Special issue on pragmatism and heterodoxy in organization research: going beyond the quantitative/qualitative divide

Citation

(2010), "Special issue on pragmatism and heterodoxy in organization research: going beyond the quantitative/qualitative divide", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa.2010.34518caa.001

Special issue on pragmatism and heterodoxy in organization research: going beyond the quantitative/qualitative divide

Article Type: Call for papers From: International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Volume 18, Issue 3

Guest Editors: Mihaela Kelemen, Keele University, UKMatthias Klaes, Keele University, UKNick Rumens, Surrey University, UK

In this special issue we invite contributions from diverse philosophical perspectives interested in challenging the quantitative/qualitative divide within organisation and management studies. Traditionally, quantitative research has been characterised by its concern for objective data collection, emphasis on researcher control, and development of systematic and standardised procedures. Qualitative research, in turn, is frequently seen as being concerned with the particular, destined to remain pre-scientific. Conversely, quantitative studies are subject to suspicions that data, assertively mined, will yield the desired result, or remain trapped within the presuppositions that the researcher brings to the subject of study. Qualitative approaches, by contrast, may allow for reflexive awareness on the part of the analyst to remain at the heart of any findings. Some researchers might still be inclined to re-clarify and patrol the parameters of particular research paradigms at a conceptual and practical level. But we do not put store on such academic guard duty. For us, it merely reifies unproductive and indeed unworkable distinctions between quantitative and qualitative forms of research. To illustrate, questionnaires and surveys are sometimes unthinkingly taken to be quantitative research, just as interviews and field observation techniques are sometimes taken to be qualitative research. This is misleading. Research methodology as such does not determine whether a research endeavour is either ``quantitative'' or ``qualitative''. With this in mind, increasing numbers of academics acknowledge the futility of dichotomous modes of thinking about quantitative/qualitative research.

Arguing from this position, we invite papers that will explore at a methodological or paradigmatic level (rather than at the level of particular research methods) the possible ways in which different forms of research (traditionally labelled as qualitative or quantitative) converge, diverge and overlap. In particular, we invite papers that explore:

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  The theoretical challenges of going beyond the qualitative/quantitative divide

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  Practical issues associated with heterodox research across management and organisation studies

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  The role of reflexivity and ethics in multi-methods research

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  Whether academic rigour and practical relevance could be bridged

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  .The consequences of theory to the conversation and practice of management.

All manuscripts should be prepared according to the Journal guidelines located at: www.emeraldinsight.com/ijoa.htm Submissions must be made using the ScholarOne Manuscripts system: http://mcmanuscriptcentral.com/ijoa The deadline for submissions is 1 September 2010