Document Type : Original Research Paper

Authors

• H. Danaeefard ¹
• N. Amrollahi Biuki ²
• S. H. Fatemi Aghda ³

¹ Professor of Public Management, Faculty of Management and Economy, Tarbiat Modares University, Terhan, Iran.

² Assistant professor of Public Management, Faculty of Management and Economy, Ardakan University, Yazd-Iran.

³ Ph.D student of Management, Ardakan University, Yazd, Iran.

Abstract

Critical hermeneutics is rooted in philosophy of knowledge, in general, and in the methodology of human sciences, in particular. This approach is methodologically considered as a qualitative study with the aim of achieving internal understanding in various fields such as linguistic, longitudinal and experimental sciences. Jürgen Habermas, one of the precursors of Frankfurt School, is the pioneer of this method. In 1981, he published one of his best works entitled “Communicative Interaction Theory”, and added the symbolic aspects of social interaction to Frankfurt critical theory. Thus, critical hermeneutics does not pursue a “unifying answer”; rather it seeks to portray the social phenomena that are derived through discourse. Discourse, as a means of obtaining data, is used in critical hermeneutics and as Habermas posited, the essential prerequisite for discourse is to provide space devoid of any trace of power. In this qualitative study, the researchers conducted in-depth interviews with individuals, and by transcribing the interviews, converted the phenomenon into text. These texts constitute the research data of the study. Then, the researchers interpreted the textual form of the phenomena and represented the obtained results in several limited themes, each of which is further split into certain limited categories. Since the main advantage of critical hermeneutics is developing and reorienting the existing interpretative approaches to the study of management, this paper attempts to examine this approach as a qualitative research method in organization and management studies, and represent its process and key features.

Highlights

1. Exploring the critical role of development of non-positivism paradigms, such as critical and interpretive paradigms, in epistemology, ontology and methodology of management science.

2. Understanding critical hermeneutics as the qualitative method in organizational and management studies.

3. The increasing importance of using realization and interpretation of studies in humanities instead of using discovery and explanation methods in natural science studies.

4. Pay attention to the organization as a social text and interpreting the textual phenomena of organization.

5. The need to depict realization of organizational phenomena, resulting from discourse, as a means of gathering data in critical hermeneutics approach.

Keywords

• qualitative research
• interpretive paradigm
• critical hermeneutics
• meaningful contexts
• discourse
• freedom

Main Subjects

• Interdisciplinary
• Management
• Political Sciences