PRAGMATISM AND CRITICAL REALISM IN MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

The paper explores the development of pragmatic-critical realism in management research. It is to transcend positivism thesis of a foundational-absolute stance and postmodernist antithesis of chaotic relativism. Knowledge is more than what can be measured or observed through human senses. Therefore, central to pragmatic-critical realist position is the existence of transcendental reality beyond our discursive efforts as humans lack necessary cognitive and linguistic means of apprehending truth. Pragmatic-critical realism attempts to establish that for a scientific investigation to take place, the object of that investigation must have real, controllable, internal mechanisms that can be actualized to produce particular outcomes. The implication of this is that science should be understood as an ongoing process which necessitates the persistent improvement of its concepts, methods and mechanisms to provide the best way to solve problems.