Doing well and doing good The relationship between leadership practices that facilitate a positive emotional climate

and organizational performance

Journal of Managerial Psychology Emerald:2008

Q-1: Does the article have a stated research question or problem; that is, could you determine the focus of the author(s) work? Does the purpose clearly defined?

In this said article, author(s) clearly mention the purpose of this study that they are looking into. The author discussed previous studies has been done in different aspects of the leadership and their management style which influence employees emotions relates to individual and group level. Author found some there is less attention is paid towards managers emotional management practices and organizational level performance. So this study was to examine the relationship between the leadership practices that facilitate a positive emotional climate within organizations (the PEC Practices) and organizational outcomes.

Q-2: is this article that describes the collection of data, or does it describes other studies in which data were collected?

Data for this study was taken from a panel study conducted in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, the study of Entrepreneurs and small business owners. 594 organizations were reached for participating in this research, but only 229 owners of different organizations agreed to participate; it was 39 percent of overall response rate.

Q-3 was the article organized in a manner that was logical and easy to digest? What could have been done to further improve its structure?

Article has been designed in a very smooth and clear manner that can be easily understood. Specially the discussion part, it summarized very well the whole research and their outcomes. Which is best part of the article and beneficial for the real world leader, they can

know the employees needs and can provide them the climate in which they feel comfortable and bring value to the organization.

Q-4 did the article contain a section that outlined and reviewed studies that had previously been done on this topic? In what ways was this previous literature relevant?

This article contains a detailed literature review of the previous studies, and author tries to relate these studies to the current study. The literature discussed in this article is focusing on organizational performance, employees-organization relational system, positive emotional climate, leadership style. Current study was designed to examine relationship between positive emotional climate (PEC), organizational performance and their relation with leadership style. Many of the previous researches had been done in individual and group level performance which was related to the organizational performance. Those studies were focusing on relationship between employees and leadership, that, how a leader can motivate their employees, and create a positive relation to make organizational performance better. At a glance, the literature review provided in this article is relevant in sense of relationship between leadership relations and behavior with the employees that can have positive or negative effect on organizational performance.

Q-5 If the author explained procedures that were followed in the study, were they clear enough that you could repeat the work and get similar results? What additional information would haven helpful or required?

In this article, author clearly defines about the variables that are used to measure the relationship between leadership styles, employees and organizational performance. But the

method they adopted to run the analysis and getting the results was not so clear. Author descirves very generally about the technique used to test the hypothesis, and which tool was used for the analysis. So its really difficult to follow this researchers steps to repeat the process and getting the same results. First of all, author needs to clearly define the tool which was used to analyze the data, followed by the testing technique that they used for testing generated hypothesis. Also need to discuss the analyses methods that were adopted for analyzing the data.

Q-6: if data were collected, could you describe how they were collected and how they were analyzed? Do you agree with what was done? What additional things would you have completed?

The data for this research was taken from a panel study of entrepreneurs and small business owners conducted in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia. The authors were interested on consequences of various human resource issues, but they restricted this study on selection the firms which has more than four employees. also they selected the firm on gender demographic of ownership, selecting the firms from three different population of industries, the firms those were male dominated, female dominated and gender mixed. These selection criteria for selection of firms led author 594 eligible firms, but only 229 were agreed to participate in the survey, which was 39 percent response rate. The sample for this study had been divided into different industries, such as, business services, 31.4 percent, wholesale trade 18.3 percent manufacturing firms 19.6 percent, personal services 6.1 percent, retail trade 13.5 percent, transportation services 4.8 percent, real estate, finance and insurance 3 percent and other industries 3 percent. Questionnaires were used to gather data from organization. As mentioned in the article that data was taken from a panel study and it was collected in 1995-1996. So its outdated data, in sense of organizational climate and culture, employees demands and leadership styles. Because in the age of globalization things are changing rapidly,

so we cant compare a more than a decade older leadership and organizational practices with the current modern world. If the data were collected recently, it would give a clear picture of the consequences happened in the organizational settings.

Q-7: Do you agree with the interpretation of the results? Why or why not?

Results has been interpreted in a very clear manner, and presented very well. in the results, author clearly stated the analysis of each variable and their co relation with other variables. Analyses techniques and methods were focused when discussing the generated outcomes.

Q-8: Finally, reflect over the entire article, what was most important to you? What did you find most interesting? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this article? Will you remember his article in the future? Why or why not?

