LDRS 591 Activity 6.1

LDRS 591 Activity 6.1

Unit 6 Learning Activities

Carter, D., & Baghurst, T. (2014). The influence of servant leadership on restaurant employee engagement. Journal of Business Ethics, 124, 453-464.

The authors labelled the study a ‘phenomenological design’, which I was not able to find reference too in our text. I think this study is an example of a case-study research design. The authors studies servant leadership in a bounded system, in this case the employees of a restaurant.

As per the criteria cited by Plano-Clark & Creswell (2015, p. 301) for evaluating te research design in a qualitative research report:

Did the research design guide the conduct of the qualitative study? 

The researchers intended to study the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement. They divided the participants into  2 focus groups, and these groups were interviewed by an experienced interviewer, along with observation. The researchers seem to be knowledgeable about the design and cited their literature review. Score 3.

Was the choice of research design appropriate and justified?

The choice of research design seems to be appropriate, given that they sought to study the impact of servant leadership from the employees’ perspective. Score 3.

Were good quality data collection procedures used?

They conducted focus groups . They also collected data by other sources and then triangulated the results. Other than the focus groups, they used internal surveys from the past 2 years; they also conducted a 2 hour observation starting 30 minutes before the focus group where they studies interactions amongst employees and with customers. Date from all these sources were triangulated. Score 3.

Were good quality data analysis procedures used?

I will defer this till I learn more in the following chapters.

Were good quality results and interpretations reported?

They mention that 5 themes emerged during their data analysis. I hope we will learn more about this in the next chapters.

Did the study use a rigorous research design? 

The study flows in a coherent, easy to follow pattern. The abstract however was not arranged in the format that one expects from a peer reviewed journal article publication. Score 2

Did the use of qualitative research design address the study’s purpose? 

This research design was appropriate to help identify the relationship between servant leadership and employee engagement and commitment. It adopted the key elements of a case study research as mentioned by PLano-Clark and Creswell (2015, p. 293)- the research problem called for in-depth exploration; researcher collected multiple forms of data; the researcher analysed data for description and themes; findings included description, themes and lessons learned. Score 3

Totals core 14/15

Reference

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