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1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been a growing concern regarding the adequacy of research
methods in the field of organisation studies, especially as a result of the increasing interest
in cross-cultural management. We are experiencing a lot of ambiguities in interpreting and
utilising the results of organisationat research. Many organisational researchers are being
accused of producing scientific research studies that explain nothing about the real world.
This kind of research has often been criticised as "unreal", "useless" and "number-
crunching".
Organisational phenomena are often far more complex than we realise. The variables
we select as "independent" are themselves often highly intercorrelated and influenced by
the variables we are attempting to explain. Many of us are aware that there is a gap between
what we write in the scholarly journals and what we experience as members of organisa-
tions. However, when grants and articles are reviewed and when research is discussed in
seminars, we are often trapped in the "dominant language", which is based on the positivist
(Giddens, 1974) view that centres on the systematic test of explicit hypotheses.
The quantitative research methods derived from the natural sciences that emphasise
objectivity, measurement, reliability and validity, have come to be seen as increasingly
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inadequate especially in cross-cultural research. Attention has been devoted to a search for
effective alternatives, and this leads to the revitalisation of the qualitative approach which
emphasises the description of culture and meaning,
The distinction between quantitative and qualitative research methods in organisation
studies is generally perceived as being that while the quantitative approach is objective and
relies heavily on statistics and figures, the qualitative approach is subjective and utilises
language and description. Such a distinction is essentially correct but does not capture the
full significance of the different paradigms (Khun, 1970).
This paper attempts to contrast the two different research approaches - - quantitative
and qualitative - - in organisation studies. They both serve research purposes in different
ways and have different effects. My intent is to show the underlying differences of the two
modes of research approaches and to encourage the further development of the qualitative
approach as a way of increasing the diversity and thus the sources of insights and discovery
in the field of organisation studies.
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TABLE 1
DIFFERENCES IN QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE APPROACHES
Quantitative Qualitative
"An objectivist view revolves around the ontological assumption that the social world
external to individual cognition is a real world made up of hard, tangible and relatively
immutable structures. In other words, the social world exists independently of an individu-
al's appreciation of it" (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). This objective view of reality as a
concrete structure encourages an epistemological stance that emphasises the importance of
studying the nature of relationships among the elements constituting that structure. Knowl-
edge of organisation from this point of view implies a need to understand and map out the
causal relationships among the elements of the structure. It encourages a concern for an
"objective" form of knowledge that specifies the precise nature of laws, regularities, and
relationships among phenomena measured in terms of social "facts" (Pugh & Hickson,
1976). For example, in Derek Pugh's (1981) study on the Aston Program of organisational
research, starting from the assumption that organisations and behaviour in organisations
can be understood as symptoms of observable regularities characterised by multiple cau-
sality, he argued that the aim of the organisational researcher should be to produce
generalisable knowledge based on systematic, comparative, and replicative observation
and measurement.
In contrast, the subjective view revolves around the assumption that "the social world
external to individual cognition is made up of nothing more than names, concepts and
labels which are used as artificial creations whose utility is based upon their convenience
as tools for describing, making sense of, and negotiating the external world" (Burrell and
Morgan, 1979). Social action occurs when a social actor assigns a meaning to his or her
conduct and/or environment and, through this meaning, relates it to the actions of others.
Actions, then, are reciprocally oriented to each other not in any mechanistic fashion of
stimulus and response but through an interpretative process. Accordingly, to grasp the
meaning and significance of social phenomena it is necessary to understand this interpre-
tative process and discover the motives, the reasons, and the goals which lead people to act
in the ways they do. Thus, for the subjectivist, understanding and interpretation logically
precede causal explanation.
This phenomenologically-oriented perspective challenges the idea that there can be
any form of"objective" knowledge that can be specified and transmitted in a tangible form,
because the knowledge thus created is often no more than an expression of the manner in
which the researcher as a human being has arbitrarily imposed a personal frame of
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reference on the world, which is mistakenly perceived as lying in an external and separate
realm (Husserl, 1929). For example, Smircich (1985) approaches the study of social
organisation by focusing on how individuals create and use shared modes of interpretation
as a basis for unified action. Adopting a phenomenological approach to symbolic interac-
tion, she was interested in studying the interpretative processes through which individuals
frame and construct the significance of actions, events, words, concepts and facts in ways
that are always context specific. Thus, the phenomenological tradition drew a firm distinc-
tion between natural and human phenomena and, further, claimed that each realm required
different methods of study.
