Research Methodology and Ethics -
Spring 2023
Dr. Çağla Özgören
Research Methods for Business
8th edition Students
Chapter 4
Research Philosophy
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Learning Objectives
What is ontology, epistemology and axiology?
What is your own epistemological, ontological and axiological stance?
What are the main research paradigms (philosophies)?
Philosophical positions: positivism, critical approach, interpretivism, postmodernism
and pragmatism
What is your own philosophical position in relation to your research?
Research philosophy
• ‘research philosophies’ refers to systems of beliefs and assumptions
about the development of knowledge.
• All research philosophies make at least three major types of assumption:
ontological, epistemological and axiological.
•
• How to understand your research philosophy?
• --drefers to systems of beliefs and assumptions about the development of
knowledge.
• --familiarise yourself with major research philosophies
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Resear c h phi l o so phy
T hese a ssu m pt i o n s d et er m i n e w hat sc i en c e
m ea n s a n d ;
I n f o r m f o r ex i st en c e o f r eal i t y ONT OLOG Y
T he wa y o f a c qu i r i n g k n o wl ed g e
EPI ST EMOLOG Y
ei t her o bj ect i v el y o r su bj ect i v el y
Appr o a c h o f co n d u ct i n g f i el d wo r k MET HODOLOG Y
Ro l e o f r esear c her
d u r i n g t he r esear c h pr o c ess AXI OLOG Y
What is ontology?
Existence of reality. What is true or real? What is
existence? What is the nature of existence?
• Ontological assumptions you make determine what
research objects and phenomena you focus on, and
how you see and approach them.
Objective truths vs. subjective truths (ontologies)
Continua with two sets of extreme
Objectivism (realist ontology, realism) Subjectivism (relativism)
• Real • Nominal/decided by convention
• External; • Socially constructed
• One true reality (universalism) • Multiple realities (relativism) (e.g.
• Granular (things) multiple interpretations of the same situation are valid)
• Order • Flowing (process)
(objective truth is true for all) • Chaos.
• (subjective truth is context-
dependent based on who you are
observing)
Natural science Social science
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is
around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
Trauma?
What is epistemology?
• The way of acquiring knowledge either objectively or subjectively
• What do you know? How do you know it?
• “How can I be sure of what I know?” or “What can I not know?”
• Epistemology concerns assumptions about knowledge –
how we know what we say we know,
•
• what constitutes acceptable, valid and legitimate knowledge, and
• how we can communicate knowledge to fellow human beings.
• Epistemological assumptions you make determines what sort of
contribution to knowledge you can make as a result of your research.
Objective vs. subjective epistemologies
Continua with two sets of extreme
Objectivism Subjectivism
• Adopt assumptions of the natural • Adopt the assumptions of the arts
scientist and humanities
• Facts • Opinions
• Numbers • Written, spoken and visual
• Observable phenomena accounts
• Law-like generalisations • Attributed meanings
• Individuals and contexts, specifics
e.g. an annual income of “less than If a person says they brought their kids to
$25,100 for a family of four” school that day?
definitions for poverty?
In your research, are you searching
for subjective or objective truth?
E.g. How teachers define teaching?
Rankings of universities?
Why answering these questions are important?
Are you more concerned with objective
truth, so that your results might
generalize to populations beyond the
ones in your study?
Are you more concerned with
how people think and feel about
your topic, their subjective
truths—more specific to the time
and place of your project?
What is axiology?
• Role of researcher during the research process
• Axiology refers to the role of values and ethics within the research
process, which incorporates questions about
• how we, as researchers, deal with our own values and also with
those of our research participants.
Value-neutral vs. value-central axiology
Continua with two sets of extreme
Objectivism Subjectivism
• Value-free (neutral) • Value-bound (central)
• Detachment • Integral and reflexive
Helpful in predicting phenomena Helpful in understanding individual
E.g. measure of motivation, person` experience of motivation
the Academic Motivation Scale Empathically connecting with person
Intrinsic motivation –Extrinsic motivation
Putting values front-and-center within a research project
• Critical approaches!
• Interested in combatting oppression, inequalities.
• E.g. Racism, unequal pay, marginal entrepreneurship
• Do you think that social world is constantly changing or
relatively stable over time?
How participatory your study will be?
The regulation-radical change dimension
Source: Developed from Burrell and Morgan (2016) Critical management
studies
More participatory, undermine
the power imbalances
Postmodernism
• Set of common philosophical (ontological, epistemological, and axiological)
assumptions that inform research
• Paradigms are broad philosophical assumptions
Positivism
(expert paradigm)
• Helpful in producing cause and effect explanations
• e.g. does my school’s attendance intervention lead to fewer absences for
our students?
• Researchers` position as “expert”
• Critics:
• Historical and social context is not important!
Positivism
Interpretivism (Constructivism)
• Asks questions about subjective truths.
• The cause-and-effect relationships that
interpretivist studies produce are specific to the
time and place in which the study happened, rather
than a generalizable objective truth.
• Interpretivists strongly believe that social sciences
differ from the natural sciences because their
subjects are social creatures!!
Interpretivism (Constructivism)
Critical realism: Researcher as
“activist”
• explicitly seek to raise the
consciousness of an oppressed group
• focuses on power, inequality, and
social change
• social science can never be truly
objective or value-free.
• feminism,
• anti-racism
• Marxism
• Decolonization
• anti-oppressive practice,
• other social justice-focused
theoretical perspectives.
Research work
• identify an article relevant to your working question
or broad research topic that uses a critical
perspective.
• Discuss in a few sentences how the author’s
conclusions are based on some of these
paradigmatic assumptions.
• How might a researcher operating from different
assumptions (like values-neutrality or researcher as
neutral and unbiased) critique the conclusions of
this study?
Pragmatism: Researcher as “strategist”
“Essentially, all models are wrong but some are useful.”
(Box, 1976)
any real-world application, rather than whether they are
“true.”!
solving a pressing problem!
Researchers employing pragmatism will mix elements of
positivist, interpretivist, and critical research depending on the
purpose of a particular project!
Each paradigm is an incomplete understanding of the world, and
it requires a scientific community using all of them to gain a
comprehensive view of the social world.
Pragmatism: Researcher as “strategist”
Postmodernism
• Late 20th cent., associated with works of French
philosophers Jacques Derrida, Michel Faucault
• Emphasize the role of language and power relations
• Seek to expose and question the power relations that
sustain dominant realities (what is considered as `true`)
• Scepticism, subjectivism, relativism
• This takes form of `deconstructing` (taking apart) realities
• Radically challenge the established way of thinking and
knowing and give voice to marginalised ways of seeing and
knowing..
Postmodernism
Postmodernism
Challenged structuralism,
interpretation of language and
texts
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Figure 4.1
The ‘research onion’
Source: ©2018 Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Figure 4.2
Source: ©2018 Alexandra Bristow and Mark Saunders
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Table 4.4 (1 of 2)
Deduction, induction and abduction:
from reason to research
Table 4.4 (2 of 2)
Deduction, induction and abduction:
from reason to research
