In this chapter a detailed lookhas been taken at the alternative methods available for generating validknowledge in organizational behavior. Primary emphasis has been placed on therequirements for an acceptable deductive argument and the elements necessaryfor accurate empirical analysis. The problems of behavioral measurement arealso analyzed. The chapter concludes with an examination of the functionalexplanation, which is frequently encountered in the biological and behavioralsciences.
Rather than reiterating here thearguments developed, the need for devoting a chapter to the discussion ofselected philosophical problems of the inexact sciences is reviewed. Theobjective is not abstraction for the sake of abstraction. Sir Roy Harrod, thegreat British economist, once said that, “the barrenness of methodologicalconclusions is often a fitting compliment to the weariness entailed in theprocess of reaching them.” Such discussions do indeed sometimes seem unusuallyboring and tiresome. However, in the area of organizational behavior, methodologicalissues are especially pressing. As the analysis is continued throughout theremainder of this book , frequent reference is continuously made to issues ofknowledge generation, measurement, and associated topics that are allmethodological in character. This is the method that unites science. If asystematic understanding of the concepts of organizational behavior is to bedeveloped, then the methods employed in formulating them has to be appreciated.
Therefore, it is hoped that thischapter has provided a brief introduction to the methodology of the behavioralsciences. Of special significance is the recognition that althoughorganizational behavior is scientific in character, it deals with human beings.Human beings are different from inanimate objects and organizational behavioris an empirical discipline. The application of the strict and unmodifiedinductive method, however, fails to account for many unique qualities ofhumans. The objective is to be as scientific as possible, while remaining open tothe realities of human behavior.
