Complex polysemy and reflexivity in organizational research

Although it raises some interest in the field of social sciences, polysemy is often overlooked in organizational science, where research relies on positivist traditions. These traditions continue to influence researchers, regardless of their epistemological or methodological approaches; this in turn has an impact on the way they address polysemic terms. Our objective is to propose an integrative reflexive approach structured around eight topics of reflexion in order to explore how, in an organizational research project, both participants and researchers understand and use complex polysemic terms. By doing so, we bring four major contributions: it first highlights the central position polysemy could occupy in organizational science; secondly, polysemy could bridge and enhance the debate between positivist and interpretivist organizational researchers; thirdly, reflexivity for polysemy has the potential to improve the theorization; and finally, the mutual influence between polysemy and reflexivity could stimulate creativity.