Discussion Questions (Research Questions)

Read the research questions submitted belo and offer your own assessments of their submissions. Provide balanced feedback, describing the strengths and the areas needing improvement.
Often peer feedback can offer helpful insights to assist you in viewing your work in a clear, but different way because the perspective of your peers comes from a comparable understanding. In fact, sometimes students are the best teachers because they have grappled with and solved similar problems.

Research Question# 1
Women continue to aspire to leadership positions in both the public and private sectors. Women seek to find other avenues to gain support for their causes and attainment of their common goals.  Social media influences the perception of women leaders and can impact popular culture by subverting the dominant gaze. How women use agency and how powerful gendered norms shape perceptions, discourses and norms and how to resist, repudiate, and represent relates to today’s use of social media. How to challenge the stigma of women leaders in social media?
Educational significance:
Great strides have been made, especially, in the political realm, and women’s participation in both freedom struggles and democratic processes have been notable. However, this participation has not always translated into equal representation in political leadership positions. Once elections are conducted, and positions are assigned, one realizes that women are no longer visible.
Background:
Journalists and authors of trade books increasingly assert a female advantage in leadership, whereby women are more likely than men to lead in a style that is effective under contemporary conditions. Women have some advantages in typical leadership style but suffer some disadvantages from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders, especially in masculine organizational contexts. Nonetheless, more women are rising into leadership roles at all levels, including elite executive roles. I hypothesize reasons for this rise attributes largely to how they are viewed on social media.
RT: Relational study of the perception of women leaders and social media in the Eastern US.
Reference
Eagly, A. H., & Carli, L. L. (2013). The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence. The Leadership Quarterly, 807-834.
Kiambav, J. M. (2008). Women and Leadership Positions: Social and Cultural Barriers to Success. Journal of Transnational Women’s and Gender Studies, 5-24.
Klenke, K. (2016). Qualitative Research in the Study of Leadership. Bingley: Emerald Insight.
Mavin, S. A., Elliott, C., Stead, V., & Williams, J. (2016). Women managers, leaders and the media gaze. Gender in Management, 31(5), 314-321. Retrieved from https://login.libproxy.edmc.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.edmc.edu/docview/1823080403?accountid=34899
Sweetzer, K. D., & Kelleher, T. (2011). A survey of social media use, motivation and leadership among public relations practitioners. Public Relations Review, 425-428 #2
 
Research Question #2
People are entering the workforce and staying for a longer period of time than recent years. Organizations are seeing an increase of various generations working together, and for the organization, these dynamics can make or break the success of effective leadership. There are authors/researchers that have identified the needs of generations through qualitative, quantitative, or mixed method approach utilizing instruments ranging from focus groups to surveys. My research topic surrounds the need to understand if there is a relationship between leadership approaches and generational diversity, and does it impact the success of organizations. My research question examines if leadership styles impact employees from different generational backgrounds working in the retail industry. Croswell (2009) states that variables tend to impact each other, one being independent and the other being dependent. In the research question the independent variables would be the generations in the organization, and the leadership styles would the dependent variable. The generations would influence how leaders choose their style. Both of these variables frame my literature review to take the structure of utilizing theoretical framework, because I would want to provide a historical perspective regarding the foundation of the generations that I’m studying, plus allowing different leadership theories/approaches to help with a solution for the leaders in the organization.
Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Los Angeles: Sage.