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Theorizing Managerial Work: a Pragmatic Pluralist Approach to Interdisciplinary Research
Author(s) -
Watson Tony J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.00034
Subject(s) - sociology , variety (cybernetics) , perspective (graphical) , epistemology , pluralism (philosophy) , ethnography , work (physics) , engineering ethics , management science , social science , computer science , economics , engineering , mechanical engineering , philosophy , artificial intelligence , anthropology
Management research is especially open to the benefits of using insights from a variety of social science disciplines but it should not use these indiscriminately. A strategy of pragmatic pluralism is proposed as a way of ensuring that concepts taken from different social science paradigms or disciplines are drawn together into a single coherent perspective to shape the particular study to which they relate. This is illustrated with reference to an ethnographic study of managerial work carried out by the author.