Philosophy of Methods for Management Research Course Outline – Academic Year 2018-19
Aims
The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to elementary aspects of the philosophy and methodology of social science, and management research within this domain. Within particular research techniques, whether qualitative or quantitative, lie more fundamental issues to do with the nature of knowledge, the nature of reality, how we build knowledge in the social science, and how social science exists on different levels, both abstract and embodied within societal and pragmatic issues that can often lead to simple ideas of management practice and operation.
The course will look behind simplistic ideas of pragmatism, which does not look at the interconnected nature of knowledge. The course will introduce students to core features of positivism, constructionism, interpretivism, critical realism, and more standpoint positions, such as feminism and post-colonialism – which aim to highlight certain inherent biases within management and social science research.
The course will examine the idea of key ‘paradigms’ or ‘models’ of social science research, and the movement towards eclecticism and blending of models, as well as the opposite, the notion that there is a fundamental incommensurability to theories of knowledge and social science methods.
The provisional programme consists of an introduction and overview to methodological and epistemological debates in management research. It will then move into more depth, with discussion of constructionist and post-structuralist approaches to management research; critical realism; feminist approaches to management research and post-colonial approaches.
Learning Outcomes
- Compare and contrast the fundamental different perspectives informing management research
- Critique research work as it is published in scholarly outputs according to these perspectives
- Recognise the different quality criteria pertaining to work emanating from different perspectives and be able to apply these
- Develop learning to inform design and development of own research
- Compose epistemologically coherent analysis of own research work
- Reflexively appraise own work in light of epistemological understandings
Assessment
Questions – Choose from one of the following 5 questions.
- Examine the differences between interpretive and objectivist approaches to social science knowledge and discuss if there are ways of integrating these competing schools of thought.
- From your research – drawing upon either/both your research context and/or literature review – develop an intervention in which you epistemologically challenge key presuppositions. You should do so by demonstrating how the presuppositions are either relativist, positivist or constructionist. In each case, you should demonstrate how the epistemological framing of the presuppositions leads to an opportunity for critical engagement.
- How would your research project change if you were to include a feminist perspective? Rewrite your research proposal including feminist methodology and methods.
- Outline the core features of critical realism and discuss the extent to which it might be effectively applied in studies of management and work.
- Is management studies inherently colonialist? Discuss with reference to the literature which you have read for your own research.
- Post-colonial Approaches to Management Research
Overview:
This session will consider postcolonialism and its implications for doing research in management, particularly cross-cultural management. We will first consider postcolonialism as a historical condition, and then as a critical movement first in literary studies and then in anthropology and development studies, before moving on to consider the implications of postcolonial theories in these disciplines for management studies. We will then examine the implications for research in terms of data-gathering, analysis, and writing up, with a discussion and debate on the question of authorship and cultural appropriation.
Essential Reading:
McEwan, Cheryl (2008) Postcolonialism and Development Chapter One, “Introduction”. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis (available online as an e-book, through librarysearch.rhul.ac.uk)
Other Readings:
Henrich, J., Heine, S.J. and Norenzayan, A. (2010) “The Weirdest People in the World?” Behaviour and Brain Sciences 33: 2-3, pp. 61-83.
Rivoli, Pietra (2005) Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power, and Politics of World Trade, London: Wiley.
Said, Edward (1978) Orientalism. New York: Vintage
Darby, Paul (2007) “Out of Africa: The Exodus of Elite African Football Talent to Europe.”
WorkingUSA: The Journal of Labor and Society 10, pp. 443–456.
Tipton, F. B. (2008). “Thumbs-up is a rude gesture in Australia”: The presentation of culture in international business textbooks. Critical Perspectives on International Business, 4(1), 7- 24.
Cooke, B., 2003. The denial of slavery in management studies. Journal of Management Studies, 40(8), pp.1895-1918.
Cooke, B., 2004. The managing of the (third) world. Organization, 11(5), pp.603-629. Cooke, B. and Kothari, U., 2001. Participation: The new tyranny?. Zed Books.