Telisha Boedigheimer

IS 301

Final

By integrating Business administration, Sociology, and Communication individuals

studying business administration can enhance their learning experience and become more

successful both professionally and personally.

Working as a professional in any position within management especially in upper administrative

management a single discipline does not apply to these positions, especially in business. In this

position, you are a secret keeper, an accountant, an advisor, a peacekeeper, an assistant to the

owners, the principle attendance/record holder, and so much more. The majority of individuals in

an office personnel position throughout corporations and small businesses have obtained a

degree in business administration and or accounting.

Integrating business and the relationships it requires to run a business converts a

traditional business degree into something more complex, especially as technology keeps

advancing. Having a diverse skill set will allow for administrative management to perform the

necessary requirements and excel at their jobs. Behavioral studies and Business Administration

are two disciplines that work hand in hand to help persons seeking a position in management

acquire that position and succeed. This widens the scope of an individuals outlook, rather than

only being educated in one field of study.

The Purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance that business administrative

management should not be single disciplined, and to propose a topic for an integrative study skill

set. If a student is looking to work in a business environment there should be questions asked

before the decision of being a single disciplined student regarding a single disciplined field.
Do I want to be in one area of the business such as marketing, accounting, and or human

resources? Or do I want more options within my given line of work? Managers are diverse, so

they can do bits and pieces of everyones job to make sure the company is running smoothly as a

whole. This paper is going to open my eyes to new information, and allow me to view things

from different perspectives. Diversity in administrative management education is my focus

within this paper. My minors are Sociology/Anthropology, Business, and Communications.

Specializing in business has been a very successful choice for a lot of people in our

economy and around the world. It works. People adapt to their environments within their work

place, and learn how to deal with those dynamics overtime. They figure out how to adjust to

different individuals and their specific needs from them as a manager. This typically takes

experience and time. What if there was emphasis within their education to help prepare and

tackle that obstacle before it becomes an issue? That is what studying two different fields or in

my case three different fields of educational disciplines provides. Allen Repko states Integrative

learning is a shorthand term for teaching a set of capacities-capacities we might also call the arts

of connection, reflective judgment, and considered action- that enables graduates to put their

knowledge to effective use (Allen F. Repko, 2014).

Managers have specific job descriptions dependent upon what field they are in, but those

job descriptions give an outline of what is expected of them. Not necessarily what to expect on a

day-to-day basis. From the Harvard Review Marcus Buckingham states Great managers know

and value the unique abilities and even the eccentricities of their employees, and they learn how

best to integrate them into a coordinated plan of attack (Buckingham, 2005). Buckingham

suggests that not only is management in charge of their specific management position, but they

also need a base line in understanding people and how they tic to better assess certain situations.
There are a lot of managers whom find it difficult to be both a manager and understand the

person that they are interacting with at the same time. Sometimes they dont even know how to

switch back and forth between the two separate roles, so the focus is only on one aspect/outlook

rather than both. Anya Faingersh puts it simply when she states However, experience shows

that if Managers want to be successful at what they do, they should be familiar with both macro

skill sets, because the risks to the success of our projects may lie in many different domains

(Faingersh, 2012).

These are just a few examples as to why it is important to understand an integrative

studies approach when wanting to become an administrative manager. There is nothing wrong

with being single focused. Most individuals as stated previously adapt and adjust to their

environments to handle the cultural and lifestyle differences between each department within

their company. However, having a scholarly view within each discipline that is required for a

given management position is why an integrative approach is important.

The complex issue that I am addressing is that Business Administration and the

management within that field of work needs to have more of an integrative studies approach.

Collectively studying Sociology/Anthropology, Communications, and Business. Students and

professionals within this field will have a more well versed skill set. Their problem-solving skills

will be better implemented when it is understood that the job is multifaceted and complex.

Social Sciences and Humanities fit hand in hand. They both bring complex and

meaningful disciplines to the categories of study. Interdisciplinary studies takes on temporarily

the perspectives of disciplines but treats them as mere viewpoints (Repko, pg. 95). First I am

going to discuss how sociology/anthropology ties into my complex issue from an academic and

social stance. Academically these two disciplines study culture and their surroundings, while
making sure to understand how people interact within an individual culture, develop social

relationships and adapt to the ever-evolving state in which each individual culture coexists.

Socially the masters of these fields are only studying the whole of the discipline through their

own experiences and assumptions. There are so many varying circumstances that are teaching

single disciplined masters of this study that the concepts become more of a personal bias rather

than factual understanding. This happens because what they have to base their consensus on is

their own experiences and understanding. When it is studied on a smaller scale such as in the

business world it is seen how complex these cultures and environments are. How different people

interact with each other and progress differently. Per an article that was published in the Harvard

Business Review it was stated that Fine shadings of personality, though they may be invisible to

some and frustrating to others, are crystal clear to and highly valued by great managers.

(Buckingham) This theory proves that studying people and how they interact with one another

helps the driving force as a company and as a manager.

Secondly, I am going to discuss Business as a discipline. Business/Economics

emphasizes the study of the production and distribution of goods and services with the individual

functioning (Repko, pg. 99). Academically this proves that it does not study culture and how to

communicate with people within business. It is a strict discipline that, yes is within the social

sciences category but does not understand the process in its entirety. Socially business men and

women know the numbers, they know how to adjust to an ever-changing economy, and they may

even understand how to market their product successfully. However, there is a lack of

understanding people (their employees especially) and the either positive or negative impact that

comes from unhappy or unproductive employees. There are always goals that are implemented to

increase profit and productivity, but one theory is that the values a company lives and breathes
by effect the company more so than the traditional route. Values are to guide your behavior, not

for you to guide others (Blanchard Bowels, pp. 43). This is a starting point to include your

employees in a mission and to instill the values the company believes in, into everyone that

walks in the door to be a part of the team. As a manager you are a leader, not the police. At the

same time the organization needs to be completely aligned (Blanchard Bowels, pp.43). It is

stated that you cannot impose a universal agreement on values any more that you can with goals.

