scholarly journals Can Quantitative Research Solve Social Problems? Pragmatism and the Ethics of Social Research

2019 ◽  
Vol 167 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas C. Powell
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
William James ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Ethical Practices ◽  
James I ◽  
Journal Of Business Ethics

Abstract Journal of Business Ethics recently published a critique of ethical practices in quantitative research by Zyphur and Pierides (J Bus Ethics 143:1–16, 2017). The authors argued that quantitative research prevents researchers from addressing urgent problems facing humanity today, such as poverty, racial inequality, and climate change. I offer comments and observations on the authors’ critique. I agree with the authors in many areas of philosophy, ethics, and social research, while making suggestions for clarification and development. Interpreting the paper through the pragmatism of William James, I suggest that the authors’ arguments are unlikely to change attitudes in traditional quantitative research, though they may point the way to a new worldview, or Jamesian “sub-world,” in social research.

Ascertaining the Role of Leadership on Employee Satisfaction in Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province of South Africa Using Qualitative Research

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kingstone Mutsonziwa ◽  
Philip Serumaga-Zake
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Employee Satisfaction ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Labour Productivity ◽  
Working Environment ◽  
Gauteng Province ◽  
Career Growth ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Mixed Approach

This paper is based on the study a Doctor of Business Leadership (DBL) thesis titled A Statistical Model for Employee Satisfaction in the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province. The purpose of this study was to identify the attributes that affect employee satisfaction in the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province, South Africa. In order to address the overall objective of this study, the researcher used a two-tiered (mixed) approach in which both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies were used to complement and enrich the results. This paper is only based on the qualitative component of the study on leadership aspects based on six leaders (two from Social research and four from Market research) that were interviewed. The leaders were selected based on their knowledge of the industry and the expertise they have. Participation in the survey was voluntary. This paper illustrates the power of the qualitative techniques to uncover or unmask the leadership aspects in the Market and Social Research Industries and also gives the human touch to the quantitative results. It was found that leadership and management within the Market and Social Research Industries in Gauteng Province must ensure that they are accommodative in terms of mentoring their subordinates. The industry is driven by quality driven processes and strong leadership. More importantly, issues of a good working environment, remuneration, career growth, and recognition must always be addressed in order to increase employee satisfaction, reduce staff turnover, and attempt to optimize labour productivity. The qualitative findings also help a deeper understanding of leadership within the industry.

scholarly journals On storiation and what is washed ashore: The Anthropocene as big kahuna

2021 ◽  
pp. 204382062110174
Author(s):  
Elena Burgos Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Environmental History ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Critical Perspective

This commentary begins by outlining current debates on the notion of the Anthropocene from a critical perspective. Subsequently, it will discuss how Pugh and Chandler (2021) directly address such a problematic and how their work contributes to pluralising contemporary academic debates on the Anthropocene. Their previous academic engagements are no stranger to questions of epistemic discrimination in the broad fields of geography, geopolitics, island studies, and social research, and, more concretely, mainstreamed anthropological thinking. This commentary will therefore focus on their call for storiation and its relevance for contemporary debates seeking more ethical, localised, fluid, and coherent approaches to environmental degradation, environmental history, island identity, geopolitics of climate change, and indigeneity. From all the shapes storiation can take, this commentary focuses on indigenous storiation as embodiment.

scholarly journals THE FOURTH HISTORICAL MOMENT IN SOCIAL RESEARCH ‘THE CRISIS OF REPRESENTATION’: A CHAPTER REVIEW

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (17) ◽  
pp. 138-144
Author(s):  
Asma Shughail Aqib Al Hashimi ◽  
Adi Anuar Azmin
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Fourth Moment ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Crisis Of Representation ◽  
Historical Moment

The historical moments of qualitative research reflect socially constructed quasi-historic conventions that remain crosscut and overlapping till the present. This progressive narrative is well represented and assessed in a historical overview by Denzin & Lincoln (2018) in their book “The Sage handbook of qualitative research” in the introduction “The discipline and practice of qualitative research”. Through a chapter review, this article particularly discusses the fourth moment of Quantitative research coined as “The crisis of representation”, which is believed to be the crossroads where social scientists remain entangled between the science and humanity perspective while conducting social research in order to forward social realities. This period of confusion simultaneously forwarded the multi-paradigm (positivism, postpositivism, and interpretivism), all of which have unique characteristics that are suitable for specific research. Thus, this paper sheds light on the overview of the crisis of representation and further explains the types of crises that occurred during this historical moment, including the crisis of representation, the crisis of legitimation, and a crisis of praxis. It is expected that apart from extending current literature this paper would support social scientists for selecting appropriate methods and paradigms as well as to justify their selection.

