Research Methodology For Leadership Skills In Non-profit Organizations

Research Philosophy

Research methodology is an important aspect of the research study. It discusses about scientific concept of proceeding in research for completion of the study. There are two types of approaches, which are qualitative and quantitative approach (Anderson& Sun, 2017). This paper will addresses both hypothetical quantitative and qualitative design plans focusing on the research project. In this case,the social belief and physical reality has not been dependent on the research analysis. There are several components of research methodology including philosophy, approach, design, data collection, sampling method, data analysis, ethical consideration and limitations. Proper justification of each selection has been provided in this study. 20 online journals will be selected for the secondary method of data collection. All the journals will be peer-reviewed that help in validating the authenticity of journals. Interview has been conducted with managers of the non-profit organizations as a part of primary data collection.

Different types of research models exist with both quantitative and qualitative methods having their own set of models. The correlation and analysis will help in explaining the research study related to leadership skills in organization.

Research philosophy helps in providing dimensions and data of the research. Research philosophy focuses on fundamental information of concepts of research topic. Various components of leadership skills can be analysed by use of research philosophy (Yahaya &Ebrahim, 2016). The types of research philosophy that can be considered, includes positivism and interpretivism philosophy. However, research philosophy arives from epistemology paradigm. The positivism philosophy includes dealing with philosophical aspects of the study by making use of reality of components of leadership skills. Positivism deals with factual knowledge gained from actual observation of components of the research topic. Positivism deals with the quantifiable observations leading to the statistical analyses. It can be notified that positivism philosophy has been empiricist view in knowledge.

Interpretivism describes the human interaction with the study. Interpretivism researchers focuses on the general human interaction with respect to the research topic. The human interaction in study has been discovered by the interpretivism philosophy (Arnold et al., 2015). Interpretivism deals with the philosophical identity of idealism and can be used by groups with diverse approaches. The researcher has to be a social activator to influence various people.

Positivism research philosophy has been selected for this research. The impact of leadership skills in the organizations have been discussed using the positivism philosophy.  The hypothetical approach can be generated by the use of positivism philosophy. The researcher does not select interpretivism philosophy as it focuses on the human interaction. Intepretivism philosophy does not help in getting data related to leadership skills.

Justification of Selected Philosophy

There are two types of research approaches, which are, deductive and inductive research approach. The deductive approach focuses on previous theories and concepts of research topic including leadership skills (Saleem, 2015). Deductive approach focuses on objectives of the research study.  The use of the deductive approach helps in developing hypothesis for the research based on existing theory of leadership. As commented by Gong, Li & Chen (2018), deductive approach is linked with deducing conclusion from propositions. It always initiate with expected pattern which is tested with observations of the research objectives and questions. It helps in building casual relationships between concepts and variables of the research. It helps in exploring existing theory and tested with validate circumstances. A logic path is always followed by the deductive approach. Deductive approaches involves hypotheses formulation and testing during their research process.

As commented by Maak, Pless andVoegtlin, (2016), inductive approach focuses on inductive reasoning, observations and theories.  Inductive approach does not helps with the hypotheses and observation related to the leadership skills. This approach focuses on generating meanings from data collection methods and build a theory on it (Mackey&Gass, 2015). This approach does not help researcher to use existing theories on leadership. It begins with detailed observation of world and move towards abstract generalization of ideas. The researcher tend to develop general relationship with progression of the research.

Deductive approach has been selected in the research as the research is depended in the development of hypothesis. The development of the hypothesisis necessary for the research. Therefore, inductive approach has not been used in this research. Inductive approach does not focus in hypothesis development.

As suggested by Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2015), there are three research designs that includes explanatory, exploratory and descriptive research design. Research Design helps in providing accurate outline for the research. Research designs guides the researcher towards the correct way of dealing with the research problem.

As mentioned by Lewis, (2015), exploratory design focuses on ling-term proves of designing the study. This design helps in providing link with inductive design of the research. Explanatory research design focuses on connecting different ideas for understanding cause and effect of study. Descriptive research design helps in conducting the research in a descriptive manner. A hypothetical research plan has been built in the research for the hypothetical analysis of study.

Leadership styles have been an important aspect of the business organization. It is often seen that leaders lacks cognitive skills for exhibiting destructive leadership qualities which is necessary for elevating employee turnover. Therefore, negative leadership qualities have been effectively diminished through the development of cognitive skills. The outcome of quantitative and qualitative research will provide insight to areas development of leaders for further research in non-profit organizations.

Research Approach

Following are the research questions:

• How is the lack of cognitive skills of organizational leadership affecting the employee turnover?
• How could increasing cognitive skills in the leadership affect the turnover?

The qualitative case study is a research method that focuses on procuring data through communication with open-ended exploration of the research topic. Therefore, research questions can be answered by this method. This method has been appropriate for the research study as data can be obtained and questioned for analyzing the feelings behind responses. Online scholarly literature including peer-reviewed journals and news articles have been used for data collection and employee turnover due to leadership styles of organizational extension in the research. As mentioned by Flick (2015), the purpose of the study is to explore relationship between organizational leadership styles for employee turnover in non-profit organization. For establishing relationship between two, different styles and concepts of leadership has been explained. This assists in understanding of negative leadership styles that can affect the organizations or an individual employee.

