Unit 5, Responses

This is a response to Achsah Springs’ blog https://create.twu.ca/achsahs-springs/2018/06/01/team-leadership-and-effectiveness/

Questions:  Have others also experienced dysfunctional teams?  Can you identify why?  Have you experienced exceptional teams, and can you identify why?

My response: I have experienced dysfunctional teams or technically observed dysfunctional teams many times in my work. As a teacher, I like to assign students to teams and observe the performance of the teams. Unfortunately, there was always an absence of several characteristics or conditions that led to dysfunctional teams. I have concluded that the teams formed by students usually lack unified commitment and principled leadership. Each student thinks he or she is the most intelligent one in the team and should be the leader of the team, which makes the team hard to achieve wholeness. I think I will incorporate the knowledge of team effectiveness in my teaching content. I am not sure about how much the student could understand, remember, and apply to in the future, but it is good to raise their awareness about team effectiveness.

This is a response to Kwantlen Branda’s blog https://create.twu.ca/kwantlenbrenda/2018/05/30/unit-5-learning-activity-2/

Question: What happens though when a team falls off the rails and a new project lead is required. Can a team really ever recover from this type of situation?

My response: You really have brought up a tough situation which is hard for even the most excellent leader to go through. But we have to get ourselves ready for this kind of situation as none of us has the ability to see the future. Luckily, we are learning servant leadership now, and the method of salvation lies in the ten characteristics of a servant leader. Healing is a special and unique trait of the servant leader. It means the servant leader possesses the power of healing himself or herself and the relationship to others as well. I always believe that servant leaders are all mentally healthy individuals. Therefore, their ability of resilience must be superior than other people when facing incidents. Also, servant leaders seek to nurture their abilities to dream great dreams, which means they would view the problem from a conceptualizing perspective. Hence, it would be easier for them to accept the reality that their project has been outdated and will be replaced. The servant leaders will not restrict themselves to one project, they can understand the overarching goal and devote to other meaningful task immediately.

This is a response to Lara Lacroix’s blog https://create.twu.ca/awalkinthewoods/unit-5-character-and-servant-leadership/

Questions: Do you feel like you are actively listened to in your workplace? What advice would you give your direct supervisor about how they might improve their practice of listening before embarking on a new project or assigning tasks?

My response: I deem that I am well listened and understood in my workplace. My direct supervisor is very busy so that we do not have a lot chances to chat face to face. But he has invented a box hanging on the wall in our office, we could write notes to him about all kinds of things and issues. No matter how busy he is, it seems that he can always read every note wrote by us. Sometimes he will provide feedback immediately, sometimes he just keeps the things in his mind and manages to help us silently. If I am going to give him advice about listening before embarking on a new project, I will suggest him listen more to his own inner voice. I think he has invented too much time on considering other people’s perspectives and collecting information, it would be better for him to press the pause button and turn around to himself. Having his own inner serenity could also contribute to making decisions effectively. He already has the trust of both us and the higher management, now he needs to trust himself and become more steady.

Unit 5, Learning Activity 2

When the team leader wants to coordinate a group project in an organization, he should attune the goal of the group project to the overarching goal of the organization. According to the Diamond Model for Practicing Servant-Leadership (Page & Wong, 2000), the team leader, who is engaging in participatory goal-setting, stays on the top of the pyramid. This action took by the leader could exert three characteristics of a servant leader such as listening, awareness and conceptualization (Spears, 2010). First, although the goal of the group is ultimately decided by the leader, a servant leader has the ability to corporate the will of the group in the goal and to attune the goal to the goal of the organization at the same time. In order to identify the will of the group and clarify that will, the servant leader needs to develop a deep commitment to listening intently to others (Spears, 2010). Second, the servant leader should be able to view most situations from a more integrated, holistic position and to set the goal appropriately. Awareness helps the leader in understanding issues and situations involving many aspects such as ethics, power, and values (Spears, 2010). In another word, awareness is contributing to making the reasonable, comprehensive goal for a servant leader. Third, in order to attune the goal to the overarching goal of the organization, the leader needs to look at the group and set the goal of the group from a conceptualizing perspective. This requires discipline and practice, also the leader needs to think beyond day-to-day realities and sets a broader and long-term goal for the group (Spears, 2010).

