en pl
en pl

Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

Show issue
Year 2003 
Volume 2 
Issue 2

Evaluating Organizational Change: The Role of Ontology and Epistemology

Jim Butler
School of Education, The University of Queensland

Fiona Scott
Graduate School of Education, The University of Western Australia

John Edwards
School of Education, The University of Queensland

2003 2 (2) Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

Article contents

Abstract

The evaluation of organizational change is a thorny issue. Firstly, accurate data depicting the organization's response to a change process are very difficult to collect, and the process can be corrupted by the Macnamara Fallacy. Secondly, the evaluative conclusions derived from the data are complex high-inference chains of reasoning based on implicit, taken-for-granted beliefs and values. Specifically, ontological and epistemological paradigms broadly determine the context for the conclusions of the evaluative inference, even though they are rarely made explicit. This paper presents two sets of ontological and epistemological paradigms; one set is modernist, and the other is postmodernist. It then applies them to organizational change data to demonstrate the divergent evaluations that can be constructed.

Full metadata record

Cite this record

APA style

Butler, Jim & Scott, Fiona & Edwards, John (2003). Evaluating Organizational Change: The Role of Ontology and Epistemology. (2003). Evaluating Organizational Change: The Role of Ontology and Epistemology. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, 2(2), 55-67. (Original work published 2003)

MLA style

Butler, Jim and Scott, Fiona and Edwards, John. “Evaluating Organizational Change: The Role Of Ontology And Epistemology”. 2003. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, vol. 2, no. 2, 2003, pp. 55-67.

Chicago style

Butler, Jim and Scott, Fiona and Edwards, John. “Evaluating Organizational Change: The Role Of Ontology And Epistemology”. Tamara: Journal For Critical Organization Inquiry, Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry, 2, no. 2 (2003): 55-67.

Copyright info

copyright info

CC-BY

People also read: