Selection of research methods
Evaluation To The Relationship Between The Personality Of Leaders And Employee Motivation
Selection of research methods is a difficult part of a research and it must be done carefully based on the requirements of the project. Appropriate use of data collection and data analysis techniques help to generate a trustworthy outcome from the research. In this case, investigation will take place to evaluate the relationship between leadership personality and motivation of employees within organizations. Different philosophies, approaches, and designs of research will be compared to select the best methods for this research. Maintaining ethical guidelines will be a major part of the data collection technique in this research project as it will help to avoid legal consequences.
This research will meet the following objectives,
- To critically explore different personalities of leaders
- To critically assess the approaches of leaders to motivate their employees
- To critically evaluate the impact of personality of leaders on relationship with employees
- To recommend the appropriate personality a leader must have to motivate employees.
What are the potential impacts of leadership personality on employee motivation?
Researchers are bound to choose the best design from descriptive, explanatory, and exploratory designs of research. As opined by Subedi(2016), researchers select exploratory design in case of conducting causal research. It is helpful to evaluate the impact of changes on regular practices. It can be said that this design allows researchers to evaluate the impact of independent variables on the dependent variable of research projects. This is a highly structured design of research. Saunders et al.(2018) have argued that the exploratory and descriptive designs are comparatively simpler than explanatory design. However, exploratory design is associated with early stages of making decisions. Later stages of making decisions can be found in case of explanatory and descriptive design. In case of this research project, the explanatory design will be selected as it is the most appropriate for the investigation about the relationship between employee motivation and leadership personality. It will be easier to generate an error-free outcome with the help of this design.
Different types of philosophies are there in research, which consists of pragmatism, positivism, interpretivism, and others. According to Mohajan (2018), if views in research are gained through observation then it is called positivism philosophy. On the other hand, interpretivism philosophy helps researchers in interpreting various elements of a study. This helps in in-depth study of a research topic. Realism is another philosophy, which depends on the idea of independence of reality from the mind of humans.
However, in this study, pragmatism philosophy will be adopted. As opined by Parvaiz, Mufti & Wahab (2016), this philosophy considered that there are various ways of interpreting the world. This philosophy states that a single point of view is unable to describe the whole picture of a phenomenon. It helps to combine both aspects of interpretivism and positivism. Thus, both qualitative and quantitative approaches can be undertaken in this research to explore the relationship between leader personality and employee motivation.
Different philosophies and approaches of research
There are mainly two different kinds of approaches that can be adopted by the researchers to conduct a study. As opined by Basias & Pollalis (2018), deductive research approach helps in reasoning to general from particular beliefs. This approach begins with expected patterns, which need to be tested against acquired observations. On the other hand, Graneheim, Lindgren & Lundman (2017) contradicts that inductive approach starts with detailed observation, which helps to propose theories at the end of the result. This approach helps researchers to gain detailed observations about particular phenomena of the world.
In this study, the investigators will adopt both approaches to conduct a mixed-method study. This is because deductive approach supports collection of quantitative data and inductive approach helps to collect qualitative data and conduct in-depth analysis about leadership personalities. Considering both the approaches can help researchers in this study to conduct mixed method research. Choosing both the approaches can help researchers to explore different perspectives on the topic.
There are different choices of research that includes mono, multi, and mixed methods of research. As opined by Setia (2016), the mono method is a research choice, which enables researchers to select only one method of research. Mono method is a weak choice that is unable to provide desired results of research. On the other hand, multi-method is a research strategy that helps researchers to choose multiple methods of data collection of the same generic type. The chosen methods need to be either qualitative or quantitative (Morse, 2016).
However, in this research, mixed-method research will be chosen as this helps researchers to choose multiple data collection methods from different generic types. Multilevel perspective of a topic can be analysed through the help of this method.
There are mainly two types of research methods, which consist of quantitative and qualitative research methods. As elaborated by Rahman (2017), quantitative methods evaluate and measure the level of occurrences based on numbers and statistics. Numerical data is collected through deductive approach. On the other hand, a qualitative method helps researchers to gain insights about internal reasons for a research topic (Saunders et al. 2018). This method helps to elaborate on a research topic in a wider context and also guides researchers to obtain rich data.
As this research will adopt a mixed-method, thus both qualitative and quantitative methods will be adopted for conducting this research. Using both research methods will help the researchers to collect both statistical data or observations and in-depth views of participants about the research question. Hence, a range of data collection tools can be used in this research, which can help to increase credibility of the research.
Adoption of mixed-method approach
Target population of the research is chosen based on the specific characteristics that are relevant to the chosen topic. As stated by Pathak & Intratat (2016), the population of research referred to the set of people who are knowledgeable to share information about the selected research topic. It is important to research people to select the best population for the research. In this case, the target population will include leaders and employees of the tourism and hospitality industry of Australia. This sector will be chosen as employees of this industry provide services to customers. Effective leaders motivate employees with the help of their appropriate personality to deliver the best service to customers. Both employees and leaders will be able to explain their perspective towards the impact of leaders’ personalities on employee motivation based on their real-life experience.
