Auteur: prof. dr T. van Willigenburg
Uitgave: Kantacademy ISBN 978 90 8666 265 4
Price: € 39,50 (plus porto)
Can be ordered by sending an email to:
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Introduction to the Philosophy of the Management Sciences, New Revised Edition (2012)
What are the claims of the management sciences based on? Why do we trust scientific theories, like theories about the most effective way of managing certain processes in business? Is what those theories tell us indeed correct? Does the market function in the way economists tell us? How trustworthy are theories about social and psychological mechanisms which are used to understand and influence the behavior of employees, managers, or consumers?
This introduction helps the reader to reflect on the nature of the knowledge which is generated by the management sciences and other social sciences. Business administration is a multidisciplinary subject, characterized by a broad array of theoretical and methodological approaches. Such approaches may express distinct views on what is to be counted as ‘scientific’. In this book, the reader will find the concepts, theories, and insights needed to disentangle, order, analyse, and scrutinize the multitude of approaches in the management sciences.
Readers will come to understand the often penetrating arguments used in the debates among philosophers of science and the surprising ideas of known and unknown thinkers. They will be challenged to formulate a reasoned answer of their own to the questions posed in this Introduction