REFINING COMMON-SENSE - TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE IN MANAGEMENT STUDIES

Drawing on Pepper's World Hypotheses we describe four different approa ches to obtaining formal knowledge in management studies. These approa ches are: formism, mechanism, contextualism, and organicism. All of th em are valid ways of refining common sense that resist synthesis. Appl ying Pepper's framework in as extremely diverse a field as management studies (focusing on organizational behaviour (OB) and strategic manag ement (SM) in particular) we show the different assumptions and knowle dge claims made by different types of theorists in management and, mor eover, we shed light on the sources of conceptual rivalry that often c haracterize the field. By way of illustration, the Mintzberg-Ansoff de bate on the nature of strategic management is focused upon for closer examination. It is shown that analysing this debate in terms of Pepper 's framework one can understand and evaluate the epistemological diffe rences between Mintzberg and Ansoff, which stem from their adherence t o contextualist and mechanistic-cum-formistic types of knowledge respe ctively.