Dunbar is the British anthropologist responsible for the papers that Gladwell and many other used to propose the idea that 150 is the maximum sustainable size for a group of humans such as a business.

The WP article is helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

This fellow's blog article is linked from the bottom. Among other things he digs back into the academic papers to understand what the number means (and doesn't) and works to come up with some other useful numbers (some only backed by believable anecdote). I haven't finished reading it yet.

http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/2004/03/the_dunbar_numb.html

I'm pretty sure I got the WP link from http://blag.xkcd.com/

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