If there is conformity, there will be success. The assumption and theory is defined as simple as

that.

Now considering exactly what the three disciplines discussed contribute to one another it

can be better understood through these explications. The epistemologies of sociology are the

combination and application of a theories cluster. It is no simple feat, but when applied correctly

Agger states The assumption that knowledge is socially constructed and the knowledge exists in

history that can change the course of history if properly applied (Agger qtd. In Repko, p. 107).

In business administration, it can be applied by trial and error. Anthropologys epistemology

applies to a reflection of reality that may only be an independent view point. Human knowledge

is shaped by the social and cultural context in which it is formed and is not solely a reflection of

reality (Bernard qtd. In Repko, pp. 107). How this effects my complex issue is that people need

a social understanding, a cultural understanding, and a logical business understanding to be

successful.

The epistemology of business is a fixed view of budgets and mathematical theories that

make up the discipline. As empiricists, the stress fixed definitions of words, use deductive

method, and examine a small set of variables (Dow qtd. In Repko, pp. 107). There has been

advances in the postmodern society that reality is being included. However not enough to make
it into a fully integrative discipline. It is extremely important to understand the fine details of

business. It is also becoming detrimental to all organizations, large and small to understand how

our culture ticks and is evolving.

The epistemologies of all Social Sciences can be summed up within this, understanding

that most social scientists now agree that knowledge in their disciplines is created by the

continual interplay of personal experience, values, theories, hypothesis, and logical models, as

well as empirical evidence generated by a variety of methodological approaches (Calhoun qtd. In

Repko, pp. 107). This is vastly important to my complex issue because of the need to integrate

more areas of social sciences into a narrow-minded discipline such as business. The

understanding that business is about reading people and apply different leadership styles for

success only comes from an understanding that social sciences and communication, verbal or

non-verbal are key.

Understanding and analyzing how my disciplines communicate with themselves and

work together involves complexity. To elaborate, business and social sciences coexist effectively

when properly applied to one another. I had to first understand what business administration

exactly entailed so that I could apply it to sociology and vice versa.

In Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation it discusses different

forms of sociology within business and provides real examples within government/ politics to

small businesses. Philip Selznick states The search for a fresh approach to administration has

led to a considerable interest in human relations (Sleznick). This interest has led to an

understanding of how and why people within organizations coexist together and get along. There

is an issue with the large enterprise observer though, they dont seem to care about the

relationships and understanding its people, rather they are concerned with large patterns of
institutional development. These limited views are the problem. It is necessary for an

interdisciplinary outlook to be considered by linking the larger view and the limited view to

understand and see how intuitional change is produced. The closer we get to these areas of far-

reaching decision, the greater is the need for this deeper and more comprehensive understanding

of social organization (Selzinck).

Common Ground theory applies to the specific disciplines of business administration,

sociology/anthropology, and communication from my perspective. Common ground in social

terms as the knowledge, beliefs, and suppositions that each person has to establish with another

person in order to interact with that person. (pp.12,116, 129) Herbert Clark also explains that

when it comes to coordinating a joint action, people cannot rely on just any information they

have about each other. They must establish just the right piece of common ground, and that

depends on them finding a shared bias for that piece. (p.130) Clark explains leadership roles

that are established in a business admin position from a sociological reference point within that

statement.

You cant just learn one way of being a manager and think that is going to apply to

everyones abilities and understanding. This would apply to being single disciplined within

business. Sociology and Communication play roles within administrative positions. There is a

myth that leadership cannot be taught, which is indeed false. Business administrative managers

need to have these five key ingredients for them to be successful at their job- integrity,

competence, consistency, loyalty, and openness. Of these five dimensions, integrity seems to be

the most critical when someone assesses anothers trustworthiness. (Robbins, Coulter,

DeCenzo, pp.379) To be willing and capable you must have these qualities and understand their

(employees you work with) work style this in turn changes from culture to culture also within
class and race. Trust is developed through these five characteristics and is beneficial to

productivity, profits, relational interactions, and the end all outcome of day to day operations.

There is so much more for me to learn through my educational process and

through real life experiences. I am in no way an expert in any of my disciplines or personal

experiences. I am still learning how to separate my own emotions from that of a manager's.

Things become personal when you care and are highly involved, but you must remember that it

is your job and your duty to both understand human interaction, business, and bring them both

together.

In conclusion integrating business administration, sociology/anthropology, and

communications can greatly benefit both the employer and the employee. It is extremely

important in this ever-changing world to be able to change with it. Having a scholarly

understanding of these skill sets will set any individual up for success.
Resources:

Blanchard, K.H. & Bowles, S. (1998) Gung ho! New York, USA: Morrow.

Buckingham, M. (2005, March). What Great Managers Do. Harvard Business Review.

Retrieved October 9, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do#article-

top

Faingersh, A. (2013, October 07). Managers Expertise: what skills should we know?

Retrieved February 12, 2017, from https://anyaworsmart.com/2013/10/08managers-

expertise-what-skills-should-we-know/

Repko, A.F. Szostak, R., & Buchberger, M.P. (2014). Introduction to interdisciplinary

studies. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE.

Robbins, S.P., Coulter, M., & DeCenzo, D. A. (2017). Fundamentals of Management (10th

ed.) Boston: Pearson.

Selznick, P. (2011). Leadership in administration: A sociological interpretation. Quid Pro

Books.