Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

THE SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AS A PRACTICALLY‐ORIENTED SOCIAL SCIENCE

THE SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AS A PRACTICALLY‐ORIENTED SOCIAL SCIENCE Manchester Business School INTRODUCTION MANAGEMENT research or ‘science’ is often understood to refer to the study of managerial problems by scientific methods or principles. Dannenbring and Starr (1981, p. 1) for example, see management science as ‘the application of scientific methodology, or principles, to management decisions’ and Wagner (1975, p. 2) suggests it is based on ‘a scientific approach to problem solving for executive management’. These characterizations, of course, assume some view as to the nature of scientific methods and their applicability to management. Usually scientific knowledge is seen as being essentially factual, lawlike and systematic with no doubts being expressed about its range of application. Koontz and O’Donnell (1976, pp. 10-1 1) for instance, state that scientific method involves dctcrmining facts through observation of events or things and verifying the accuracy of these facts through continued observation. After classifying and analyzing the facts, scientists look for and find some causal relationships which they believe to be true. Such generalization, called ‘hypotheses’, are then tested for their accuracy. Similarly, Cook and Russell (1981, p. 9) see the basic steps of the scientific method as ‘observation, definition of the problem, formulation of a hypothesis, experimentation and verification’. Others rely http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Management Studies Wiley

THE SCIENTIFIC STATUS OF MANAGEMENT RESEARCH AS A PRACTICALLY‐ORIENTED SOCIAL SCIENCE

Whitley, Richard
Journal of Management Studies , Volume 21 (4) – Oct 1, 1984
Download PDF
22 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/the-scientific-status-of-management-research-as-a-practically-oriented-hguJFCdGGW

References (12)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 1984 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company
ISSN
0022-2380
eISSN
1467-6486
DOI
10.1111/j.1467-6486.1984.tb00234.x
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Manchester Business School INTRODUCTION MANAGEMENT research or ‘science’ is often understood to refer to the study of managerial problems by scientific methods or principles. Dannenbring and Starr (1981, p. 1) for example, see management science as ‘the application of scientific methodology, or principles, to management decisions’ and Wagner (1975, p. 2) suggests it is based on ‘a scientific approach to problem solving for executive management’. These characterizations, of course, assume some view as to the nature of scientific methods and their applicability to management. Usually scientific knowledge is seen as being essentially factual, lawlike and systematic with no doubts being expressed about its range of application. Koontz and O’Donnell (1976, pp. 10-1 1) for instance, state that scientific method involves dctcrmining facts through observation of events or things and verifying the accuracy of these facts through continued observation. After classifying and analyzing the facts, scientists look for and find some causal relationships which they believe to be true. Such generalization, called ‘hypotheses’, are then tested for their accuracy. Similarly, Cook and Russell (1981, p. 9) see the basic steps of the scientific method as ‘observation, definition of the problem, formulation of a hypothesis, experimentation and verification’. Others rely

Journal

Journal of Management Studies – Wiley

Published: Oct 1, 1984

There are no references for this article.