Management – Normative or Descriptive Science?

Abstract

The article presents various views on the concepts, functions, and research methods of management (and quality) sciences. The article's central thesis is that management sciences are normative. The article aims to indicate that other approaches: descriptive, pragmatic, empirical, Etc., assuming the existence of objective organizational reality and universal, external scientific laws in the science of management, are too simplistic and should not be used in organization research. The authors also point to the normative nature of the assumptions underlying descriptive research, which prevents the objectification of research, the researcher's neutral attitude, or the abstraction of value judgments.