Melissa Fisher, Author at The Anthropology Career Readiness Network

About Melissa Fisher (Edit profile)

Dr. Melissa Fisher is a cultural anthropologist and workplace and marketing strategist specializing in the ethnographic study of work, organizational culture and the built and digital environments. She serves on the faculty at Parsons School of Design at The New School, is a Senior Advisor focusing on Workplace Culture and Design at CFAR Consulting and Coaching Services, and partners with Batten & Company (BBDO Worldwide Advertising/Omnicom) on ethnographic research and strategy. Melissa is the author of Wall Street Women (Duke University Press), co-editor of Frontiers of Capital: Ethnographic Reflections on the New Economy (Duke University Press), co-author of the JLL study, The omnipresence challenge: enabling sustainable performance in the ‘always on’ era, and is writing an ethnography on the future of work. She holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and has held full-time faculty positions at NYU, Georgetown, and the University of Copenhagen. Her unique approach to the workplace is grounded in an early career in postmodern dance and graphic design, fueling her passion for connecting people, place, and movement.

How can a cultural anthropologist help businesses chart the future of work and the workplace?

Multi-national, global workplace teams need to add anthropologists to their organizations now more than ever. Anthropology provides a framework for understanding how economic uncertainty, political unrest, and social changes power the workplace. Anthropologists argue that organizations are complex cultural systems embedded in larger socio-political economic environments—where power, identity, and meaning are constantly negotiated. By using ethnography to observe the hidden social dynamics, unspoken rules, and cultural behaviors, workplace anthropologists can provide the human-centered perspective to solve problems and turn data into workplace strategy, culture, and design. Drawing on my academic and applied anthropological training, I enable organizations to address inequality, leadership [...]