In addition, Euchner says many IT departments don't have the kind of environment that would welcome anthropologists. "An IT initiative that starts with the presumption that work is essentially something that needs to be processed, mapped, rationalized and systematized and that the people need to conform with that -- that's really not a place where an anthropologist will have a voice," he says.

Ironically, though, IT departments that work like that are the ones that could most benefit from the insight that anthropologists offer, Euchner says. "What can get lost under those pressures is a focus on how people do work, and that's what anthropologists bring to the table," he explains.

One of those anthropologists is Alexandra Mack, who works in research and development as part of the Advanced Concepts and Technology group at Pitney Bowes. She helps study work processes alongside other team members, including technologists. The team then uses the information to develop new technologies for various markets.

One of her teams recently studied how small businesses handle bulk mailing. As a result of that research, Pitney Bowes is developing a software application that will help them be more efficient in that process.

Bringing such practices to IT fits in with the overall push to align the tech world with the business realm, Mack and others acknowledge. But even given this alignment trend, Sachs says technologists still have limited ability to garner such insight on their own. "It's a very important thing that technologists are being asked to have a broader view, but they [still] see a problem from their frame of reference and they see a solution from their frame of reference," she explains.