Making Sense of Managing Culture - Research Proposal Example

Title A research title has a word range of between 10 and 15 words which is a representation of the whole title. The word limit of the article under critique is within the word limit. The title of the article is clear, accurate and unambiguous. From the title one can easily make out that it seeks to provide empirical evidence that tries to relate leadership style, organizational culture and performance. The title clearly spells out the study area: UK companies. The qualification of the authors is also provided and both authors are holders of PHD and are based in Cardiff Business School. This is an indication that the authors are authorities in the area of study. Introduction An introduction provides an overview of the study and the aim of the study. in addition , an introduction provides the outline of the article. The introduction of the article under critique has clearly identified that past research has not articulated the relationship that exists amongst leadership style, organizational culture and performance. It argues that past studies have studied these aspects in isolation either between leadership and performance or culture and performance. It also argues that some few studies have looked at the relationship between leadership and culture (Frost et al, 1991). The authors have also clearly identified the aim of their study in their introduction which is to provide empirical evidence of the links between different types of organizational culture, a range of leadership styles and organizational performance. The introduction has also provided the study outline or structure that the authors followed. Thus the authors’ introduction clearly accomplishes the role of an introduction of providing an overview of the study and its aim in addition to providing article outline. Statement of problem The statement which is used to identify issues to be studied in a research is referred to as the research question or research problem. Research problem is the situation which compels the research to feel apprehensive of carrying out the study. For one to be able to formulate a research question which is strong he or she should be familiar with the field of research. In addition, he or she should be familiar with vital research questions in his or her area of study. The researcher should also be able to identify fields which require more research to be able to formulate a research question. The research question should be aimed at bringing more understanding to the field of study or filling a knowledge gap. The researchers also need to know what has already been done in the field of study and what needs to be improved to be able to formulate a research question. The relevance of the study also is vital in the formulation of the research question (Goffee & Jones, 2000). Finally, the significance of the knowledge gained in the proposed study should be considered to be able to formulate a research question. The research problem identified by the authors is the unavailability of studies providing linkage between leadership style, organizational culture and organizational performance. The authors were able to identify this knowledge gap probably due to their authority in the field of organizational behavior. The research problem identified by the two authors was aimed bringing more understanding to the field of organizational behavior by filling the knowledge gap identified. Review of literature Literature review provides objective account to research studies on previous work on the topic being studied. It enables the researcher to identify the existing gaps in literature and studies to be able of providing information that can fill these gaps (Goffee & Jones, 2000). The authors were able to provide a comprehensive and objective account of previous studies. However, the authors seem to concentrate on listing previous studies without bringing out clear explanation of the findings in these studies. They don not for instance clearly provide explanation to which kind of leadership results to what kind of organizational culture. In spite this; the authors have tried to utilize more recent references in their literature review. The authors were able to comprehensively synthesize the information cited in literature review and to link it to the study. The review tried to summarize the existing knowledge concerning leadership and organizational performance, leadership and organizational culture and organizational culture and organizational performance (Dunbar et al, 1999). They use these linkages to identify the gap that exists in available knowledge that no study has concentrated on linking the three issues. However, the study does not provide definition of key concepts such as leadership, organizational culture and organizational performance. Thus by finding the relationship between leadership, organizational culture and organizational performance the authors are able to address the existing knowledge gap in this area that the author studied. Thus the literature review has made it easy to identify the purpose of study undertaken by the authors. The fact that the research surveyed the companies in this study qualifies this study to be a quantitative study as identified by the authors in the literature review (Goffee & Jones, 2000). Strengths and weaknesses of the article The article’s style is appropriate to organizational behavior research. The authors were able to clearly structure the article in a comprehensible style where they started by providing an abstract that provided a summary of the whole article, followed by an introduction that gave us an overview of the article, the study aim and the structure of the article. This was followed by a comprehensive literature review, methodology, findings and conclusion (Hofstede, 1994). The authors were also able to clearly define the problem by using literature review to identify knowledge gap. By carrying out a comprehensive literature review they were able to make out that no studies had researched on relationship that exists between leadership, organizational culture and organizational performance. The authors employed a survey to carry out their research. They made a comprehensive justification for using this methodology. Their choice and design of questionnaires is also based on comprehensive review of past studies. They articulately justify their choice of questionnaires they use (Dunbar et al, 1999). The authors used descriptive statistics to analyze their findings. This is appropriate in analyzing quantitative research findings. The findings of the authors, however, have a weakness in that they employ statistical language that is not easily understandable to common organizational behavioral managers. The authors’ language in the finding section is hard to understand. The authors try to correct overuse of statistical language in finding section by employing a simple language in the conclusion section. They present their conclusion about their findings in a language that is comprehensible to common organizational behavioral managers. The authors also point out limitation of their studies and realize that their findings cannot be generalized to all situations or rather across the globe. The authors in text citation and references are in line (Cronk, 1999). Contribution of the article to wider body of knowledge area in organizational behavior The study was able to add to existing knowledge by finding out that leadership is related to performance indirectly via organizational culture. It highlights the importance of leadership in organizational culture and which culture is related to increased performance of an organization. The study contributes to the wider body of knowledge area in organizational behavior because it informs leaders on which kind of leadership and culture can enhance performance of the firm (Cronk, 1999). The results of the study indicate that performance is indirectly linked to leadership and that instrumental leadership is negatively linked while supportive and participative leadership styles are positively related to organizational performance. The finding of a negative indirect link between instrumental leadership and performance contributes empirical evidence in support of large number of anecdotal studies which claim that such a transactional leadership style is not consistent with superior performance (Cray & Mallory, 1998). The results also contribute to existing knowledge of the effects of supportive and participative leadership styles. While anecdotal evidence of a direct performance link was not supported, both supportive and participative leadership styles are positively associated with innovative and competitive forms of culture. The results of the study indicate that the generation of an organizational culture, which is externally oriented, is significantly influenced by the extent to which a leader is supportive of followers and includes followers in decision making processes. The findings of the study further indicate that a potential solution to the difficulties associated with changing organizational culture may involve focusing on leadership style. The findings thus suggest that changing leadership style is more appropriate than managing culture (Cameron & Quinn, 1999). Readability, difficulty level and benefits of the article The whole article is comprehensible. However, the findings section is fully of statistical language that is not easily comprehensible. In spite this; the whole article is presented in a language that is readable with little difficulty in its understanding. The findings of the study are beneficial to both academic field and practitioners. To academic field the study fills the gap on the effects of supportive and participative leadership styles. To practitioners, the study findings provides an avenue through which leaders can influence the culture of a firm and hence the overall performance of the firm. This will thus alleviate the problem of trying to manage culture which studies have indicated is a difficulty issue to attain (Cray & Mallory, 1998). References Cameron, Kim S. & Quinn, Robert E. 1999. Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley. Cray, David & Mallory, Geoffrey R. 1998. Making Sense of Managing Culture. London: International Thompson Business Press. Cronk, Lee 1999. That Complex Whole: Culture and the Evolution of Human Behaviour. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Dunbar, Robin, Knight, Chris & Power, Camilla1999. The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View. Edinburgh: University Press. Frost, Peter J. et al. 1991. Reframing Organizational Culture. Newbury Park: Sage. Goffee, Rob & Jones, Gareth 2000. The Character of a Corporation: How Your Company's Culture Can Make or Break Your Business. London: HarperCollins Business. Hofstede, Geert 1994. Cultures and Organizations: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival. London: HarperCollins. Read More