Marietta Baba
(Ph.D. Wayne State University, 1975)
Professor & Dean, College of Social Science
mbaba@msu.edu

Organizational anthropology, technological change; United States

Web site

MARIETTA L. BABA is Dean of the College of Social Science, and Professor of Anthropology, at Michigan State University. Previously, she was Professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and founding director of the Business and Industrial Anthropology initiative at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. From 1994-1996, Dr. Baba was Program Director of the National Science Foundation’s industry-funded research program entitled Transformations to Quality Organizations. Dr. Baba is the author of more than 65 scholarly and technical publications in the fields of organizational culture, technological change, and evolutionary processes. In 1998, she was appointed to serve on Motorola’s global advisory Board of Anthropologists, the first of its kind in the US. Dr. Baba was a founding member and past president of the National Association for the Practice of Anthropology (NAPA, 1986-1988), a section of the American Anthropological Association (AAA). She served on the Executive Committee and Board of Directors of the AAA (1986-88). In addition, she was appointed Advisory Editor for Organizational Anthropology for the American Anthropologist (1990-1993). Dr. Baba holds an MBA (with highest distinction) from the Advanced Management Program at Michigan State University’s Eli Broad School of Management, and a Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from Wayne State University (doctoral research conducted in the School of Medicine). Dr. Baba is listed in Who’s Who in America (1992-present).

A few recent publications include:

• Baba, M. Anthropology and Business. 2006. Encyclopedia of Anthropology. H. James Birx, Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Pages 83-117.
  
• Baba, M. L., J. Gluesing, H. Ratner, and K. H. Wagner. 2004. The Context of Knowing: Natural History of a Globally Distributed Team. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 25(5), 547-587.
• Baba, M. L. 2001. Beyond Dilbert: The Cultural Construction of Work Organizations in America. In: Ethnographic Essays in Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach. R. Bruce Morrison and C. Roderick Wilson, eds. F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc., pages 183-210.
• Baba, M. L. 1999. Dangerous Liaisons: Trust, Distrust, and Information Technology in American Work Organizations. Human Organization. 58(3):331-346.
• Baba, M. L. 1998. Theories of Practice in Anthropology: A Critical Appraisal. In: The Unity of Theory and Practice in Anthropology: Rebuilding a Fractured Synthesis. Carole Hill and Marietta Baba, eds. Washington, DC: National Association for the Practice of Anthropology, pages 17-44.
• Baba, M.L. 1995. The Cultural Ecology of the Corporation: Explaining Diversity in Work Group Responses to Organizational Transformation. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 31(2):202-233.
• Briody, E. and M.L. Baba, 1991. Explaining Differences in Repatriation Experiences: The Discovery of Coupled and Decoupled Systems. American Anthropologist 93(2): 322-344.
• Baba, M.L., 1988. Two Sides to Every Story: An Ethnohistorical Approach to Organizational Partnerships. City and Society 2(2): 71-104.