What really interest me in terms of management are people and the social behaviour of people – How different personalities behave in different situations and how to lead those different personality types. Even though passing the course “Behavioural management control” at KTH and despite the fact that I visited a 6-hour seminar in Germany about such questions, I have not even thought of the relation between management and social anthropology. After having a discussion with my girlfriend, the link between those disciplines is obvious.

 

The link becomes even clearer, when trusting the definitions on Wikipedia:

 

Social Anthropology is the branch of anthropology that studies how currently living human beings behave in social groups

 

Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals

 

The concise conclusion is that a manager with knowledge in social anthropology would have better experience in how to “get people together” and thereby “accomplish desired goals”, since the “behavior in social groups” is the very fundament of management.

 

This connection has scientific sources. Linstead, Stephen states that:

 

social anthropology as a field science has great potential for informing multi-disciplinary research in management both conceptually and methodologically (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/bpl/bjom/1997/00000008/00000001/art00010;jsessionid=5sh6ahb0h9s1v.alexandra)

 

The field seems however to be relatively unexplored. Is for example social anthropology included in MBA studies? A closer look will be made on this – will be back!