Research Philosophy

Research philosophy is the way through which the researcher generates knowledge in the context of the research. There are mainly four forms of research philosophy. First is positivism research philosophy. According to the positivism research philosophy social world can be perceived in objective manner. In this research philosophy, researcher is objective analyst. It also states that research is value free and researcher works at independent base. Contrary to this research philosophy, in interpretive research philosophy, researcher states that it is not easy to understand the social world through the principles. It states that social world can be interpreted in subjective manner. Main focus of this research philosophy is to understand the meanings through which people experiences in social world. It is based on the principle, which states that the researcher performs a specific role to observe the social world. According to this research philosophy, research is based on researcher’s interests.

Third is pragmatism research philosophy, which handles with actual facts. It states that in choosing research philosophy, research question is the key determinant. Practical outcomes are considered important in this research philosophy. Fourth research philosophy is realism research philosophy (Lancaster, 2005). This research philosophy is based on the principles of positivism and interpretive research philosophy. Realism research philosophy is based on the assumptions, which states that to understand the subjective nature of human beings.

References
Lancaster, G. (2005) Research methods in management: a concise introduction to research in management and business consultancy. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.