PHILOSOPHIES OF RESEARCH

• The term research philosophy refers to a system of beliefs and

assumptions about the development of knowledge – developing
knowledge in a particular field;
• The knowledge development you are embarking upon may not be as
dramatic as a new theory of human motivation, but even addressing a
specific problem in a particular organization you are, nonetheless,
developing new knowledge;
• At every stage in your research, you will make several types of
assumptions (Burrell and Morgan, 2016).

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 PHILOSOPHIES OF RESEARCH
These include (but are not limited to) assumptions:
1. About the realities you encounter in your research (ontological assumptions);
2. About human knowledge (epistemological assumptions), and
3. About the extent and ways your own values influence your research process (axiological assumptions).

These assumptions inevitably shape how you understand your research questions, the methods you use and how
you interpret your findings (Crotty 1998).

A well-thought-out and consistent set of assumptions will constitute a credible research philosophy, which will
underpin your methodological choice, research strategy and data collection techniques and analysis procedures;

This will allow you to design a coherent research project, in which all elements of research fit together. (

Johnson and Clark (2006) note that, as business and management researchers, we need to be aware of the
philosophical commitments we make through our choice of research strategy, since this will have a significant
impact on what we do and how we understand what it is we are investigating.

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Philosophical underpinnings in research
DOMAINS Questions asked Assumptions
EPISTEMOLOGY What is reality? about human knowledge
What is existence? (epistemological assumptions),
ONTOLOGY What can we know? assumptions about the realities you
How do we know what we know? encounter in your research
(ontological assumptions_
METHODOLOGY How should efforts to know be executed? Methods, tools and techniques to
generate the data

These assumptions inevitably shape how you understand your research questions, the methods you use and how
you interpret your findings (Crotty 1998).
A well-thought-out and consistent set of assumptions will constitute a credible research
philosophy, which will underpin your methodological choice, research strategy and data collection techniques
and analysis procedures.

This will allow you to design a coherent research project, in which all elements of research fit together.

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Philosophies