Critical realism has become increasingly important in the way organization and management is studied. This innovative book argues for an alternative to the prevailing ontology, and shows how positivism and its empirical realist ontology can be abandoned without having to accept strong social constructionism. Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies applies critical realism in four ways. First, in the removal of meta-theoretical obstacles that hinder the development of fruitful theoretical and empirical work. Second and third, as a meta-theoretical tool with which to develop appropriate methodological and theoretical frameworks which can then be used to inform appropriate empirical work, and finally, all of this is applied across a broad range of subject areas including critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, human resource management, labour process theory, regional analysis, and work and labour market studies. Ideal for postgraduates and professionals, this key book will be a valuable resource across a wide range of subjects.
This book extends critical realism by showing how it has been applied to topics in critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, HRM, labour process and more.
Realism has been one of the most powerful new developments in philosophy and the social sciences and is now making an increasing impact in business and management studies. This is the first book-length treatment of critical realism in business and management. It pulls together a wide range of material which is all explicitly or implicitly rooted in philosophical realism, and combines theoretical writing with substantive contributions addressing issues such as the nature of the firm and the labour process which together demonstrates that realism is a powerful alternative to postmodernism and positivism.
The book provides a practical guide to the application of Critical Realism (CR), an increasingly popular philosophy of social science, in empirical research projects. Each purpose-written chapter reviews major social science research methods and contains extended illustration of how to conduct inquiry using CR.
The development of Critical Realism (CR), as a philosophy of science, is generally attributed to a series of books by Roy Bhaskar. It has proven to be influential, not least because it has an affinity with many people's views about the way the world fits together, both within and outside of academia. Whilst there are numerous contributions outlining CR theory in sociological and organizational research, as well as general texts about realist ontology, work delineating the consequences of these views for research practice is an emerging area of interest. This book aims to fill a significant gap in the literature by providing a practical guide to the application of CR in empirical research projects. More specifically, it explores the methodological consequences of committing to a CR ontology—the assumptions that researchers from this tradition make about the nature of reality. These assumptions are important because ontological commitments, which relate what we believe exists, often affect our epistemological concerns, which relate to our beliefs about how whatever exists can be studied and known. Thus, for a researcher, ontology and epistemology are important because they have consequences for the possibilities and limits of the research methods, techniques, and analyses that they employ. The book explains what CR is and outlines the logic of research design. In a series of chapters on major social science research methods, purpose-written by experts in the relevant technique, the book contains extended illustration of how to conduct inquiry using CR.
Provides in-depth understanding about business-to-business (B2B) and organizational relationships. This title includes descriptions on how B2B networks form, function and develop and is for readers who want to delve into how B2B relationships actually work and, frequently, do not work.
The Very Idea of Organization presents a philosophical account of the phenomenon of organization. It takes as its starting point a debate in organization studies about the foundations of organizational research. This debate, however, is running into difficulties regarding the basic concept of the reality that organization studies deal with, that is regarding the ontology of organization. A convincing organizational ontology is not in sight. Therefore, Krijnen introduces a new meta-perspective, offering a more comprehensive and more fundamental social ontology in general as well as an organizational ontology in particular. Exploring the Kantian and Hegelian tradition of philosophy, he convincingly shows that a rejuvenated type of German idealism contains intriguing possibilities for developing a present-day social and organizational philosophy.
This book provides support to academics as well as managers, who deal with policies and strategies related to work issues. Effective work practices and good employee relations are a real necessity of nowadays organizations, as they can help to reduce absenteeism, employee turnover and organizational costs. Instead, they support high levels of commitment, effectiveness, performance as well as productivity. The book focusses on the implications of those changes in productivity and organizations management. It explores the models, tools and processes used by organizations in order to help managers become better prepared to face the challenges and changes in work and consequently, in the way how to manage todays' organizations.
This important and original book places the case study in international business research in its historical context, critically evaluates current case study practices in the field and proposes a more pluralistic future for case research within international business and international management research. While the case study is the most popular qualitative research strategy in the field, only a narrow selection of possible approaches is currently used. IB and IM researchers typically rely on a case study approach that could be characterized as 'qualitative positivism'. The editors and contributors look beyond this disciplinary convention and encourage greater pluralism in IB and IM case research. Their key argument is that increased awareness of prevailing disciplinary conventions - and their limitations - increases the potential for methodological innovation and versatility in case research. The contributions provide critical, novel and innovative perspectives on the case study in IB and IM research. The book offers inspiration to case authors and an authoritative methodological reference for those publishing and reviewing case research. It will also be highly regarded by postgraduate and doctoral students in IB and IM as well as both qualitative and quantitative researchers in the field.
. . . the Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship is an important contribution to the field, and should be referenced in any paper using qualitative methodologies to investigate the entrepreneurial phenomenon. Craig S. Galbraith, Journal of Enterprising Communities There is no hiding behind the ramparts of dry scholarship here. The credibility of the theory being spoken of is not the stuff of constructed proofs, but alignments of critical insight and utility. This is where qualitative work can make a difference to the field, and where this book makes its mark. Robin Holt, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research The Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Entrepreneurship is an unusually solid and multifaceted book on what qualitative methods have done, are doing and will do in entrepreneurship research. Every serious entrepreneurship scholar should read it. It points at the future! Björn Bjerke, University of Kalmar, Sweden I would warmly recommend this unique collection of qualitative methods of entrepreneurship research to both mature and beginning researchers as a menu to choose from for their planned empirical studies. For those who try to get away from only quantitative studies in both business practice and academic research, this book is their chance to find a rich inspiration in reflecting on entrepreneurship as a lived experience using grounded theory and ethnographic, discourse and narrative approaches. It might convince editors of top journals of entrepreneurship research to welcome qualitative research submissions as an indispensable complement to quantitative only submissions. This domain is not physics. In bringing together such a variety of experts from so many nationalities in this Handbook, our Danish colleagues are making entrepreneurship research a realistic global venture. Jan Ulijn, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands Helle Neergaard and John Parm Ulhøi have compiled a remarkable collection of work that both represents the range of methods and demonstrates the depth of insight that can be achieved through qualitative approaches. This book is not simply a handbook of qualitative research methods, though it well achieves this aim, it is also an important contribution towards the field of entrepreneurship research. From the Foreword by Sara Carter This expansive and practical Handbook introduces the methods currently used to increase the understanding of the usefulness and versatility of a systematic approach to qualitative research in entrepreneurship. It fills a crucial gap in the literature on entrepreneurship theory, and, just as importantly, illustrates how these principles and techniques can be appropriately and fruitfully employed. The Handbook is underpinned by the belief that qualitative research has the potential to charter hitherto unexplored waters in the field of entrepreneurship and thus contribute significantly to its further advancement. The contributors seek to assist entrepreneurship researchers in making more informed choices and designing more rigorous and sophisticated studies. They achieve this by providing concrete examples of research experiences and tangible how to advice. By clarifying what these research methods entail, how they are currently being used and how they can be evaluated, this Handbook constitutes a comprehensive and highly accessible methodological toolbox. Dealing with both well-accepted qualitative approaches and lesser-known, rarer and more novel approaches to the study of entrepreneurship, this Handbook will be invaluable to those studying, researching and teaching entrepreneurship.
