Susan Wright is Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Sussex.

• 1 Culture in anthropology and organizational studies Part I Indigenous management Introduction 2 Indigenous management and the management of indigenous knowledge 3 ‘Owning’ without owners, managing with few managers: lessons from Third World irrigators 4 Institution building: examining the fit between bureaucracies and indigenous systems Part II Gender and organizational change Introduction 5 Play of power: women, men and equality initiatives in a trade union 6 Office affairs 7 The gendered terrains of paternalism 8 Culture, gender and organizational change in British welfare benefits services Part III Clients and empowerment Introduction 9 Community care as de-institutionalization? Continuity and change in the transition from hospital to community-based care 10 Disempowerment and marginalization of clients in divorce court cases 11 Idioms of bureaucracy and informality in a local Housing Aid Office