Relational Objectivity as Responsibility in Management Research

This chapter is located in social science research that conceives social life, especially inquiry, as a fundamentally relational activity. A relational perspective facilitates greater receptivity to meaningful stakeholder involvement in scientific inquiry. It also questions the traditional conception of objectivity grounded in researcher separation and independence. Drawing on a relational perspective and to a considerable extent on the scholarship of American philosopher Lisa Heldke, we address this issue and assert that a transformed understanding of the role of objectivity in inquiry is required for researchers to conduct responsible research in business and management. After a brief discussion of the traditional conception of objectivity, we develop a relational conception of objectivity as responsibility and illuminate its relevance for inquiry within management research. We draw on Heldke’s (in Engendering rationalities: 81–97, SUNY Press, Albany, 2001; Heldke and Kellert in Metaphilosophy 26:360–378, 1995) notions of responsibility to and responsibility for, two central implications of conceiving relational objectivity as responsibility, and connect and elaborate them with published examples in management research. The existence of models and practices emphasizing the importance of mutual relationships in research gives us hope that it is possible to move management research more toward the ideal Heldke elaborates.