During the implementation of the group project, the leader could reverse the Diamond Model (Figure 2) and situated himself or herself down in the serving role of the team. Staying down and serving can greatly facilitate the progress by solving the trivial problems which hinder the movement, building the cohesion of the team. The related characteristics are listening, empathy, healing and persuasion.  Different issues will be generated unexpectedly during the progress. In order to solve the problems completely, the effective leader needs to dig the roots of the problems through listening receptively to the members including what is being said and unsaid (Spears, 2010). In terms of building cohesion, the effective leader should consider all the personalities of the members. People need to be accepted and recognized for their special and unique spirits (Spears, 2010). People need to feel being understood, then they would motivate themselves actively to fight for the wholeness of the team. This requires the leader to become skilled empathetic listeners and to build the healing relationship within the team. Moreover, the reliance on persuasion makes the servant leader effective at building consensus within a team (Spears, 2010).

I do believe the other characteristics are also helpful for all kinds of actions taken by the servant leader. To be an effective and caring leader, the ten characteristics ought to be precisely used by the skilled servant leader. Not only practice is needed, but also the heart of the servant leader should remain the same (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Questions: I was very much enjoying reading the article: A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership (Page & Wong, 2000). I am so proud that the authors are from our university. According to the figure 1 presented above, they have interpreted the Relationship of Servant Leadership as Building up others. What does this mean exactly? What kind of relationship is that? Do you have your own understanding or interpretation?

References

Page, D., & Wong, T. P. (2000). A conceptual framework for measuring servant leadership. The human factor in shaping the course of history and development, 69-110.

Spears, L. C. (2010). Character and servant leadership: Ten characteristics of effective, caring leaders. The Journal of Virtues & Leadership, 1(1), 25-30.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-5/unit-5-learning-activity/

Unit 5, Learning Activity 1

1. The two critical functions of team effectiveness

“The two critical functions of team effectiveness are performance (task accomplishment) and development (team maintenance)” (Northouse, 2016, p. 367-368). Hackman (2012) points out six enabling components that lead to group effectiveness including compelling purpose, right people, real team, clear norms of conduct, supportive organizational context, and team-focused coaching. Larson and LaFasto (1989) find that eight characteristics are highly related to team excellence regardless of the type of team. The eight characteristics are clear goal, results-driven structure, competent team members, unified commitment, collaborative climate, standards of excellence, external support and recognition, and principled leadership (Larson & LaFasto, 1989).

Example No. 1: Right people

Four years ago, our company initiated an event of “Voluntary Teaching”. The five teachers, including me, was chosen to a rural school and taught for two months. When we were preparing the teaching tools and discussing the content of the course and course arrangement, there were always issues or opinions jumping out and getting in the way of preparation. In order to reach an agreement about all the aspects within the team and to get each of us well prepared as soon as possible before we left, I reported to the manager about the rocky-patch situation we were experiencing. The manager reviewed the reports which recorded the details of the meetings we had. Then he talked with the team member one by one and found out that one team member was extremely reluctant to be involved in this event as she hated to leave her newborn baby for two months. This explained why she delayed to hand in the documents and appeared negative in the discussion. The manager immediately replaced her with a new teacher who adopted the enthusiastic attitude toward this event. Our team made every decision quickly before we left, and the whole event turned out to be meaningful and profound not only to the company but also to the five team members, the rural school, and the community.

Example 2: Standards of Excellence

The teaching team I am in right now is engaging in a teaching competition in our company. There are total four steps to win the competition. We have average three meetings before each steps to conclude the effort and experience, and the leader of the team will offer his suggestions and make the requests. All team members could perceive that he wanted to adopt the encouragement strategy and tried not to put pressure on us. After every meeting, he always said we were doing great and wished we could do better. But we did not know to what extent we should strive for. By thinking we were doing well, we overestimated ourselves and underestimated the competitors, and we lost the first two steps. The leader held another meeting immediately after we lost the second competition. Unlike the old days, he clearly announced his expectations and listed specific standards for each of us. After that, he adjusted the standards accordingly based on our performance in every meeting. And, the team won the third competition. Now, we are preparing for the last one. The last win has greatly encouraged the whole team  and we are confident about the next competition.

Example 3: External Support and Recognition

My colleagues applied for a project about cross-company teaching. Our manager liked their idea and approved the project. We thought this was a chance to communicate with other teachers in other company, and to keep up with the information of the bigger context. We soon prepared everything including the documents and reports that needed to be signed by other managers. And we ran into the obstacle that other managers deliberately made excuses and refused to sign the papers. Our manager went to find the CEO after hearing this situation and finally got the support from the top management. With the approval from CEO, all the papers and documents were signed directly and the project had been launched smoothly.

