Month: February 2018 (Page 2 of 2)

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.

LDRS 591 Activity 591

Unit 5 Learning Activities

As a consumer of research reports, the most important thing(s) for me in the methods and results section of a high-quality quantitative research report is/are…

After reading the required chapters of the textbook for this unit, I realized that my criteria for evaluating a study have been vague. I now have a better idea what to look for in a high quality quantitative research. I have combined the criteria in chapters 5,6,7 of Plan-Clark and Creswell (2015) along with some personal criteria tat I feel strongly about.

Research design: The authors should clearly state their reasons for the choice of study and data collection methods.

Participants: For me this is the most important component of the study. The validity of the study depends to a large extent on how the researchers choose their participants. For a high-quality study it must be clear what attempts the researchers made to identify and eliminate any bias or sampling error,  an explanation that the sample is representative of the population, and that the size of the sample is appropriate for the type of study conducted.

Data collection: The instruments that the authors use to collect data must be validated through prior research. If the authors use an instrument created by them, there should be a clear explanation by the authors how that instrument would help collect data for the variables they plan to study.

Data analysis and results: I will admit that my understanding of statistics is very basic, even after having read chapter 7 of the above textbook. I usually read the results and discussions section to understanding the outcome of the study. The results should clearly address the research questions and hypotheses. The results and discussion section should also be arranged in a comprehensive and orderly manner, addressing the research questions in a linear way.

Question: I find myself instinctively trusting studies that use validate instruments. Is it fair to judge a study as falling short if the authors create their own instrument/s , as long as they attempt to include all the variables they are studying ?

Reference

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