Name – Divya Gogia

Submitted to- Prof. Paromita Goswami

HW 1
Subject- Philosophical foundations and Critical theories of Management

DIFFERENCE

SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM
Symbolic interactionism describes the individual in a society and their interactions with
others (Brown, n.d).
In the process of social interaction, the symbolic meaning people develop and build is called
symbolic interactionism (Crossman, 2019). Symbolic interactionism concentrates on why it
happened not on what happened (Wright & Losekoot, n.d).
Philosophy of Symbolic Interactionism concerned with symbols. There are three concepts
that are significant to this tradition:
1.Communication between the actor and the world.
2. Actor and world are not stable structures rather than lively processes.
3. Actor’s capacity to interpret the social world. (Wright & Losekoot, n.d).
To study the social relations and individual actions this tradition is used by sociologists in
the form of participant observation (Prasad, 2005). This approach understands the reasons
why but hermeneutics has taken one step further with hermeneutics being used to understand
what has happened (Wright & Losekoot, n.d). Symbolic interactionism concentrates on
interactions between the individuals within the society.
The approach is best equipped for understanding of micro and local world of organization.
This tradition focuses too closely on trees rather than the whole forest by missing the too
significant issues of the society (Crossman, 2019). Symbolic interactionism suggests that all
objects, events, and actions always hold meanings for different individuals ( Prasad, 2005).
For example, the book is not only something to read but also symbolizes knowledge and
wisdom ( Prasad, 2005). In consumer behavior, this tradition is very important. In symbolic
interactions, various methods are used to judge the behaviors of people like interviews and
participative observations (Prasad, 2005). There is no such dialogue involved in symbolic
interactionism (Prasad,2005).

HERMENEUTICS
Hermeneutics means Interpretation which is concerned with problems that arise when dealing
with meaningful human actions and their texts which are products of such actions
( Mantzavinos, 2016). In Hermeneutics there is persuing the dialogue with the text (Prasad,
2005).
Philosophy of hermeneutics concerned with text and interpretation (Prasad,2005). There is a
mediator who converts the text so that it can be interpreted. Now to convert the text the
author has to enter into the world of the author, his culture and his mindset. It purposes to
discover what happened, but this is always interpreted through the existence of the
researcher. (Wright & Losekoot, n.d). Both the approaches are different in direction and
different in difficulty of application (Wright & Losekoot, n.d).
Hermeneutics is both science and art of interpretation. This tradition focuses on
understanding the written dialogue of another person correctly by dissolving language into
thought. There are two primary areas of hermeneutics :
1. Theory of interpretation, which deals with the task of feasible interpretation.
2. Theory of interpretation which is concerned with the task of valid interpretation.
(communication theory,n.d)

As there is no judging of behavior in hermeneutics, there is only interpretation of texts.

SIMILARITIES
The mixture of the Hermeneutic tradition and the Symbolic interactionism tradition will offer
a clear understanding of what happened and the framework of what happened and indicate
causes of what happened (Wright & Losekoot, n.d ). Both are qualitative research approach.
Symbolic interactionism and hermeneutic traditions have a related approach that is qualitative
but both are diverse in direction and diverse in difficulty of application. Hermeneutics is
regarded as qualitative research because:
1. There is an in-depth understanding of human behavior, actions, motivations, etc.
2. Reduces the distance between the researcher and the subject being studied (Addeo, F,
2013).
Bryman and Bell (2007) claim that these two traditions have a common hatred for positivism
and both share an interpretative stance.
Hermeneutics and symbolic interactionism traditions are very useful in marketing, sociology,
etc.
REFRENCES
Mantzavinos, V. (2016). [Online] Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy Available from
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hermeneutics/ [ Accessed 30 10 2019].
Wright, N, Losekoot, E. (n.d), “Interpretative Research Paradigms: Points of Difference”,
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Auckland, New Zealand, pp 416-422.
Crossman, A.( 2019).[Online] "What Is Symbolic Interactionism?" ,ThoughtCo, Available
fro https://www.thoughtco.com/symbolic-interaction-theory-30 [Accessed 30 10 2019].
Bryman, A and Bell, E. (2007), “Business Research Methodology Oxford: Oxford University
Press”,[n.d]
Communication theory. (n.d), Available from
https://www.communicationtheory.org/hermeneutics/ [Accessed 30 10 2019].
Prasad, P. (2005), Crafting Qualitative research. Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Addeo, F. (2013). [Online] “Hermeneutics as a research method”, Slide share, Available from
https://www.slideshare.net/FeliceAddeo/hermeneutic-as-aresearchmethoddraft [ Accessed 31 10
2019].

Brown, S. (n.d). [Online] “Symbolic Interatitionsm”, Khan Academy, Available from

https://www.khanacademy.org/test-prep/mcat/society-and-culture/social-structures/v/symbolic-
interacti [Accessed 31 10 2019].