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The
purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the quandaries or difficult
choices that affect detailed research design as well as the ‘big’
orientations or paradigms that motivate studies in the field of business
and management research. Many of these choices and decisions are now
commonly assumed to be mere preferences, no longer worthy of debate. As in
the case of whether to collect data that is say, more easily quantified
than qualified. Or whether the demands of practice are incommensurable
with those of the social sciences. Yet a researcher’s liking for one or
other approach generally calls for differing mindsets. Centring
discussions on recent surveys of managerial work points up certain of
these oppositions and tensions. Also, a researcher has to ‘trust the
process’ of a particular research orientation, if he or she is to achieve
worthwhile, credible findings. Contract research or consultancy, for
instance, requires a very different ‘trusting of the process’ from studies
that are intended to lead to a doctorate. Predicaments in the former
paradigm may arise where expectations are for politically acceptable
findings. This is not like the formidable psychological contract between
the student, supervisor and examiners in the latter example. Deliberate
use is made here of Cartesian grids to illustrate such sharp contrasts in
attitudes, expectations, needs and values in research with markedly
differing points of reference. The symmetry, however, may well underplay
the impact of certain research strategies. The stark choices as presented
are not necessarily equally important. Each chink in integrity, for
instance, regardless of the research orientation is a potential threat to
the whole academic community with an interest in business and management
research. On the other hand, advances in design and researcher
sensitivities have the potential to transform the discipline of business
and management research in imminent and unexpected ways.
Keywords
business
and management research, credibility, incommensurability,
quantitative, qualitative
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