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The positivist believes that research is a neutral, technical process through which
researchers simply reveal or discover knowledge. Researchers have access to methods and
techniques which enable them to answer their questions precisely, systematically and
theoretically: in short, scientifically. An essential requirement of any scientific answer to
a question is an adequate empirical database, which includes statistical adequacy, repre-
sentativeness, random selection, and so on. Another essential requirement is theoretical
knowledge, which is derived from the systematic application of a warrantably scientific
method upon the phenomena of the world, and which distinguishes the social scientist's
account from that of the ordinary member of society. It is believed that through scientific
methods, research findings can be generalised from the particular to construct a set of
theoretical statements that are universally applicable. For example, Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs (Maslow, 1954) is perceived to be universally applicable.
The subjectivist challenges the objectivist view on the fundamental issue of whether
or not human beings can ever achieve any form of knowledge that is independent of their
own subjective construction; whether they can ever achieve a true sense of objectivity,
since they are the agents through which knowledge is perceived or experienced. The
researcher's values, assumptions, interests, and purposes shape which methods or tech-
niques they choose. Therefore, the subjectivists claim that knowledge of methods or
techniques needs to be complemented by an appreciation of the nature of research as a
distinctively human process through which researchers make knowledge. They want to
focus on a particular unique here-and-now situation - - the situation relevance. The di-
chotomy was described by Geertz (1973) as "thick and thin description". Qualitative
investigators tend to describe the unfolding of social processes, the meaning of social life,
rather than the social structures that are often the focus of quantitative researchers.
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twentieth century. There are also two major theoretical approaches - - symbolic
interactionism (Mead, 1932) and ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1967) - - that have be-
come dominant forces in the qualitative approach. Different techniques such as participant
observation, content analysis, indepth interviewing, biography, linguistic analysis, and
psychotherapy all have their roles to play.
3. CONCLUSIONS
Organisational researchers constitute one of the many groups of persons whose busi-
ness it is to construct belief systems about their reality. An interesting question we might
ask ourselves would be how we go about legitimising these beliefs. We usually do it by the
production and display of "data". We usually present the data in written form, with tables,
path diagrams, regression graphs and excerpts, etc, in standardised notation systems as a
special part of a text with its own unique format, labels, and explanation. They constitute
highly stylised descriptions of the particulars of our organisational life. We might want to
ask ourselves whether there are alternatives.
Qualitative methodology and quantitative methodology, based on different paradigms,
are mutually exclusive. A "mixed" approach may cause "ontological oscillation" (Burrell
and Morgan, 1979), although a researcher can choose to operate in different paradigms at
different times. The different research approaches are like "holography", presenting reality
in different lights and offering alternative paths to understanding reality. They serve
research purposes by different means with different results. Differences between the two
approaches are located in the overall assumption, form, focus, and emphasis of study. The
precise nature of the two different research modes ultimately depends on the stance of the
researcher, and how the researcher chooses to use them. The virtues of techniques and
methods cannot be determined and categorised in the abstract, because their precise nature
and significance is shaped within the context of the assumptions on which the researcher
acts (Morgan, 1983). We can, for example, engage an apple by looking at it, feeling it, or
eating it.
We can view different research approaches as but different "voices" in a conversation
about a human phenomenon. If we choose to use either one approach, we could do so with
a bit more appreciation for the diversity of different research approaches. This helps to
explore diversity as fully and critically as possible without prejudging what should be right
or wrong. In order to understand alternative points of view, it is important that we, the
researchers, be fully aware of the assumptions upon which our own perspective is based.
Such an appreciation involves an intellectual journey which takes us outside the realm of
our own familiar domain. It requires that we become aware of the boundaries which define
our perspective.
We have been attracted to our disciplines for a variety of reasons, but it is essential in
this connection to realise that most of us are something of a cross between scientists and
humanists. Perhaps this is the root cause of our dilemma. "Social sciences, lodged as they
are between the natural sciences and humanities, have almost inevitably become a battle-
ground over the suitability of natural science models and approaches to the study of human
behaviours and social processes" (Blalock, 1984). We are caught in our need to be
"scientific" in our approach on the one hand, and to be "human" on the other.
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No single approach has a total view of reality. In fact, even added together, the various
approaches do not possess the true view. This paper may be oversimplified in contrasting
the different approaches in research. My intent is to encourage additionally a more
penetrating and reflective approach to the study of organisations than has been the case to
date, and to help create an increased awareness of the methodological options available to
us in the field of organisation studies.
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