Quantitative Research Design

Introduction to Quantitative Research

Leadership is a vital research area in organizational studies. One of the important applications of contemporary leadership theories is the articulation of organizational leadership in various societies or cultures (Bonnici, 2011). Leadership is described by universal and cultural or country-specific characteristics. While many studies have covered leadership behaviors and attributes in industrialized Western countries, it is apparent that emerging economies in the East follow their customs to enable, motivate, and encourage individuals to contribute to the success of their industries. The goal of any organization is not only to survive within its sector but also sustain its competitive advantages by improving performance through effective leadership. The current paper introduces an organizational leadership-based research topic that employs a quantitative methodology.

Research Problem

While the phenomenon of leadership is widely conceived to be universal across countries and cultures, the manner in which it is operationalized should be viewed as culturally specific. Contradictory viewpoints in the organizational leadership exist regarding the transferability or convergence of specific leaser processes and behaviors across cultures. For this reason, there is a need to have a better understanding of the Eastern and Western organizational leadership styles.

Aim and Objectives

The central focus of the given study is to increase the level of awareness and comprehension of the Eastern and Western organizational leadership styles using China and the UK as case studies for comparison. The key objective is to investigate the degree to which organizational leadership styles used by IT entities in China are different from or similar to the ones employed in the UK. In other words, the research seeks to establish whether the organizational leadership styles in China and the UK are converging or diverging.

Research Questions

The current study will be guided by the following overarching research question: What is the extent to which organizational leadership styles used in Chinese information technology entities are converging or diverging towards the Western organizational leadership practices and policies?

1) How can organizational leadership style in the United Kingdom and China be characterized?

2) What are the similarities between leadership styles in the United Kingdom and China?

3) What are the differences between leadership styles in the United Kingdom and China?

4) Are the organizational leadership styles in China and the UK converging or diverging?

Research Hypotheses

1) Organization leadership styles in the UK and China are characterized by the local culture.

2) Leadership styles in the UK and China use similar concepts.

3) Similar leadership concepts are applied differently in the UK and China.

4) Application of organizational leadership style in China and the UK are converging.

The researcher can postulate about the results in the process of preparation of the research: this procedure is referred to as formulation of a hypothesis. Such a step is very important as it gives the research direction by showing the researchers expectations about the study. In a quantitative research, hypothesis allows for hypothesis testing in which the evidence collected in a research inquiry is used to identify and clarify if the researcher’s hypothesis is true or false. If it is true, the hypothesis is interpreted in the conclusion, and if otherwise, the alternative hypothesis is adopted.

Survey

Survey is valuable for collecting the information and is used when the data being sought concern individual opinions. Surveys are utilized more in human geography and psychology among others fields, where an individual is required to give information about him/herself (O’Dwyer & Bernauer, 2014). In this survey, a number of questions about the researched factors of leadership can be formulated. Each question will be given a set of replies according to the strength of response in order to make data analysis easy. Such an approach is also important for making the information gradable to provide numerical data for hypothesis testing. If over half of surveyed participants will find the application of organization leadership styles in IT firms similar in China and the UK to be similar, the null hypothesis will be verified. Otherwise, an alternative hypothesis will be adopted. Advantages of surveys include the fact that the information collected from the survey is classified as coming from primary source and is considered to be very accurate as it is free from the researcher’s ideas or perceptions. In other words, firsthand information from respondents is obtained. The major disadvantage with surveys is that they depend on the how the survey tool is formulated. Surveys also take much time and resources.

Experiment

An experiment is a controlled way of discovering, proving or demonstrating a fact. An experiment is a useful way of testing a hypothesis and involves setting up a procedure and controlling or recreating a procedure in order to get the anticipated results or confirm/ reject a fact (Creswell, 2014). In this experiment, one aspect of business leadership style, such as employee motivation, can be observed. The experiment procedure, in this regard, may outline various aspects of employee motivation, including performance-related pay, benefits-sharing schemes, and promotion of employees among others. Observing the specific way how one IT firm in the UK and another in China will carry this out will be as a result of the local culture and other influences. Experimentation as a way of collecting data is complemented by observation as the researcher needs to observe the outcomes.

In the case where the research is not compared to a previous one (a control trial), it would be referred to as a quasi-experiment in that there is no control. Additionally, a quasi-experiment lacks randomization of research variables being observed (Fowler, 2014). One advantage of using an experiment to correct data is that the observer obtains firsthand information which is reliable. This factor also helps the researcher to explain a situation better and provides more information in the scope of than questionnaires. The shortfalls of experimentation are that it can be subjective as it relies on the opinion and the perception of the researcher. Such methodology is also time-consuming and may require sufficient resources (McNeill & Chapman, 2009).