Abstract:

This paper mainly investigates how social research’s claims of factuality, objectivity, and value-neutrality fit into a positivist viewpoint, points out some strengths and weaknesses of this school, and helps understand how social science simulates the natural-science approach. Throughout, the paper examines the above claims of social research on the basis of validity and reliability that underlies any real claim to factual research. The discussion starts with a brief examination of the evolution of the positivism philosophy, its definition, its assumptions, and its characteristics. It then describes positivism as a social science philosophy, and details how the above claims apply within its context. A critical review is presented of some strengths and weaknesses of the positivist school. A framework for integrating positivism with interpretivism approaches is also provided. Finally, a brief discussion, with justification, is focused on the applicability of the positivist approach to the research field on IT-enabled business process reengineering (BPR), as part of the business process management (BPM) context.