Reporting evidence from business and management research

1Case1b: Reportingevidencefrom business and managementresearchDiscussion Questions1.Based on the key variable “Leadership at all levels,” create ONE(1) management decision problem.2. Based on your answer for Q1, list FOUR(4) key variables/components (Who? What?).3. Based on your answers for Q2, list THREE(3) research questions.4. Briefly describe how to do the research if you use inductive, deductive reasoning, respectively? 5. If you were Katie, what would you do (with the reasons to support your decision)?MarkLearmonth, DurhamBusinessSchoolKatie is working in her local NHShospitalona six-month internship. During her time there,thehospitalplanstheintroductionofwhattheycalla‘LeadershipatallLevels’programme.Allstaffaretobeencouragedtoactas leaders, and Katie is asked to write a report for hermanagersettingoutthebestwaytoensurethattheaimsoftheprogrammeactuallyhappen.Hermanagermakesaspecial point of telling Katie that the hospital wants to make its introduction‘ evidence-based’.This means, he explains, that he would like her reportto set out this scientific evidence about what works in thesekindsofinitiatives. Katieagreestodothereport and she thinks it may also be suitable as there searchprojectfor her degree.[Filechapo1uf01case.bmp]‘Wheredo yous tartwithaproject like this?’ Katie wonders.‘Well,’ she thinks,‘Imayas well type“leadershipatalllevels”intoGoogle!’Onthedayshe doesthis,theentryat theverytop ofthelist takesherstraighttoLeadershipatAllLevels:Leading PublicSectorOrganisationsinanAgeofAusterity.Thetitlepagesaysitis a‘researchpaper’andit ispublishedbytheprestigiousfirmofmanagementconsultants,Deloitte(Deloitte,2010).Shereadsitallcarefully.While thereportis veryenthusiasticaboutleadershipasageneralideafor improvingpublicservices,she is surprisedtoseethatit containsveryfewconcretedetails. 2Althoughitis 16pageslong,thereis nothingspecificallyaboutwhatleadershipis, nothing abouthow ‘leadershipatalllevels’is actuallygoing to happen;noacademicresearchatall,asfar as shecansee.Infact,themore shethinksaboutit,themore shefeels its recommendationsarevaguewithlittle justification.For instance,amongalistofbullet-pointsonpage12,it recommendsthattoppublicsectorleadersaskthemselvesquestionssuchas thefollowing:•Do youhaveaseniorteam thatis readyfor changeandis workingcollectivelyto enableit?•Canyouarticulate a brief,compelling messageofchange,framedappropriatelyto connectwithyourstaff?‘But howcould chiefexecutivesreallyknowwhether theiranswerstosuchquestionswerecorrect?’Katieponders.Shefeels chiefexecutivesare likelytohaveavestedinterestin makingtheiranswersfitwithwhattheyalreadybelievetobethecase.Eveniftheycanputtheirmanagerialinterestsaside,shethinksthatthequestionsarising fromthebulletpointlist suchas ‘how“readyforchange”is myteam?’or ‘how“compelling[a]message”mightIbedeliveringtostaff?’are nevergoing to bethingsthatcanbemeasuredwithanydegreeofobjectivity.Theyare quitedifferentfromthekindofmedicalquestionsahospitalgenerallydeals with;such as‘whatis this patient’sbody-mass-indexandbloodpressure?’ ‘So,’Katiethinks, ‘Deloitte’sis probablynotthekindofscientificevidencemymanagerhadinmindwhenheaskedmefor anevidence-basedreport!’Shedecidestolook insteadatacademicjournals,thinkingthattheymightbeabetterplaceto lookforscientific evidencethantheWorldWideWeb. Butshesoonfindsitaratherdauntingtask.Notonlyis thereanalmostoverwhelmingnumberofpotentiallyrelevantresearchpapers,whenshestarts reading them,she getsveryconfused.Notprimarilybecauseshedoesn’tunderstandthem(thoughbecauseofthelanguagethatcansometimesbeaproblem!).Still,herconfusionismoredowntothefactthatmanyofthearticlesapparentlycontradictoneanother–evenwithinthesamejournal.Whatis worse,theirdisagreementsare oftenoverfundamentals,ratherthanoverdetails. Forexample,inthejournalHumanRelations, whileSchippersetal. (2008:1593)thinkthattransformationalleadershipis keyto the‘adoptionofa shared visionbythe team’, Hardinget al.(2011:1)claim ‘thatleadersevokeahomoeroticdesireinfollowerssuch thatfollowersare seducedinto achieving organizationalgoals.’After afewweeksofreading this evidence,Katiestartstothinkthatshe hasbeenaskedtodosomething thatmisunderstandsthenatureofscientificevidence–at leastthatofbusinessandmanagementstudies.Hermanagerappearstohaveassumedthat‘theevidence’will allpoint in the same direction. But Katiehasdiscoveredthatinthecaseofleadership, the evidence’ can’tevenagreewhatleadershipis, or whether it is a good or bad thing for managerstoadopt–nevermindthebest way to getallstafftobe come, leaders. Authorsdisagreesomuch–andsofundamentally–that she finds it impossible to extract 3’best practice’.