2. Principled Leadership

Anthony and Huckshorn (2008) state that it’s the quality and effectiveness of its leadership that fuels a successful organization. Principle leadership, as an effective leadership, contains eight leadership principles or traits including: (1) Leaders communicate a shared vision; (2) Leaders centralize by mission and decentralize by operations; (3) Leaders create an organizational cultural that identifies and tries to live by key values; (4) Leaders create an organizational structure and culture that empowers their employees and themselves; (5) Leaders ensure that staff are trained in a human technology that can translate vision into reality; (6) Leaders relate constructively to employees; (7) Leaders access and use information to make change a constant ingredient in their organization; (8) Leaders build their organization around exemplary performers (Anthony & Huckshorn, 2008). Furthermore, Dean Garth Saloner of Stanford Graduate School of Business (2009) mentions that principled leaders need to think not just about the impact of their actions on their own firm, but the impact of those actions on society more broadly. In another word, principled leaders need to dig deeply beyond their immediate domain to the broader context when making decisions.

Leadership could influence the team effectiveness through four sets of processes: cognitive, motivational, affective, and coordination (Zaccaro et al., 2001). I would like to make an example of the coordination process. Like the 4-step competition mentioned above, our team is consist of five team members. We were chose by the team leader for each of us was good at one teaching skill. In order to win, we are in charge of different roles and are accountable for our own role. Each role has its standards for performance set up by the team leader, and all roles share a common goal which is to win eventually. Moreover, the team leader are providing distinctive feedback to us regularly according to his observation of our performance. The team leader also has studied the rules of the competition to find out the requirements of each role implied in the rules. If the rules change, the standards toward each role might change accordingly. With the standards of my role, I am confident about my performance and my strategy. The other team members share the same feeling when we communicate with each other. We can feel that every part of our team is functioning well, just like the perfect fit gears making the team work effectively.

Questions: What is your own definition of the principled leadership? If you are a principled leader, what kinds of strategy would you adopt to make decisions?

References

Anthony, W. A., & Huckshorn, K. A. (2008). Principled leadership in mental health systems and programs. Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation/Boston U.

Hackman, J. R. (2012). From causes to conditions in group research. Journal of Organizational Behaviour, 33, 428-444.

Larson, C. E., & LaFasto, F. M. J. (1989). Teamwork: What must go right/what can go wrong. Newbury Park CA: SAGE.

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.

Stanford Graduate School of Business. (2009, September 2). Principled Leadership for a Life of Meaning and Impact [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDbxOdMdxYo

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs500/unit-5/unit-5-learning-activity/

Unit 5, Response

This is a response to Simarjit Shergill’s post https://create.twu.ca/icandothis/2018/02/01/ldrs-591-activit-5-4/

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 ?

I think it depends on the different situation to believe whether or not the instrument created by the authors is reliable.

Before illustrating my ideas, I would like to first emphasize the significance of critical thinking. Cultivating critical thinking is the principal thing I have gained from the reflection in this week. No matter what kind of article we are reviewing, we should adopt the academic attitude of being critical with the information provided by the authors. Evidently, the instruments and statistics would seem to be more reliable and valid if the article is peer-reviewed or the instruments have been testified by other authorities before. While it does not mean the instrument developed by the researchers themselves cannot be trusted.

First, the instruments existing to date is limited, but the number of unexplored research questions is unknown. Clearly, we need far more instruments. Therefore, more instruments have to be created and examined to solve the various questions in the world. Second, we can inspect the instrument created by the authors in the study according to our critical thinking. For example, we can check if the instrument is designed in a rigorous way; if the procedures of the instrument are presented in a logical way. More important, if the instrument has been testified and examined by the creator or creators many times before using it to analyze real problems, and if the reports of the experiments are presented in the study. Third, we have to consider the validity of the study in a comprehensive way rather than only thinking about the instruments and the variables. For instance, the way of collecting the data, the type of the research design, the participants, the analysis of the results, and the limitations should all be taken into account.

At last, I would like to introduce an article as an example in which the instrument is developed by the authors themselves and used in the study. I happened to find this article during searching for the journal articles for the second assignment. I finally chose this article and read it carefully several weeks ago. From my personal perspective, this article is of high quality and the instrument is designed perfectly for the research question. If you are interested in reading it, the title of the article is School-Based Intervention for Adolescents with Social Anxiety Disorder: Results of a Controlled Study. I hope this article would be helpful.

Unit 5, Learning activity 5.4

As a consumer of research reports, the most important things for me in the methods and results section of a high-quality quantitative research report are identifying the type of the quantitative research design, making sure the measures used to gather the data are good quality, and understanding the statistics.