The qualitative approach is effective in case of defining issues through inquiry and narrow scope in small sample size. It is acceptable for assuming study for providing hypothesis as a result. The qualitative method focuses on deeper understanding and comprehension of behaviors and beliefs (Vaioleti, 2016). It has been possible for researcher for carrying out and analyze comparison across multiple entities. Therefore, framework and direction of research has been modified with an emergence of new information. The process of coding is necessary for analyzing the results

Following are research questions of the study:

• To what extent is the lack of cognitive skills in the leadership affecting the employee turnover?  
• To what extent would increasing the leader’s cognitive skills affect employee turnover?

Hypothesis sets are useful for the quantitative study conduction. Therefore, following are the hypothesis assumed for the research study:

• There is little or no relation between the cognitive skills of the organizational leaders and the employee turnover for a not-for-profit organization.
• There is a prominent effect that a leader’s lack of developed cognitive skills characteristics exert on the rate of employee turnover in not-for-profit organizations.

As commented by Ledford & Gast (2018), hypotheses testing will require development of working model in an explaining manner in which the leadership skills affecting organization. Survey and questionnaires have been used for obtaining data for analyzing aid in formulation of conclusion. There has been controlled observation for researching the employees with response to specific actions. Data will be coded for providing predictive statistics of a prospectus of hypothesis for future research. Leadership has been an intrinsic relationship with rate of employee turnover. The level of job satisfaction is an important aspect of determining leadership skills in the organization (Brinkmann, 2014). The use of self-aware style of leadership has been different effect on the turnover of employee assuming that leadership style is laissez-faire style. However, quantitative research presents generalization developed for using large sample size.

Quantitative method has helped in conducting research with the obtained results of objectives. However, data has been collected by investigation, and so the accuracy of outcome is high in providing validity to research (Smith, 2015). The quantitative approach helps in collection of data in numerical system that can allow researcher for conducting statistical test. Leadership characteristics have been correlating the employee retention and turnover in an organization for profit and non-profit organization. Therefore, both qualitative and quantitative methods is appropriate for the combination of both techniques in obtaining accurate outcomes and for addressing research aims and questions.

Justification of Selected Approach

There will be 20 online journals selected for the secondary method of data collection. All the journals will be peer-reviewed that help in validating the authenticity of journals (Panneerselvam, 2014). Interview will be conducted with managers of the non-profit organizations. There will be five open-ended questions asked to the managers and their views and answers will be collected as data and information of the research.

As commented by Neuman and Robson, (2014), data Analysis is an important aspect of the research. There are two types of data analysis which includes qualitative and quantitative data analysis method. Quantitative analyses method deals with data collected from primary data collection method. Raw data will be collected by organizing online survey with 10 participants who are employees of non-profit organizations. The analysis will be done using the Likert Scale, range from 1 to 5. Data has been put into the Likert Scale and outcomes and results will be generated using graphs, tables and charts.  As mentioned by Quinlan et al. (2019), the analysis of the charts, tables and graphs will help in analyzing the effect of leadership styles on employee behavior in non-profit organization. Survey and questionnaires have been used for obtaining data for analyzing aid in formulation of conclusion. There have been controlled observation for observing research of employees with response to specific actions. As suggested by Choy (2014), Qualitative analysis focuses on the data collected from secondary data sources including online journals, articles and books. As commented by Silverman (2016), the quantitative method of this research focuses on procurement of data from employees and their leaders. Therefore, data collection has been done in order to collect raw data and information from online surveys, questionnaires and observations. However, statistical models helped in helping in analysis of collected data with numerical results in nature. Therefore, this data collection process can be less time consuming relative to other data collection methods. Several attributes assigned to the study survey and responses of questionnaires have been presented in statistical data for ease of providing data analysis results. 20 journals have been selected for the research for collection of data related to leadership styles. Thematic analysis has been used for analyzing the secondary data collected from online journals and articles.  There will be three themes created for thematic analysis of data. Themes will be based on the objectives of research.

There have been different issues faced by the researcher in this research. There might be some difficulties in the data collection techniques during survey. Participants might not answer properly as their answers might be hypothetical. Therefore, the validity of the data is needed to be tested. As commented by Humphries (2017), participants of the survey might be keen in judging the company by the current issues faced by them. Therefore, there might be be some problems in answering questionnaires. Online scholarly literature including peer-reviewed journals and news articles have been used for data collection associated with employee turnover due to leadership styles of organizational extension in the research. Conduction of the interview has been a difficult task as fixing appointment with managers have been difficult. The mangers were not ready to provide their valuable time for the interview. However, the researchers managed to conduct an interview with them. The financial condition of researchers has not been good to use modern techniques in the data analysis. The time bound has been another problem for the researchers.  The time period provided for the research to be completed, has been quite less than expected. Hence, researcher might not be able to complete the research within deadline.

