Opis
Modern science is increasingly based on interdisciplinarity and the multifaceted approach of researchers to the phenomena and processes presented. The demand for interdisciplinarity is a response to the challenges arising with the development of science: first, as a response to the progressive professionalization, specialization and institutionalization in the field of scientific research; second, as a response to the challenges facing science as our reality in its nature and structure is becoming more complex and thus more difficult to explore scientifically.
Interdisciplinarity means focusing attention on issues that are located at the intersection of various disciplines. The monograph presented here is the result of a collaboration of scientists representing various scientific disciplines from administration and policy sciences to psychology, economic sciences, health sciences and information technology. The submitted articles show the process of freeing oneself from a narrow approach to complex issues, established within a single field of knowledge, and the many research limitations that result from this. The chapters presented are the result of scientific cooperation both at the interface of the above-mentioned disciplines and international cooperation between partner Universities, as well as the wider business (business practice).
The chapters present different research approaches. Induction was used as the main research method. It involves drawing general conclusions or establishing regularities on the basis of analysis of empirically established phenomena and processes. It is a type of inference based on details about the general properties of a phenomenon or object. The use of this method requires the assumption that only facts can form the basis of scientific inference. These facts are real-life situations (e.g., social, legal or organizational). Inductive methods include various types of analysis, expert opinion, statistical data and scientific documents used in social research. In addition, the articles make use of two general research methods, i.e. analytical and synthetic methods, which are characterized by a particular approach to the study of reality. Analytical treats reality as a collection of individual, specific features and events. Following this research method involves breaking down the object of study into parts and studying each part separately or detecting the components of that object. A negative feature of the analytical method is the overexposure of details, sometimes resulting in losing sight of the whole object of study. This hinders full and objective cognition of reality, which is admittedly a collection of independent partial elements, but at the same time a set of parts closely related to each other into a limited whole. The synthetic method treats reality as a collection of features, its implementation consists in searching for common features of various phenomena and events, and then binding them into a unified whole. Thus, the synthetic method examines and determines the totality of the object of study. Using a comprehensive (hybrid) research approach, the so-called triangulation of data sources was also applied, i.e. comparing information, methods and tools used in different scientific disciplines to solve research problems from the perspective of many different practical and theoretical research concepts.
Interdisciplinarity as a demand to study reality beyond the boundaries of scientific disciplines is an important added value, since the analysis of the studied reality from the perspective of different scientific branches broadens, deepens, modifies and clarifies the research results, which is extremely developmental and beneficial for science. Interdisciplinarity is both transcending a particular discipline, the one represented by the researcher, and considering a particular topic from different perspectives (e.g., administrative and political sciences, management or computer science and
telecommunications). Among other things, the chapters employ the following research methods: comparative analysis, functional analysis, which was used to capture the cause-effect relationships of the phenomena and processes under study, research methods from a dynamic perspective (important both for a holistic view of the specifics of a given problem, as well as for grading the applicability of the results obtained), and methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Reflections on interdisciplinary research allow us to conclude that it requires increasingly complex methods for conducting empirical research. This necessity is due, among other things, to the dynamics of the surrounding reality, the processes of unification of scientific disciplines, as well as the increasing digitization and automation of social processes, which implies a modern understanding and explanation of constantly changing social and economic phenomena.
The submitted monograph is the result of cooperation of the Lublin WSEI Academy with universities and scientists from other countries as part of the internationalization process of the University in three areas: teaching, projects and scientific cooperation. The University’s Development Strategy and the correlated strategy for the development of the Institute of Public Administration and Business and individual scientific disciplines assume the involvement of staff in national and international scientific activities and research programs, establishing cooperation with foreign scientific centers (participation in international projects, joint research), as well as establishing cooperation with leading scientific publishers as an editor, reviewer, author (monographs, journals and special issues of journals).
Dr. Sylwia Skrzypek-Ahmed, prof. of the WSEI University in Lublin
Dr. Tomasz Wołowiec, prof. of the WSEI University in Lublin