According to the knowledge gained in this unit, I found an important thing for better understanding a research report from each chapter. The first one is to address the quantitative research design of the study. It is the foundation of understanding the analysis in the study. Because the data collection and the results analysis will correspond to the research design, it is crucial to make sure the direction is right before reading further to meet the following sections.

The second one is to determine whether the instruments are high quality. Before reading the chapter seven, I had no idea about the reliability and validity of the scores from the instruments. I just thought the scores were definitely reliable. The author presented a bathroom scale example to illustrate that the numbers obtained from the instruments could be inaccurate or unreliable. Then I realized that I had not considered the reliability and validity of the scores before because all the studies I had read were journal articles. They were all peer-reviewed and were reliable sources. The explanations of the Reliable and Valid have raised my awareness of the scores gathered from the instruments. Given that one day I may have a chance to conduct my study, the data and scores acting as the most important element have to be correct, accurate, and reliable.

The last one is understanding the statistics in the study. Basically, I used to quickly review the statistics in the result and method section because I did not understand the meaning of the symbols and numbers. Although I am still not very familiar with the definitions of some measures, such as the standard deviation and the effect size, I have gained a general framework of all the statistics, measures, and how they relate to each other, such as statistically significant and nonsignificant result. It is significant for me to analyze the statistics and measures by myself rather than just reading the report presented by the researcher. Furthermore, analyzing the statistics by myself is greatly helpful to build the sense of critical thinking during reading the articles in the future.

My question is: How do you evaluate the results of a quantitative study when the information of the statistics or instruments is not clear enough?

Reference

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

Unit 5 Learning Activities

Unit 5, Learning activity 5.3

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1. The data were rigorously scored and prepared.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) Procedures to score the data in a consistent manner were used.

b) The researchers explained how data were prepared and checked the data for errors in the Result section.

c) The researchers did not provide the name of the quantitative statistical software program.

Quality Criteria

2. Good descriptive analyses were conducted.

Rate

1=Fair

Evidence and/or Reasoning

There is little information of descriptive statistics that could be identified.

Quality Criteria

3. Good hypothesis testing procedures were used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient (r) was mainly used to test the relationship between two variables in this study.

b) The researchers objectively applied the five steps of hypothesis testing, such as setting the alpha level, collecting data, calculating the statistic and values, and making decisions.

c) The alpha level was set at .05, but the researchers did not explain the reason.

d) The value of the statistic (r) and the value were stated clearly.

Quality Criteria

4. The results are comprehensive.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) There is table in this study which reports the demographic characteristic (N) of the participants.

b) The results presented in the table contain the internal consistency of the instrument’s items and the identification of the six subscales found among the instrument’s items.

c) The results response to each of the study’s research questions.

d) The results are consistent with the overall research design.

Quality Criteria

5. The results include sufficient information.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The researchers discuss the results of six different facets including the p value and the alpha level respectively. All the p values are less than the predetermined alpha level (.05), which indicate statistically significant results.

b) The effect size is specificaly presented in the Result section.

c) The information included in the table and the text is clear, consistent, and accurate.

Quality Criteria

6. The data analysis represents a good quantitative process.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The data analysis is a objective and linear process, and the statistical results are found based on the gathered data.

Quality Criteria

7. The results provide a good explanation of the study’s purpose.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) It is clear how the reported results address the study’s research questions. The authors have interpreted the results and thorough analyses in different aspects.

b) All the statistical tests are clearly related to the study’s purpose.

Total Score = 18 (17-21 = High quality)

References

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

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

Unit 5 Learning Activities

Unit 5, Learning activity 5.2

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1. The sampling strategy is appropriate and justified.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The study uses a non-probability sampling strategy for explicitly stating that a combined purposive and snowball sampling method is used.

b) The authors do not provide the reasons for using this sampling strategy. However, as a correlational design, the sampling strategy is implicitly understandable.

Quality Criteria

2. The sample size is appropriate and justified.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) As a correlational study, the participants are 116 individuals.

b) The sample size is much larger than the minimum size (30 participants) for a correlational design.

c) The authors have done their best to reduce the chance of sampling error by selecting as many possible participants as possible.

