LFU:online

Sound knowledge of methodological approaches and issues in business administration and management research; capability to reflect on consequences and implications of methodological choice for the PhD research project.

The course starts with an introduction to methodology and its epistemological and ontological foundations. After that, basic methodological alternatives are explored looking specifically into two basic implications of methodological choice: (1) The role of, and relation between, objectivity and subjectivity in social and business research; (2) the way in which social structures (societal, organizational, market ...) are explained (explanans) and mobilized as explanation (explanandum). Both issues are of fundamental relevance for explaining and understanding behaviour and processes in business and organization.c The course concludes with a reflection on the consequences of methodological alternatives for the dissertation research projects of the participants.

The exploration of methodological alternatives is based on the combination of methodological texts and examples of research publications to illustrate ‘methodologies in use’. Students will read, present, and discuss these texts and present their reflection on methodological foundations of their PhD research projects.

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Recommended readings for orientation (compulsory reading list t.b.a.):

Crotty, M. (2006). The foundations of social research: Meaning and perspectives in the research process. London: Sage. [ch. 1: Introduction]

Kunda, G. (2013). Reflections on becoming an ethnographer. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2(1), 4-22.

Neuman, W.L. (2000). Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [ch. 4: The meanings of methodology]

Czarniawska, B. (2014). Social science research: From field to desk. Los Angeles: Sage [ch. 01: What, why, and how?]

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