Part A
At the heart of the quantitative qualitative debate is that one looks at numbers and exploration with many people or data points while the other looks at words and explanation going deep with a few participants. Both discover and uncover a lot of information about a topic, issue or new question being asked. Looking at a problem or question from many different angles offers a rich, deeper result or answer to the research question. Mixed methods, which has exploded in the last 10 years, is a great way to provide a wide and deep view of a topic. Mixed methods lead to greater understanding, perhaps more solid conclusions, and practical solutions. For example, in up to date studies in addiction medicine treatment, they now include Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) which measure a patient’s subjective issues or attitudes towards the treatment and not just the biological aspects. VAS would include aspects of daily living and quality of life issues to explore in addition to medical treatment.
Part B
Beck conducted a very high quality study with a rating of 3 from Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015) rating Scale for evaluating a mixed methods study (p. 406). Beck (2014) ‘employed a mixed methods sequential explanatory design consisting of two distinct phases: Phase 1, was a quantitative study’ then phase 2 was qualitative including interviews which were coded and analyzed. Themes were revealed and finally both sets of data were triangulated to validate the data. Beck started with a large group of individuals, 499 leaders, already narrowed down having taken a community leadership training program and 630 raters for the quantitative section. He then took 12 individuals with the highest Servant Leadership Questionnaire (SLQ) composite score and interviewed them with nine open-ended questions, which he included at the end. The findings, discussion, implication and directions for further research sections are superb. Beck (2014) definitely answered the research questions: ‘(1) Are there certain characteristics or behaviors that would predict a servant leader? (2) Are there experiences or life events that would predict a servant leader?’ Many practical components came to light by using mixed methods.
Part C
The Transformational Servant Leader who made a big impact on me was the global head of sales for the company I currently work for. He had no direct reports, used many coaching techniques and opportunities to encourage the best from individuals, and teams. He could be counted on to discuss issues, what training a team might need and ensured the basics were in place starting with a firm foundation to build on. He worked at the individual, team and international level. You could count on him. He raised the level of the whole company, was fiercely trusted. You knew he didn’t have a hidden agenda other than excellence for the individuals in the organization. He left just over two years ago and is sorely missed. A few of the transformational servant leader characteristics that he embodied were: wisdom, trustworthiness, reliability, influence/persuasion and great communication.
Beck (2014) published a great example of a mixed-methods study. There were practical things that could be applied to leadership development programs. It would be interesting to apply the antecedent factors such as having a mentor and volunteer work to a fourth-year university business program and check in at one, three and five-year intervals to see how the individuals fare beside a control group. This would involve conducting base line quantitative recordings of the individual’s SLQ, updating at time periods to see if qualities of servant leadership have emerged and or increased. This would be followed by qualitative interviews with a segment of the control group and antecedent intervention group comparing the two.
Beck, C. D. (2014). Antecedents of servant leadership: A mixed methods study. Journal of Leadership and Organizational
Studies, 21(3), 299-314.
Plano-Clark, V., & Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Photo by Pang Yuhao on Unsplash
After taking some time over Beck’s mixed methods study into the antecedents (a thing or event that existed before or logically precedes another) of servant leadership, the question I would like to pose to my colleagues is this; Since we are not at the very start of our careers, what advise would you give to your younger self or someone in university who wants to be an effective leader in their future career?
(Thank you Dr. Strong for the reminder to pose a question.)
Thank you for the question! I was discussing this with a valued friend just yesterday evening.
I think the first piece of advice I would offer is to explore any and every opportunity that presents itself. Success and failure are two sides of the same coin – the only negative outcome is not picking up the coin. Also to remember that there is only one perfect judge, and we are not Him, so just because it seems like a “failure” to us it may not be, and every failure can be turned into a success if we learn from it.
The other advice that I would give would be to respond, not react. Sometimes I feel like God gave me the most volatile and dangerous personality that exists on the planet. When I do the personality tests I am very intuitive and emotional, and also very risk and action driven – so if I don’t engage my brain I tend to react immediately and out of my emotions which is always deadly. Young people seem to think that they can’t control their emotions, but that is what emotional intelligence is.
I am very passionate about the next generation and equipping them to be far better and to go much further than myself, so I could write an entire blog post on this subject, so I will stop now.
Also, I like your proposal for your mixed methods study – I would also find that very interesting.
Thanks for your insightful reply. I think that we are given gifts and strengths. If a strength is overused, it can work against us. I think it is so important to know ourselves, where our strengths are and with direction, use our strengths for best outcomes. I agree that emotional intelligence is important at any age. I really like your phrase ‘respond, not react.’ It’s that pause to really understand the right way forward. A great book if you have time over the December break is ‘Dare to Lead’ by Brene Brown – full of practical, studied issues and thought provoking.
Thank you for your evaluation of Beck’s (2014) study. Your evaluation was concise and clear. Your post shows evidence of insights gained through the readings (and videos) this week regarding mixed-methods research. Thank you for also considering the implications of these insights for leadership practice.
Did you have a question that you wanted to pose to your colleagues?
Dr. Strong