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REVIEW ESSAY STUDIES ON TRANSITIONS: MEANINGS AND METHOD
Author(s) -
Starkey Ken
Publication year - 1990
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.1467-6486.1990.tb00755.x
Subject(s) - argument (complex analysis) , transition (genetics) , existentialism , key (lock) , epistemology , pleasure , power (physics) , sociology , scale (ratio) , selection (genetic algorithm) , computer science , psychology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , computer security , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , gene
This article analyses the link between research methodology and knowledge generation. It argues that the selection of a method of data collection and analysis determines the potential boundaries and depth of knowledge that can be generated. Choice of methodology, therefore, has major constraining or liberating potential. This is illustrated in an examination of three recent texts on transition. The first of these adopts an occupational psychology approach based on large‐scale surveys. It is argued that this approach runs the risk of ignoring key existential issues. The two other texts analysed are a clinical psychology approach to the major transitions in work and power occasioned by the introduction of new information technologies, and a novel examining key transition episodes in the ‘lives’ of its main protagonists. These two texts, it is suggested, provide an extremely rich source of data and are a pleasure to read. The article ends with an argument for the redefinition of the boundaries that constitute knowledge in management and organization studies.