Critical Essay: Meta-analysis: A critical realist critique and alternative

Brannan, Matthew; Fleetwood, Steve; Mahoney, Joseph; Vincent, Steve

Abstract

Meta-analysis has proved increasingly popular in management and organization studies as a way of combining existing empirical quantitative research to generate a statistical estimate of how strongly variables are associated. Whilst a number of studies identify technical, procedural and practical limitations of meta-analyses, none have yet tackled the meta-theoretical flaws in this approach. We deploy critical realist meta-theory to argue that the individual quantitative studies, upon which meta-analysis relies, lack explanatory power because they are rooted in quasi-empiricist meta-theory. This problem, we argue, is carried over in meta-analyses. We then propose a ‘critical realist synthesis’ as a potential alternative to the use of meta-analysis in organization studies and social science more widely.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 23, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Nov 11, 2016
• Publication Date: Jan 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Jan 25, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 25, 2017
• Journal: Human Relations
• Print ISSN: 0018-7267
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-282X
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 70
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 11-39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726716674063
• Keywords: aetiology, critical realism, epistemology, meta-analysis, meta-theory, ontology, open; and closed systems, tendencies
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/900425
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0018726716674063
• Contract Date: Jan 25, 2017