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SUBJECTIVITY, SOPHISTRY AND SYMBOLISM IN MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
Author(s) -
Astley W. Graham
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1984.tb00410.x
Subject(s) - relevance (law) , subjectivity , epistemology , dysfunctional family , field (mathematics) , sociology , psychology , engineering ethics , political science , philosophy , law , engineering , psychotherapist , mathematics , pure mathematics
Three common criticisms of management science are highlighted: first, the tendency of researchers to subjectively bias substantive approaches, methodologies and research findings; second, the failure to establish within the discipline a core of consensually validated knowledge or commonly accepted body of truth about the nature of management; and three, the inability of management theory to provide tools and techniques of greater pragmatic relevance to corporate decision‐makers. Though a basis for these characterizations of management science is confirmed, their significance is reinterpreted. Instead of being regarded as pathologies, they are viewed as inevitable, and not necessarily dysfunctional, concomitants of the emergence and development of management science as a field of intellectual activity possessing reality and significance in its own right.