The entire article was presented in a smooth and clear manner, but there were slight gaps in presentation. Mostly the methodology part, it was discussed very well, but it had paid very low attention on the methods that were carried out to complete this research. Because if a new researcher take this article as inspiration and would like to continue the same kind of study. He/she cant get to the same results, as in this article it was not mentioned that how the said analyses techniques were carried out. The literature part was quite interesting, as it has a good review of the previous studies which relates to the current study. Reviewing literature and connecting it with your own study is not a easy task to do, in this research relation of the previous studies were beautifully connected with the current study.

Strong problem identification and definition shows the strength of this study, because the problem had discussed and supported with enough proofs that were taken from previous studies. Problem identification is main part of an research, because research have to convince the people that the said problem actually exists in society. If we look at the methodology part, as discussed above, was the weakness of this article, because analyses techniques was paid very low attention and didnt described step that followed to accomplish these tasks. For a new researcher, that want to follow this research as a guide, it would be difficult for them to reach at the final destination of results. They can know techniques need to be used, but they wont be able to know how these techniques should be applied. As in this article it was not mentioned. This article is worth for remembrance, for the future coming manager and leaders who want to accomplish organizational growth, organizational performance. In this article it is

examined that what employees wants and how a leader can behave with their subordinates to make a healthy working environment.

Influence of leadership competency and organizational culture on responsiveness and performance of firms

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management

Emerald; 2010

Q-1: does the article have a stated research question or problem; that is, could you determine the focus of the author(s) work? Does the purpose clearly defined?

This study is conducted on operational practices of service organizations (Hotels), according to research there is less interest can been seen on people and organizational practices. There are two main aspects of service, structural and managerial. So this study is clearly defined, as working on structural aspects of operational services. The main purpose of this study is to know that whether or not these above mentioned two aspects can affect the hotel responsiveness and ultimately on its performance.

Q-2: is this an article that describes the collection of data, or does it describes other studies in which data were collected?

In this study data was collected, and it is clearly in this article that author design a survey questionnaire to collect data. After interviewing experts the questionnaire were finalized for data collection.

Q-3 was the article organized in a manner that was logical and easy to digest? What could have been done to further improve its structure?

This article was beautifully carried out, with easy understandable language, because language is the important factor to understand. Sometimes, most researchers uses complex and very much technical language, that is somehow difficult to digest such readers who are new in research. But in this article, author tries to make it as simple as possible.

Q-4: Did the article contain a section that outlines and reviewed studies that had previously been done on this topic? In what ways was this previous literature relevant?

Many of the previous studies had been reviewed for this study; these studies were more focused on achieving organizational performance through different practices. Author linked that literature to the practices that he was interested to examine through this research, these practices were as; organizational culture in operations practices, leadership in operations practices and organizational responsiveness. Based on literature reviewed in this article, author developed a frame work to conceptualize the study. researcher thinks that, leadership competency and organizational culture would have affect on responsiveness which leads to the organizational performance.

Q-5: If the author explained procedures that were followed in the study were they clear enough that you could repeat the wok and get similar results? What additional information would have been helpful or required?

In this study, t-statistics was used to examine the relationship between the hypotheses. Due to small sample size of 88 respondents author uses VisualPLS to test the structural equation model for hypotheses. It shows that researcher explained the clear procedure for examining the study. if any other researcher wants to do the same kind of research or other study relative to this study. they can easily follow this study as a guide and will get the results.

Q-6: if data were collected, could you describe how they were collected and how they were analyzed? Do you agree with what was done? What additional things would you have completed?

Data was collected through questionnaires for this study. Data for this study was collected from all hotels in Malaysia ranging from one star to five stars. Before finalizing the questionnaires, authors interviewed experts (Mangers) in hotel management and operations to increase content validity in questionnaire. For this study t-statistics was used to examine the significance of hypthizised relationship. VisualPLS is a tool which was used for the data analysis, reason for selecting for this tool was because of the small sample size. This tool is not so much complex and its good for analyzing small sample size.

Q-7: do you agree with the interpretation of the results? Why or why not?

Results were discussed very briefly in this article; study variables and demographic data were ignored. Relationship between hypotheses was focused in the results. The relationship between variables and demographic data analyses needed to be focused.

Q-8: Finally, reflect over the entire article. What was most important to you? What did you find more interesting? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this article? Will you remember this article in the future? Why or why not?

This article was presented in such a easy way, that any new researcher can easily understand the meaning and purpose of the study. Each part was given a fair consideration, there was some gaps as well.

