Two social sciences are applied to business culture
Is it possible for anthropology and ethnography to be applied within a company? The answer is yes. Although these two social sciences traditionally focus on the study of society and its behavior, they are currently used to gain an in-depth understanding of culture and organizational climate .
How did this trend arise? According to Pablo Pazmiño, a consultant on organizational development and strategy issues, since 2000 other perspectives and other needs have been integrated within organizations to understand what it means to manage people, how you can be a better boss, a better strategist.
Pazmiño adds that it becomes strategic to know within the organization how I generate an organizational culture, how I make people think and behave in the way I expect, that is aligned with the existence and sustainability of a company, that implies managing the organization well. strategy and there it is important to look at the culture of the people, which added to that of each one becomes the culture of everyone, a business culture .
For Pazmiño, these aspects are not the strong part of the managers or the people who are in charge of the organization and that is a determining factor. Most senior executives are trained in numbers, in the administrative part, which is not negative, however more specific knowledge is needed.
At this point anthropology enters the scene. This science, which has been applied to the social field, is integrated and used to see specific human groups, that is, a company. Ethnography, for its part, is a tool of anthropology that serves to observe, ask and, above all, make a deep immersion in the mentality and way of being of a human group applied in institutions and companies.
This work is carried out by consultants, they are in charge of observing behavior, conducting interviews to find out how people think, where this way of doing things comes from, among other aspects.
And what is the objective of applying these two social sciences in the company? Pazmiño explains that what is sought is to generate plans with greater impact on management and the desired culture. “The reason for applying these socio-cultural methodologies in organizational life arises from the need to incorporate into the corporate world scientific systems that generate greater robustness in the information obtained from a company, which will substantially improve the results achieved,” he comments.
Ethnography also allows us to determine problems and generate plans that lead to improving the situation that affects the organization.
Pablo Pazmiño adds that the mental capacity of the leaders as well as the people in the organization determines success or failure.
“The way of thinking of the people who are in the company makes the organizational way of thinking and that results in results.”
This content has been originally published by Líderes Magazine.
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