Quality Criteria

3. High quality instruments are used to gather data.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The authors use two instruments to collect the data: the Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) and the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II (CWEQ II).

b) The ESLB instrument measuring the independent variable is the behavioral observation checklists type of instruments; The CWEQ II instrument measuring the dependent variable is the attitudinal measures type of instruments.

c) The ESLB instrument contains 10 clear questions and returns a Cronbach alpha of .90 indicating a high internal reliability; the CWEQ II instrument consists of 19 questions divided across six subscales and returns Cronbach alphas of .77, .67, .86, .77, .62, and .76 respectively, which indicate a strong internal reliability and consistency.

d) The authors include many citations to the literature indicating that the instruments are previously developed and used for research purposes.

Quality Criteria

4. The data are gathered using ethical quantitative procedures.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The researchers obtain consent from participants because the individuals are willing to take the survey.

b) One group of the participants are adult business students recruited from a specific Californian college, and the permission is granted by the college.

Quality Criteria

5. The data are gathered using standardized quantitative procedures.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The two instruments include closed-ended questions that have preset response options so that all participants use the same standard set of options for their responses (definitely no, no, neutral, yes, and definitely yes).

b) There is no information of the training raters to ensure that all participants completed the instruments in similar conditions.

Quality Criteria

6. The study has a high level of internal validity.

Rate

0=Poor

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) This study is not any type of experiments, it is a correlational one.

b) The procedures in this study is not to test whether the independent variable causes an effect in dependent variables

Quality Criteria

7. The study has a high level of external validity.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The researchers select a convenience sample, obtain a sample size that is large considering the type of design, use procedures to encourage as many participants as possible, and obtain a relatively high rate of response from participants (130 out of 156 response).

Total Score = 15 (11-16 = Adequate quality)

References

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

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

https://create.twu.ca/ldrs591-sp18/unit-5-learning-activities/

Unit 5, Learning activity 5.1

Article

The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business.

Quality Criteria

1.The choice of the research design is appropriate and justified.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The design perfectly fits the study’s intent of measuring the relationship between followers’ perceptions of the servant leadership of their immediate supervisor and the followers’ sense of empowerment in the context of small businesses.

b) The researchers focus on describing the relationship between two main variables (servant leadership behaviors of an immediate supervisor, perceived follower empowerment) in a correlational design.

c) The literature presented by the authors is more prescriptive and acts as strong convincing explanation for why the correlational design is provided.

Quality Criteria

2. Good quantitative procedures are used to select and assign participants.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

The way that the participants are recruited totally fits the correlational design:

a) The authors recruit the participants who are conveniently available.

b) The participants are willing to take the survey or willing to take part in the study.

Quality Criteria

3. Good quantitative data collection procedures are used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) This study is approved by the institutional review board prior for the data collection.

b) The authors make a survey, and the survey link is sent to possible participants. The participants send the survey link to possible participants as well. Therefore, the study provides a wide range of responses for the variables of interest.

c) The authors receive 130 surveys, and 116 are usable.

d) There is no manipulating the experiences of the participants in this study.

Quality Criteria

4. Good quantitative data analysis procedures are used.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The quantitative survey used in this study contains two instruments: the Essential Servant Leadership Behaviors (ESLB) and the Conditions of Work Effectiveness Questionnaire II (CWEQ II).

b) The ESLB measures the independent variable, and the CWEQ II measures the dependent variable.

c) The Pearson Product-Moment (PPM) correlation coefficient is used to measure the relationship between the two variables and each subscale.

d) The authors use a table to present the correlation of each subscale with servant leadership behaviors. The table also displays information about the relationships among variables.

Quality Criteria

5. Good quantitative results and conclusions are reported.

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) Claims made are appropriate for the design.

b) The authors claim that the causality cannot be assumed.

c) The study examines that the servant leadership behaviors have a strong correlation with followers’ perceptions that they are empowered.

Quality Criteria

6. The study used a rigorous research design.

Rate

2=Good

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) All elements of the study from problem to purpose to methods to results to conclusions fit the correlational design in a logical way.

b) The Data Collection section is not very concise and a little disordered. The authors have not specified the difference between possible participants and participants.

Quality Criteria

7. The use of the quantitative research design addressed the study’s purpose

Rate

3=Excellent

Evidence and/or Reasoning

a) The results and conclusions from the research design provide a rigorous explanation of the relationship of the variables that fulfills the study’s intent.

b) The analysis of the limitations of this study also addresses the deficiency of the correlational research design.

Total Score = 20 (17-21 = High quality)

References

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

Van Winkle, B., Allen, S., DeVore, D., & Winston, B. (2014). The relationship between the servant leadership behaviors of immediate supervisors and follower’s perceptions of being empowered in the context of small business. Journal of Leadership Education, 13(3), 70-82.

Unit 5 Learning Activities