Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge - Research Assignment

Internal Code: MAS5910

Research Assignment:

Epistemology concerns what constitutes acceptable knowledge in a field of study. The most important distinction is one hinted at above in our example of two researchers’ views of what they consider important in the study of the manufacturing process. The researcher (the ‘resources’ researcher) who considers data on resources needed is likely to be more akin to the position of the natural scientist. This may be the position of the operations management specialist who is comfortable with the collection and analysis of ‘facts’. For that researcher, reality is represented by objects that are considered to be ‘real’, such as computers, trucks and machines. These objects have a separate existence to that of the researcher and for that reason, this researcher would argue that the data collected are far less open to bias and therefore more ‘objective’. The ‘resources’ researcher would place much less authority in the data collected by the ‘feelings’ researcher, who is con- concerned with the feelings and attitudes of the workers towards their managers in that same manufacturing process. The ‘resources’ researcher would view the objects studied by the ‘feelings’ researcher - feelings and attitudes, as social phenomena which have no external reality. They cannot be seen, measured and modified like computers, trucks and machines. You may argue, of course, that human feelings can be, and frequently are, measured. Indeed the ‘resources’ researcher may place more authority on such data were it to be presented in the form of a table of statistical data. This would lend the data more objectivity in the view of the ‘resources’ researcher. But this raises the question of whether those data presented in statistical form is any more deserving of authority than those presented in a narrative, which may be the choice of the ‘feelings’ researcher. The ‘resources’ researcher is embracing what is called the positivist position to the development of knowledge whereas the ‘feelings’ researcher is adopting the interpretivist perspective. We deal with both in the next section on epistemology, as well Questions: 1) Define the key terms epistemology, ontology and axiology and explain their relevance to business research; 2) Explain the relevance for business research of philosophical perspectives such as positivism, realism, pragmatism, interpretivism, objectivism, and constructionism; 3) understand the main research paradigms which are significant for business research; 4) distinguish between main research choices: deductive and inductive. 5) state your own epistemological, ontological and axiological positions.