Research Design

The research has been conducted within proper ethical consideration. The survey has been organized within proper guidelines for ensuring ethics. Participants have not been forced to participate in the survey. They were let free to leave the research study at any time according to their will. Data and information has been kept secured and safe properly. There have been no changes in the data pattern till the study is completed. Results will not be published until the completion of the research. The researcher has been following all legal factors for conducting the research. The research has been following the Article 30 of the Basic Law (Chapter III, Public Rights and Duties) that reveals freedom of correspondence. This act has been helping in disclosing identity of respondents at any circumstances. There has been no illegal transaction of money done during the conduction of study.

Task Mode	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors
Auto Scheduled	Leadership Styles	93 days	Mon 6/4/18	Wed 10/10/18
Auto Scheduled	Study Initiation	11 days	Mon 6/4/18	Mon 6/18/18
Auto Scheduled	Study Requirements Analysis	2 days	Mon 6/4/18	Tue 6/5/18
Auto Scheduled	Approval of Research Topic from Supervisor	1 day	Wed 6/6/18	Wed 6/6/18	2
Auto Scheduled	Development of Research Plan Charter / Document	2 days	Thu 6/7/18	Fri 6/8/18	3,2
Auto Scheduled	Development of Research Framework	4 days	Mon 6/11/18	Thu 6/14/18	4,2
Auto Scheduled	Prepare Draft Research Proposal	2 days	Fri 6/15/18	Mon 6/18/18	5,4
Auto Scheduled	Research Planning	21 days	Tue 6/19/18	Tue 7/17/18
Auto Scheduled	Formation of Research Team	2 days	Tue 6/19/18	Wed 6/20/18	6
Auto Scheduled	Analysis of Research Requirement	1 day	Thu 6/21/18	Thu 6/21/18	6,8
Auto Scheduled	Identification of Research Questions	4 days	Fri 6/22/18	Wed 6/27/18	8,9
Auto Scheduled	Identify Scope of Research	4 days	Thu 6/28/18	Tue 7/3/18	10
Auto Scheduled	Estimate Research Timeline	4 days	Wed 7/4/18	Mon 7/9/18	10,11
Auto Scheduled	Allocation of Resources and Time for the Research	2 days	Tue 7/10/18	Wed 7/11/18	10,11,12
Auto Scheduled	Initiation of Research	4 days	Thu 7/12/18	Tue 7/17/18	13
Auto Scheduled	Research Development	26 days	Wed 7/18/18	Wed 8/22/18
Auto Scheduled	Determination of Research Problems	4 days	Wed 7/18/18	Mon 7/23/18	13,14
Auto Scheduled	Access to Necessary Media	1 day	Tue 7/24/18	Tue 7/24/18	13,16
Auto Scheduled	Access to Online Library	1 day	Tue 7/24/18	Tue 7/24/18	13,16
Auto Scheduled	Selection of Literary Sources	2 days	Wed 7/25/18	Thu 7/26/18	13,17,18
Auto Scheduled	Literature Review	4 days	Fri 7/27/18	Wed 8/1/18	19
Auto Scheduled	Collection of Necessary Data	10 days	Thu 8/2/18	Wed 8/15/18	19,20
Auto Scheduled	Collection of Secondary Data	5 days	Thu 8/16/18	Wed 8/22/18	21
Auto Scheduled	Data Analysis	8 days	Thu 8/23/18	Mon 9/3/18
Auto Scheduled	Analysis of Primary Data	4 days	Thu 8/23/18	Tue 8/28/18	21,22
Auto Scheduled	Analysis of Secondary Data	4 days	Wed 8/29/18	Mon 9/3/18	24
Auto Scheduled	Research Evaluation	13 days	Tue 9/4/18	Thu 9/20/18
Auto Scheduled	Evaluation of Data	6 days	Tue 9/4/18	Tue 9/11/18	21,22,23,24
Auto Scheduled	Reflection on Research Undertaken	2 days	Wed 9/12/18	Thu 9/13/18	27
Auto Scheduled	Documentation of Learning Outcomes	2 days	Wed 9/12/18	Thu 9/13/18	27
Auto Scheduled	Issues Identification and Future Planning	5 days	Fri 9/14/18	Thu 9/20/18	29,28
Auto Scheduled	Research Closure	14 days	Fri 9/21/18	Wed 10/10/18
Auto Scheduled	Complete All Acitvities in Research	1 day	Fri 9/21/18	Fri 9/21/18	30
Auto Scheduled	Documentation of Entire Research	10 days	Mon 9/24/18	Fri 10/5/18	32
Auto Scheduled	Validation of the Research and Learning	2 days	Mon 10/8/18	Tue 10/9/18	33
Auto Scheduled	Team Sign Off	1 day	Wed 10/10/18	Wed 10/10/18	34

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