LDRS 591 Activity 4.3

LDRS 591 Activity 4.3

Unit 4 Learning Activities

Does the review include relevant literature?

The purpose of this study was to study the relationship between personality, leadership and individual and organizational outcomes. In this respect I think their literature review was relevant and adequate. They reviewed literature on theories of social research and studies about various models of leadership. I would rate this study a 3 on this element.

Does the review examine sources that are recent and of high quality?

The literature review they conducted mostly consisted of studies that were old, some as old as 1964. Keeping in mind that the theory of servant leadership is not that old either, we can grant that the paucity of relevant literature might have been a limiting factor here. They did mention some more recent studies (e.g leader personality affecting outcomes), that were more relevant to their study. I will give them a 2 on this element.

Is the literature review documented properly?

They did document appropriately, citations seem to be consistent, e.g citing page numbers when quoting directly, using et al when citing multiple authors subsequently. This will score 3 in my opinion.

Is the literature thoughtfully synthesized?

The literature review is ‘thorough’ in that they seem to have reviewed some old and new studies about relevant topics. But I don’t think it is well organized, even though they do seem to have covered the important themes and subtopics. It is neither a “study-by-study” review, nor a “thematic review” as recommended by Plano-Clark and Creswell (2015, p. 140) . I will rate them a 2 on this.

Is the literature critically examined?

They examined the previous literature critically and identified deficiencies. This would be a 3.

Does the study have a strong foundation in the literature?

This study seems to originate from literature, they authors reviewed previous studies on social research, cognitive theory, correlation between personality and outcomes. The authors intend to study the correlation between personality and individual and organizational outcomes. I will rate this a 3.

Does the literature fit the study’s overall approach?

the literature does seem to fit with the study’s overall approach. without having the read all of the other studies, it does seem that there seems to be duplication in this study. Hence, I will give it  2.

Overall score: 18 (High Quality)

References

Hunter, E. M., Neubert, M. J., Perry, S. J., Witt, L. A., Penny, L. M., & Weinberger, E. (2013). Servant leaders inspire servant followers: Antecedents and outcomes for employees and the organization. Leadership Quarterly, 24(2), 316-331.

Plano-Clark, V., Creswell, J. (2015). Understanding research: A consumer’s guide. (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.