Comparison Matrix Paper Argumentative

September 21, 2013
Comparison Matrix Paper
The focus of this paper was to use the matrix to compare two empirical articles, Leadership Behaviors and Subordinate Resilience written by Harland, Harrison, Jones & Reiter-Palmon and Initial Assessment and Validation of an Instrument to Measure Student Perceptions of Leadership Skills, written by Zula, Yarrish & Christensen. The articles were based on research questions the authors wanted to find answers to. In order to discover the answers the researchers had to use various methods to ascertain the best results. The authors used the method of surveys to gain the answers they were searching for. Purpose of Study

According to Harland, Harrison, Jones, and Reiter-Palmon (2005) the principle of their study was to assess the relationship between leader behaviors and subordinate resilience. The purpose of the study conducted by Zula, Yarrish, and Christensen (2010) was to investigate the possibility of creating a tool that can be used to measure student awareness of leadership using the five areas of leadership development. Research Questions

Harland et al. (2005), research questions consisted of (1) if the transformational leadership dimensions and the transactional leadership dimension would be positively linked with employee resilience? (2) If the transactional leadership dimensions and the non-leader dimension would not be positively linked with subordinate resilience before or after controlling for employee confidence? The research questions Zula et al. (2010) asked were (1) Can a tool for measuring student perceptions of leadership be developed that reveals correct content from the initial dimensions identified in the text? (2) What are the verification data for a newly developed measure of student perceptions of leadership tool? Literature Review

Harland et al. (2005) Literature Review was organized by beginning with a short story detailing the leadership of the captain of a wrecked ship. It goes on to discuss the definition of resilience, as well as the factors that influence resilience. Further through the article the Literature Review discusses leadership and how it is linked to subordinate resilience. The Literature Review Zula et al. (2010) implemented was organized by dividing it into two sections. The first section discussed leadership and its definition, as well as the 5 areas of leadership development. They then go on to discuss student perceptions of leadership and what schools need to do to make leadership opportunities available. The authors cited works done by Campbell, Dardis & Campbell, as well as Boatman.

Sample Populations
Harland et al. (2005) studied 150 Master’s of Business Administration students who attended part-time. They all were from a medium-sized university in the Mid-west. Out of the 150 students that participated 86 were male, while 63 were female. 130 of the participants were Caucasian and 17 were considered minority. The average age of the participants was 30 years old. The sample population that Zula et al. (2010) worked with included 214 students from a small liberal arts college of business that was located in Pennsylvania. From the 214 students 86 were male and 128 were female.145 of the students were full-time, where 69 were part-time. The course of study for the participants included 21 Associates Degree, 187 Bachelors Degree, 6 other.

Results

Harland et al. (2005) research concluded that leader’s behaviors are considerably positive where it is related to subordinate resilience, which correlates to the first question. The research also yielded the answer to the second question which was the fact that leadership dimensions were not positively associated with subordinated resilience. The results prove what the authors set out to do. Zula et al. (2010) set out to explore the possibility of creating a tool that could be used to measure student perceptions of leadership. The results indicated that such a tool could be created.

Conclusions
The research that Harland et al. (2005) conducted revealed that the resilience of subordinates was positively impacted by the leadership behaviors of management. It also indicated that several leadership behaviors impact the resilience of subordinates. The limitation that impacted the study was the fact that the study only included MBA students who attended a Midwestern university part-time. Future research would benefit from expanding the research to include students from other colleges, as well as non-MBA students. The study that Zula et al. (2010) resulted in the revelation that a tool to measure student perceptions of leadership can be created. The limitation of the study was the fact that it only included a small participant group. The study only included college students from a small liberal arts college in Pennsylvania.

If this research was looked at in the future it would benefit from expanding the study to include recent graduates because they can offer a new outlook form the workforce. Future research will also benefit from including students outside the liberal arts field. The focal point of this paper was to compare two empirical articles using the comparison matrix. The authors set out to seek answers to questions that highlighted their research. The research that was conducted yielded the results the authors intended, even though there were unpredictable aspects that arose. To further research in these fields the authors have to modify the limitations to include an accurate sample population to yield more accurate studies.