Mostly the results part, because in that part demographic data analyses, variables analyses and their relationship were ignored. In the result section, authors more focus was on the relationship between the hypotheses. It was enough to present the purpose of the study but was not sufficient enough. It really needs to be polished more in sense of other factors of the study as well. The literature and methodology parts were the most strengthen part of the study, as they were discussed in very specific manner. In the literature part of the article, author beautifully link the previous work with this research. Leadership in operations practices, organizational culture in operations practices and organizational responsiveness were the key area in the literature. A framework was developed to carry on this research. In the methodology part, author clearly discussed the test and methods which were used to analyze the data. Itll help the future researchers to follow this study to accomplish their studies. This article worth to remember, it has very good flow of procedures, methods, previous literature. That is very useful for the future researchers, and they can use this study as a guide to them

Leadership and organizational performance: from research to prescription?

International Journal of Educational Management

Emerald: 2011

Q-1: Does the article have a stated research question or problem? That is, could you determine the focus of the author(s) work? Does the purpose clearly defined?

In this article, author is talking about research on leadership and its impact on student outcomes, and describing some strengths and weaknesses in the base of that research. Though, the research question or problem is not clearly defined as this is a literature review paper.

Q-2: is this an article that describes the collection of data, or does it describes other studies which data were collected?

This is a review paper, so there is no data collected on any other data used which had been collected in any previous study.

Q-3: Was the article organized in a manner that was logical and easy to digest? What could have been done to further improve its structure?

This study was organized very well, and can be easily understood. As it is using a simple literature review, that even a new research can understand easily instead of statistics and other analyses techniques. But this study can be more furnished if author would described the methodology for this kind of research.

Q-4: Did the article contain a section that outlined and review studies that had previously been done on this topic? In what ways was this previous literature relevant?

This is a literature review paper, so the structure of this paper is entirely based on previous researchers which addressing the relationship between leadership and student outcomes. In this research not only the previous research papers had been discussed, but even few statements of high profile people like, Ex-Prime Minster of England and Ex-President of USA were also included. Most of the literature discussed in this article is related to the leadership styles which have affect on educational outcomes. In this relationship few types of leadership styles were discussed, which are, Transformational Leadership, Distributed leadership, Instructional leadership. Also author take note of the articles which includes leadership development, because leadership is a skill that can be learnt.

Q-5: If author explained procedures that were followed in the study, were they clear enough that you could repeat the work and get similar results? What additional information would have been helpful?

As discussed above that this is a review paper, so in these kind of studies author look into different researchers work done on the same topic, and relate it with his work. After making empirical study previous researcher, researcher suggest or conclude the strength, weaknesses or the area that need to be more focused in future research on said research area. So these kinds of studies are difficult to follow, as there is no any straight guide line for new researcher. But if the research includes his/her experience about the topic that how he conceptualize the research, and what kind of difficulties or easiness he/she faces to arrange previous studies and linking them in their own research. By doing so, it can be helpful for new researchers to carry out same kind of research.

Q-6: If data were collected, could you describe how they were collected and how they were analyzed/ do you agree with what was done? What additional things would you have completed?

This is a pure review paper, so no data were collected.

Q-7: Do you agree with the interpretation of the results? Why or why not?

In the last of this article, author summarizes his work and come to a conclusion that what actually the problem is. The final interpretation was carried out in such a way that can be easily understandable the whole story behind. Actually author had focused his study on different previous research work, and giving a review on the bases of that previous research. It is clearly shows that, there is a gap between the research and the prescription. As stated in the article that educational research is found very general, most researchers jumps rapidly from insufficient, and limited research to suggestions for the practice. It seems that, the interpretation of the results was done well, and can be easily understand.

Q-8: Finally, reflect over the entire article. What was most important to you? What did you find most interesting? What do you think are the strengths and weaknesses of this article/ will you remember this article in the future? Why or why not?

This article was beautifully narrated and worked really hard on it, because writing a review paper is a hard task to do. Actually in this kind of studies, researchers need to review

previous works on a specific topic, finds lacking in research, methodology, assumption and results that was generated on the bases of research. Researcher point out these mistakes and make their suggestion on how this research area can be more elaborated, or can be more specific than being general. This article has a detailed literature review, and that was the most interesting and important part of article. The weaknesses were that, author needs to mention about his/her method of doing a study like this, Because it can help new researcher to use these kinds of studies as their guides for future use. This article is worth useful for the people who are doing the research in same area of this article. It has a detailed literature review and a lot of interpretation of carrying this research.