’ , American Anthropologist100: 55-69 .
34.
Romney, A.K. , Batchelder, W. and Weller, S. (1987) ‘Recent Applications of Cultural Consensus Theory’ , American Behavioral Scientist31(2): 163-177 .
35.
Romney, A.K. , Weller, S. and Batchelder, W. (1986) ‘Culture as Consensus: A Theory of Culture and Informant Accuracy’ , American Anthropologist88(2): 313-338 .
36.
Sackmann, S. (1992) ‘Culture and Subcultures: An Analysis of Organizational Knowledge’ , Administrative Science Quarterly37: 140-161 .
37.
Schwartz, S. (1994) ‘Beyond Individualism/Collectivism: New Cultural Dimensions of Values’, in U. Kimet al. (eds) Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method and Application, pp. 85-119. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage .
38.
Scott, M. and Ritchie, J. (1984) ‘Re-thinking Entrepreneurial Failure’, in J. Lewiset al. (eds) Success and Failure in Small Business, pp. 29-56. Aldershot: Gower .
39.
Stewart, A. (1989) Team Entrepreneurship. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
40.
Trosset, C. and Caulkins, D.D. (2002) ‘Cultural Values and Social Organization in Wales: Is Ethnicity the Locus of Culture?’, in N. Rapport (ed.) British Subjects: The Anthropology of Britain, pp. 239-256. Oxford: Berg Publishers .
41.
Weller, S. and Romney, A.K. (1988) Systematic Data Collection. Newbury Park, CA: Sage .
