Schwarz Leadership Programme at Moog - Case Study Example

Download file to see previous pages This section will describe in some detail the research methodology used for this report. This report utilises both inductive and deductive methodologies for the research. The findings from a deductive approach are more likely to be accepted by the Senior Management, but consideration must be given to the appropriateness of the method in context to the research question. Using an inductive approach for this research allows the research to focus on why people behave in particular way once they have undertaken the Schwarz leadership training. For this report a combination of the two will be used, including a mixed method approach as the deductive research will be quicker to complete whilst the inductive approach will allow for analysis and reflection on the data.
Moog operates in various locations throughout the world, so there will be a cross-sectional study in order to assess if the Schwarz training is perceived in the same way in Europe and the Americas region. Although this type of study only allows for a snapshot in time, the data acquired will enable the comparison of behaviours between the various regions. A key benefit of using a cross-sectional study for this research as it will enable the assessment of respondents within the different regions of the company and not just concentrate on one particular group.
This research involved respondents from a focus group and there has been an effort to have a mixture of respondents, some of whom did not actually participate in the questionnaire. This style of group interviewing is particularly desirable, as it is not necessary to have one particular structure to how the group will be facilitated and the session was not intended to appear overly formal. A lot can be learned through the focus group meeting, and also about the participant's opinions towards the Schwarz training. This generated a lot of discussion, and can be seen as being 'information rich'. It certainly was information rich as the participants came across extremely enthusiastic about the discussion on Schwarz training to the point that the meeting had overrun by thirty minutes. This session allowed the participants to become more empowered and able to comment in their own words and at the same time being stimulated by thoughts and comments of others in the group
A major disadvantage of the focus group meeting is that confidentiality can be a problem between the participants and although I had communicated to the group that what had been said in the session would remain confidential, I was concerned this might not be shared by the entire group. I would have liked to include participants from the overseas sites however this was not practical to do. Previous situations have shown that the engagement of overseas participants through conference call is quite limited when focus group meetings are facilitated with overseas participants.
In terms of research strategy Saunders et al., 2007 puts forward the case that strategy can be used for exploratory, descriptive and explanatory research. With this in mind I shall be using a case study and survey, as the survey strategy fits in very well with the deductive approach, and furthermore it is easy to explain and understand for communication purposes, which is particularly important as English is not always the first language for many of the people who work at Moog. Therefore for the purposes of this research, a ...Download file to see next pagesRead More