Question

Business Research Methods:

1. How does pragmatism differ from interpretivism, epistemologically, ontologically and axiologically?

2. What constitutes threats to research reliability

Answer 1

1. Interpretivism involves researchers to interpret elements of the study, thus interpretivism integrates human interest into a study. The researchers assume that access to reality is through language, consciousness, shared meanings, and instruments.

Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. It addresses questions like, 'How do we know that we know?', 'What makes justified beliefs justified?', and 'What does it mean to say that we know something?'. Hence, epistemologically answering questions means that we apply the theory of knowledge.

Ontology studies concepts that directly relate to being, in particular becoming, existence, reality, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations. Ontology addresses questions that concern the existence, what entities exist and how can those be grouped.

Axiology studies two types of values; ethics and aesthetics. Ethics investigates the concepts of right and good in an individual and social conduct. Aesthetics studies the concepts of beauty and harmony.

Pragmatism considers words and thought as tools for prediction, problem-solving, and action, and rejects the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality.

From the above definitions of the terms, we can figure out that interpretivism, epistemology, ontology, and axiology are the concepts of thought, knowledge, and actions. They try to describe, represent, or give a name to the actions performed by others. Whereas, Pragmatism uses thoughts and words to predict and solve problems.

2. The following are threats to the reliability of Research:

• Researcher error - Many times research requires measurements and calculations. During this process, we can do errors while taking measurements or doing calculations. The results of these measurements and calculations will change the overall outcome of the research.
• Environmental Changes - During the measurement process, there may be small changes in the surrounding environment, (eg. light, temperature, time, etc.) which might affect the measurements. These changes in the environment make it impossible to ensure that all the measurements are taken in the same way.
• Participant Changes - During long periods of measurements and data calculations, it is possible that the person taking those measurements or doing the calculations change.