Stanford Business Books Foundations for Inquiry: Choices and Trade-Offs in the Organizational Sciences

Foundations for Inquiry, a philosophy of social science book, is both a primer and a resource for anyone interested in social and behavioral research. As a "reader" with excerpts from classic and soon-to-be classic writings on research in the organizational sciences, the book shows the myriad choices facing researchers―including assumptions they make about ways of creating knowledge, beliefs and values they hold regarding reality, and philosophical and managerial allegiances they form. This book will give readers the information they need to select among these choices, appreciate the tradeoffs involved, and understand how they affect the ways in which data is collected, analyzed, and interpreted, and in which "truth" is ultimately created. Most books about research address the "how to" of inquiry rather than the "why." Foundations for Inquiry enlightens readers about the variety of philosophical assumptions regarding inquiry and organizational phenomena, demonstrates how these assumptions shape subsequent choices about theories, and shows how theoretical and philosophical choices consequently shape and guide the research process. Awareness of these choices and tradeoffs enables readers to be more discriminating consumers of, and adept contributors to, research-based knowledge.