Month: March 2018

LDRS 591 Activity 10.2

Unit 10 Learning Activities

” why you think evidence-based decision making is important for the Transformational Servant leader? “

The first time I heard of the term “transformation servant leadership” was when I was talking to the counsellor prior to enrolling for this course. It struck a chord with me, as it intuitively seemed to be just the kind of leader I wanted to be. Since then I have learned about the different models of leadership.  In my studies so far “transformational” and “servant” leadership have been described as different models of leadership. I am not sure if there was an attempt to put them together, though it would not be surprising or hard, as they do have some overlapping principles.

In my opinion a good transformational servant leader must use evidence from research in their area, in addition to their own judgement, to make informed decisions that are important to their organization and employees. As per Bass and Avolio (1994), transformational leadership can “be used in improving team development , decision-making groups, quality initiatives, and recognizations”. As per  Coetzer, M. F., Bussin, M., Geldenhuys, M. (2017), servant leadership “proposes a more meaningful way of leadership to ensure sustainable results for individuals, organizations, and societies”. Of all the leadership models we have learnt so far, I find that “transformation” and “servant ” leadership resonate the most with me. For a leader to be a good “transformation servant leader” , they need to be well versed in the research process and also its analysis. Even if one is not an active researcher, a good leader should know how to evaluate research so that they can find ways how to best apply it. I apply evidence based decision making in my practice, and it has helped me immensely, especially when in doubt. 

References

Bass, B.M., & Avolio, B.J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Coetzer, Michiel Frederick; Bussin, Mark; Geldenhuys, Madelyn. The functions of a servant leader.  Administrative Sciences 7 (1), p. 1-32.

LDRS 591 Activity 10.1

Unit 10 Learning Activities

“if after taking this class, would you make your decisions differently? What new insights have you learned and how would those insights inform your decision making process now?”

The two recent decisions that I posted about in activity 10.1 were my decision about blood pressure treatment of my patients and the recommendations for flu vaccination. The blood pressure treatment recommendation was made based on recent peer reviewed publications, some guidance from past experiences and expert opinion. The recommendations for flu vaccination were made according to the most recent guidelines from the CDC and the local health department, with some guidance from organizational policy. Since these decisions were not mine alone, I don’t think my decisions would have changed based on what I learned from this course.  I feel compelled to admit here that most of our decisions as physicians are based on a combination of guidelines, peer reviewed research, best practices and organizational policy.

During the course of my studies of LDRS 591,  I have learned some very important tips on how to evaluate scholarly research articles, so that I can gain the most information from them and apply it usefully . In the last few units I learnt about APA style writing. I also learnt about mixed methods research which is a new concept for me. Another new concept is action research. It was very insightful to learn about action research, and how to carry on an action research project. For me as a non academic practitioner, this was very useful. I can translate the knowledge I gained from action research unit and apply it to some practical problems at work. This course has given me the tools to assess scholarly research and to apply research to my workplace.

LDRS 591 Activity 9.3

Unit 9 Learning Activities

The most important thing for me about the conclusions section of a high-quality research report is . . .

that the results be summarized and present in a succinct manner. I personally do not like long conclusions, I prefer them to be brief and easy to understand, without a heavy reliance on statistical references. The results should also be organized and discussed in a logical manner. I also like to see how the authors related the results to previous studies, and to their hypothesis/hypotheses. Oftentimes there will be a long drawn discussion without a clear mention of whether the study supports or refutes their hypothesis. The scope and applicability of the results must also be discussed in conclusions. This gives the reader a clearer idea of the implications of the results of the study in their practice. As part of the back notes, in addition to references, an important component are the appendices. I like to see that the authors attached their tools, survey questionnaires etc. to help the readers understand their process/methods, and their interpretation.

Question:  Where do you think the results should be discussed in detail? In the results section itself, or in discussion ? I personally prefer the results to be discussed in the results section, and the discussion section to only focus on the conclusions, authors’ interpretation of results, and the other elements mentioned above.

Reference

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