Doing Critical Realist Research: An Innovative Methodology for Organizational Studies

Abstract

This scholarly article provides a new four-phase, thirteen-step CR-based method applicable to organizational research that responds to the serious lack of systematic and accessible frameworks aimed at revealing hidden underlying processes behind intricate workplace phenomena. CR’s stratified ontology—defining the empirical, actual, and real domains—provides a robust analytical framework to peer under salient trends. Despite the increasing familiarity of CR with organizational and management research, contemporary scholarship still too frequently suffers from the lack of reproducible methodology and thus limits empirical quality and makes accessibility problematic for newcomers. Our suggested methodology overcomes this shortcoming by informatively guiding researchers through problem description, mixed-methods approach, data gathering, and abductive-retroductive analysis ultimately providing actionable results relevant to organizational enigmas. By the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches, it brings theory and hard facts together in a cohesive way and therefore becomes an instrument with multiple sides that can be applied in various fields, from public sector institutions to small and medium enterprises. This approach considerably contributes to CR scholarship through being open about methodology so making it highly accessible to novice scholars, and facilitating evidence-based policymaking. It unleashes the transformational power of CR, exposing causal mechanisms that work in modern organizations, and thereby spurring rigorous and effective research that informs scholarly discourse as well as actionable recommendations for urgent organizational concerns.