Philosophy and Management Studies: A Research Overview

Organizational researchers are philosophers, and their philosophical positions shape their approaches to ontology, epistemology, methodology, ethics, and political positions. This book provides a commentary on the terrain of philosophy as it pertains to management studies, arguing that all knowledge inquiry invokes philosophy and that philosophical positions are political. It targets a new generation of management researchers who are interested in philosophy but need more resources to engage with it, bridging the chasm between interest and knowledge.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 104 pages
Publication date: 25 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Irrespective of whether one thinks of philosophy explicitly, each organizational researcher is a philosopher. A philosophical position is predicated on a variety of approaches relating to ontology, epistemology, methodology, ethics, and political positions. Depending on where one stands with regard to these philosophical building blocks, their orientation may be characterized as positivist, realist, critical-realist, and constructivist, with pragmatist and political considerations weighing in as well. Also, management theories all inhabit the same spectrum of philosophical positions that enrich them and add to their relevance to the world of firms and organizations. This book provides a broad-based commentary on the terrain of philosophy as it pertains to management studies, especially for the relatively unfamiliar organizational theorist.

This book serves as a succinct overview of the field of management philosophy as well as a roadmap for those readers who wish to explore the terrain further. The book argues that all knowledge inquiry invokes philosophy and philosophical thinking, and that the artificial separation between philosophy and social science is fallacious. Just as philosophy is everywhere, so is power, and for better or worse they go hand in hand. Hence, philosophical positions are political positions. The authors do not shy from addressing the politics of their own research practice or the subjects of their inquiry.

Philosophy and Management Studies targets a new generation of management researchers, whose interest in philosophy vastly exceeds their resources to engage with it, partly because of their unfamiliarity with its often mystifying and outsider-unfriendly conventions. It seeks to bridge the chasm between interest in philosophy in organizational studies.

Weight: 453g
Dimension: 216 x 138 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032073637