A classification of the philosophical assumptions of management science methods

This paper presents a framework within which to examine and compare the main philosophical assumptions underpinning management science methods. It takes the position that they all have in common the basic mechanism of modelling, but that they differ in terms of what they model (ontology), how they model (epistemology), and why they model (axiology). A wide range of both hard and soft methods and methodologies are categorised within the paper. One of the purposes of the framework is to assist in the process of multimethodology – that is, combining together several methods in an intervention. In particular, it will assist users in understanding both the implicit or explicit assumptions underlying methods, and their principal aims and purposes, in order to be able to make more informed and critically aware choices when designing particular combinations in practice.