Abstract
This somewhat provocative paper explores the limitations of the widely used label 'qualitative research' in management research. It focuses on the puzzle of why - 45yrs after Morgan and Smircich's (1980) seminal paper identified different paradigms in qualitative scholarship - the paradigmatic plurality of qualitative research is downplayed. Based on the premise that language matters, this paper argues that the label 'qualitative research', used rather simplistically as an umbrella term for a wide variety of qualitative paradigms, may contribute to a lack of paradigmatic plurality due to its a-paradigmatic conceptualisation and use. In this way, this paper seeks to contribute to debates on epistemological issues in management and organisation research and (in the fully developed paper) to debates on the future of research in our field in which the full variety of approaches to qualitative research is recognised, used, valued and celebrated.