The origin and establishment of organizational anthropology respond to situations, conditions, and different, but articulated anthropological visions that lead to diverse perspectives and approaches. This latter mentioned implies that organizations are conceived as a legitimate research laboratory in fields such as organizational anthropology, psychology and sociology. That is why organizational anthropology studies have become relevant to make contributions to the organizational and administrative school of thought and provide complementarity to sociology, psychology, biology and history.
Organizational anthropology is an inclusive administrative discipline of knowledge processes in the management of organizations to increase efficiency. Anthropology together with etiology, ethnology, sociology and psychology in organizational and managerial studies are relevant for the analysis of administrative relations such as production-consumer-consumption management.
Diverse contexts in a differentiated socioeconomic world are demanding new anthropologically oriented organizational forms as specific responses for survival and adaptability. According to Gonnet (2012), the organizational space from an emic perspective of its members is in charge of nurturing anthropology and organizational theory.
Problem Statement
The relationship between the academic and professional fields of anthropology contributes to the theoretical framework supported to contribute to organizational psychology. In this regard, Fotaki, et al. (2020) alluded that the reference to the discipline of anthropology is still conspicuously absent in organizational studies.
Even though the interdisciplinary of organizational anthropology is marked by the interrelated work carried out by industrial psychology, social anthropology, ethnology, sociology, etc., it is still necessary to continue working on studies focused not only on the knowledge of man, but also on through these it is possible to contribute to organizational development, build a dialogue and dissertation of organizational studies, which cultivates learning that addresses behavioral problems at work in organizations.
The term Anthropology comes from the Greek ἄνθρωπος, ánthrópos, which means man or human being, and λόγος, logos, which means word, treaty, knowledge, study. Anthropology is a science with a holistic approach to studying humanity as a human being, people, and human groups in terms of values, norms, lifestyles, patterns, etc. of homosocial and culture. The study of the human being has a long tradition carried out by Herodotus (484-425 BC), Hippocrates (460-377 BC) and Aristotle (384-322 BC). The word Anthropology was used by Aristotle and was used to designate knowledge for the study of spiritual human nature (doctrine).
Anthropology is the scientific study of man and his culture, contemplating social behavior, beliefs, languages, and modes of behavior. In addition, it considers the origin and historical evolution of the human being. Anthropology has been consolidated as a social science with the colonization processes. For example, it is the assertion of Menéndez (1996), that the industrial revolution caused deep anthropological transformations in the context of organizations based on modes of industrial production and capitalist development processes as a consequence of colonial expansion that led to the international division of intellectual labor.