Non-probability and probability sampling techniques are selected based on the requirements of data. According to Etikan, Musa & Alkassim (2016), probability sampling method supports selecting participants free from all kinds of biases. This can be of various types, which include simple random, cluster, and others. On the other hand, the non-probability method of sampling helps to choose participants who are potent enough to provide reliable information. This can be divided into convenience, purpose, snowball, and others.
In this case, a simple random technique will be used to select 100 employees from the hospitality and tourism sector for conducting the survey. This technique helps in selecting participants at random frames. Moreover, the convenience sampling technique will be used to select 5 leaders from the same sector for the interview. This sampling technique helps researchers to select participants haphazardly who are easiest to obtain.
There are different kinds of data collection tools that can be adapted to gather data about a topic. Different quantitative tools include surveys through questionnaires. However, Pathak & Intratat (2016) stated that different qualitative tools such as semi-structured interviews, case studies, and focus groups can be used to gather data.
In this study, a survey will be used to gather data from employees to understand their perspective about leadership personality and its impact on their motivation level. A questionnaire will be designed and sent through email of employees. Besides, semi-structured interviews will be conducted to gather information from leaders to explore their personalities.
Quantitative data represent numerical data and qualitative data represents non-numerical information. Due to this reason, two different analysis techniques are required for analysing data gathered from survey and interviews. As stated by Memon, Umrani & Pathan (2017), inner meaning of the quotes of interviewee can be understood through transcribing interview data. In this case, the interview data will be transcribed in tabular form. On the other hand, statistical analysis will be done in case of analysing quantitative data gathered from the survey. MS Excel will be used to make graphical representation of quantitative data. Bar, pie, and other chart forms will be used to organize and analyse the gathered survey data.
Data collection and analysis techniques
Researchers are legally bound to maintain ethical guidelines in case of collecting data from human subjects. In this case, detailed information about the purpose and the protocol of this research will be shared with interested employees. After getting their written consent, primary quantitative data will be collected from selected employees. Leaders will be contacted via phone call. After getting their consent and appointment, the interviews will be conducted. Participants will not be forced to provide any personal information and the confidentiality of the collected data will be maintained.
Main purpose of this research is to evaluate the relationship between employee motivation and leadership personality. A mixed-method approach is selected for conducting the research which involves both qualitative and quantitative methods. Employees and managers from hospitality sectors are chosen for this study.
References
Basias, N., & Pollalis, Y. (2018). Quantitative and qualitative research in business & technology: Justifying a suitable research methodology. Review of Integrative Business and Economics Research, 7, 91-105. Retrieved from: https://sibresearch.org/uploads/3/4/0/9/34097180/riber_7-s1_sp_h17-083_91-105.pdf
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. American journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), 1-4. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sumanta_Deb2/post/Purposive_Sampling_and_Convenience_Sampling_are_these_two_types_of_Sampling_different_Please_Explain/attachment/59d64fc179197b80779a8d1c/AS:[email protected]/download/Comparison_of_Convenience_Sampling_and_Purposive_S.pdf
Graneheim, U. H., Lindgren, B. M., & Lundman, B. (2017). Methodological challenges in qualitative content analysis: A discussion paper. Nurse education today, 56, 29-34. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David_Morgan19/post/Can_anyone_clarify_me_the_difference_between_different_approaches_to_do_content_analysis_while_dealing_with_qualitative_data/attachment/59d6589779197b80779ae736/AS:[email protected]/download/Graneheim+17+Challenges+in+content+analysis.pdf
Memon, S., Umrani, S., & Pathan, H. (2017). Application of constant comparison method in social sciences: a useful technique to analyze interviews. Grassroots, 51(1). 12-96. Retrieved from: https://sujo-old.usindh.edu.pk/index.php/Grassroots/article/download/3253/2359
Mohajan, H. K. (2018). Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People, 7(1), 23-48. Retrieved from: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/85654/1/MPRA_paper_85654.pdf
Morse, J. M. (2016). Mixed method design: Principles and procedures (Vol. 4). UK: Routledge.
Parvaiz, G. S., Mufti, O., & Wahab, M. (2016). Pragmatism for mixed method research at higher education level. Business & Economic Review, 8(2), 67-79. Retrieved from: https://bereview.pk/index.php/BER/article/download/115/47
Pathak, A., & Intratat, C. (2016). Use of semi-structured interviews to investigate teacher perceptions of student collaboration. Malaysian Journal of ELT Research, 8(1), 10. Retrieved from: https://journals.melta.org.my/index.php/majer/article/download/149/64
Rahman, M. S. (2017). The Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches and Methods in Language” Testing and Assessment” Research: A Literature Review. Journal of Education and Learning, 6(1), 102-112. Retrieved from: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1120221.pdf
Saunders, B., Sim, J., Kingstone, T., Baker, S., Waterfield, J., Bartlam, B., … & Jinks, C. (2018). Saturation in qualitative research: exploring its conceptualization and operationalization. Quality & quantity, 52(4), 1893-1907. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11135-017-0574-8
Setia, M. S. (2016). Methodology series module 5: Sampling strategies. Indian Journal of Dermatology, 61(5), 505. Retrieved from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5029234/
Subedi, D. (2016). Explanatory sequential mixed method design as the third research community of knowledge claim. American Journal of Educational Research, 4(7), 570-577. Retrieved from: https://www.academia.edu/download/56911306/education-4-7-10_1.pdf
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