Assignment# Differentiate between three paradigm of

philosophies in terms of their methods

Understanding
research philosophy
Positivism
The philosophical approach of natural scientist is observed in positivism as
the work of natural scientist is based on observable social entity. Research
strategy is approached on the basis of data collection and hypothesis
development. These hypotheses will be tested and confirmed which can be
used for further research. Another feature of this philosophy is that the
positivist researcher follows highly structured methodology in order to
facilitate the hypothesis. Furthermore, positivism works on quantifiable
observations and accordingly statistical analysis is obtained.

For example, the resources researcher cannot manipulate during data

collection procedure as they are independent to the subject of the research.
For example, a research was conducted on the basis of flexi working on the
female workforce throughout India. The researcher would study the literature
which is based on previous studies based on which identify factors; like the
importance of flexi working, types of flexi-working, increased rate of flexi-
working and future of flexi-working and develop hypotheses have been
developed like the influence of flexi-working to our socio-economic life;
influence of regular work life to the women’s family life; influence of flexi-
working to the economic life of the flexi-worker. In
Positivism, these hypotheses are tested and result is confirmed by the
researcher to develop a theory.

Realism
Realism is another philosophical branch of epistemology which relates to
scientific enquiry. The core feature of realism is pertained to disclose the
truth of reality and the existence of the objects are prevalent independently
in the human mind. Realism is classified as direct realism and critical
realism. Direct realism explains what is experienced by our senses and that
are attained by the researcher. On the other hand, the critical realism
expresses that what is experienced by our sensations those are images of the
real world, not the reality. The difference between the two is that the first is
related to the capacity of research what is studied and the critical realist
recognizes the importance of multi-level study in the context of the
individual, the group and the organization.

There is a difference between direct realism and critical realism. Critical

realism claims that there are two stages to experience this world. Firstly,
sensation is conveyed to experience the object or people or event and the
nest stage is our mental process starts working after the sensations. For
example, in a cricket match, as a critical realist, while providing the
umpiring decisions, the umpire says, ‘I give them as I see them!’ whereas
the umpire who is a direct realist would say ‘I give them as they are!’ So
according to direct realism the first stage of critical realism is enough to
understand the experience level of us.

Interpretive
Interpretive is a branch epistemology which is focused to the assessment the
differences between humans as social actors. The issue of difference is
emphasized on the difference between conducting research among people
rather than objects such as medicines and computer. In this philosophy,
interpretation of social roles has been presented with respect of own set of
meaning. In addition, we interpret the social roles of others in accordance
with our own set of meanings.

This approach is based on social life world and the difference between the
earlier approach and Interpretive approach is that the natural scientists are
intended for reliabilities of the data in order to infer ‘laws’ whereas the
social science deals with the individual’s actions. For example, in the
organization, all the stakeholders’ approach is different and they act
according to their interpretation. The interpretation regarding employee
turnover of HR manager and trade union leader are completely different as
they both belong to different social roles.