Vibration, Difference, and Solidarity in the Anthropocene

Resonance ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 218-241
Author(s):  
Andrew J. Chung
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Sound Studies ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
New Materialism ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Departure Point ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Black Skin

Taking the new materialist and climate change themes of Ashley Fure’s The Force of Things: an Opera for Objects as a departure point, this article examines sound studies’ recent invocations of new materialist philosophy alongside this philosophy's foundational concern toward the Anthropocene ecological crisis. I argue that new materialist sonic thought retraces new materialism’s dubious ethical program by deriving equivalencies of moral standing from logically prior ontological equivalencies of material entities and social actors rooted in their shared capacities to vibrate. Some sonic thought thus amplifies what scholars in Black and Indigenous decolonial critique have exposed as the homogenizing, assimilative character of new materialism’s superficially inclusional and optimistic ontological imaginary, which includes tendencies to obscure the ongoingness of racial inequality and settler-colonial exploitation in favor of theorizing difference as a superfice or illusion. As I argue in a sonic reading of Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, some of new materialism’s favored analytical and ecological terms such as objecthood, vibrationality, and connection to the Earth are also terms through which anti-Blackness, colonial desire, and the universalization of Whiteness have historically been routed. This historical amnesia in new materialism enables its powerfully obfuscating premises. As a result, I argue that new materialist sound studies and philosophy risk amplifying the Anthropocene’s similarly homogenizing rhetorics, which often propound a mythic planetary oneness while concealing racial and colonial climate inequities. If sound studies and the sonic arts are to have illuminating perspectives on the Anthropocene, they must oppose rather than affirm its homogenizing logics.

Starbucks and HMSHost: addressing discrimination across organizational boundaries

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly R. Hall ◽  
Juanne Greene ◽  
Ram Subramanian ◽  
Emily Tichenor
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Business Ethics ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Labor Union ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Organizational Boundaries ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Journal Of Business Ethics

Theoretical basis 1. Maria Jarlstrom, Essi Saru, and Sinikka Vanhala, “Sustainable Human Resource Management With Salience of Stakeholders: A Top Management Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics, 152, (2008): 703–724. 2. Benjamin A. Neville, Simon J. Bell, and Gregory J., “Stakeholder Salience Revisited: Refining, Redefining, and Refueling an Underdeveloped Conceptual Tool,” Journal of Business Ethics, 102, (2011): 357–378. 3. Mick Marchington, Fang Lee Cooke, and Gail Hebson. “Human Resource Management Across Organizational Boundaries,” Sage Handbook of Human Resource Management, (2009): 460–477. Research methodology This secondary source case is based mainly on three documents: the 20-page report by a labor union, Unite Here, titled “One Job Should Be Enough: Inequality at Starbucks”; and two reports by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. and Covington & Burlington, LLP. Case overview/synopsis In February 2020, Unite Here, a labor union, released a damming report about employment practices at the airport Starbucks stores operated by licensee, HMSHost. Among other charges, the report identified several instances of racial and gender discrimination that HMSHost dismissed as a ploy by a union intent on organizing its employees. The adverse publicity, however, put Starbucks Corporation in the spotlight because of the company’s publicly stated commitment to workplace equality. The recently hired Nzinga Shaw, the company’s first-ever Global Chief Inclusion and Diversity Officer, had to address the issue at HMSHost lest it adversely affect Starbucks’ reputation as a progressive employer. Complexity academic level The case is best suited for a graduate or undergraduate course in human resource management or labor relations. As diversity is typically covered in the first third of such courses, the ideal placement of this case would be in the early part of the course. As Starbucks is a well-known name, and it is very likely that students have had their own experience with Starbucks, as either a customer or an employee, the case is likely to draw their interest. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email [email protected] to request teaching notes.

Epilogue

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-208
Author(s):  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Ken Plummer ◽  
Neli Demireva
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Story ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Sexual Diversity ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Second World ◽  
Research World

This chapter looks at how far the pioneers had responded to the key social changes in their working lifetimes, and the extent to which they had addressed through fieldwork research what now seem to be crucial issues for our future. It also discusses the local traditional religious rituals documented by the anthropologists working abroad both before and after the Second World War. The chapter then shifts to elaborate on the issues of sexual diversity, environment, and climate change. It demonstrates the need and potential for other life-story researchers to explore the issues around social researchers and climate change by focusing on Michael Redclift. Ultimately, the chapter illustrates his life's work and both his commitment and his sense of marginalization in the British social research world. It also narrates his interests in the relationships between human society, the environment, nature, and climate change.

Organising: creating research worlds

2020 ◽  
pp. 79-110
Author(s):  
Paul Thompson ◽  
Ken Plummer ◽  
Neli Demireva
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Research ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Community Studies ◽  
Central Statistical ◽  
Major Section

This chapter looks at how social research gradually became organized through the work of our pioneers. It starts by looking at the growth of both universities and academic disciplines (like anthropology and sociology) as key backgrounds for understanding the growth of organized research. A major section discusses a range of early research agencies — the Colonial Research Council, Political and Economic Planning (PEP), the Institute of Community Studies, the CSO (Central Statistical Office), the SSRC, Social Science Research Council, and the UK Data Archive. Some new university-based centres are also considered: medical social science at Aberdeen, methods at Surrey and the BCCS (Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies). There are brief discussions of the Banbury Study with Meg Stacey and Colin Bell; and the Affluent Worker study. The chapter closes with some pioneering work on quantitative research, longitudinal studies and the rise of computing.

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