Introduction
Leadership needs not to be restricted to the organizational context alone. Sometimes, it can be applied to wider circles such as in public administration. However, the lessons learned in such areas do not necessarily compromise the applicability of those findings in other fields of study. The article chosen for review is “Leadership and Management Skills Relevant to the South African Diplomat in the Global Context: An Overview of a South African Diplomat”. The latter piece will be quite insightful in showing how research design, methodologies, research objectives, and research purpose intertwine/ depend on one another.
Description of the methodology used in the leadership and management skills article
In the paper under analysis, the author has identified a problem after an analysis of research done in related areas to create an elaborate problem statement. (Bernard & Gery, 2003) The author believes that after South Africa emerged from the apartheid era, it had to instate a series of changes in its laws and foreign policy initiatives; however, this was not very comprehensive when compared to other countries’ foreign policies. Additionally, it has also been identified that several multilateral and bilateral relations have been essential in shaping the country’s foreign international relations. Public administrators in this area i.e. diplomats, therefore, have to grapple with a lot of challenges and demands and this implies constantly demonstrating sound leadership skills. It is essential to continuously boost the credentials of such members through training programs such as the FSI training program. Research must therefore be carried out on whether such a scheme is working and improving leadership skills amongst diplomats in the South African context. (Mashaba, 2008)In terms of the purpose statement, the author wanted to contribute towards the fields of public administration, international relations, and leadership by analyzing and unraveling relevant skills needed to make it in administration positions. Although the latter study is mostly limited to foreign relations, one cannot ignore the fact that carrying out most of these duties requires policy and management skills.
The major research question identified by the author is “to determine the extent to which the FSI training program is relevant to challenges facing a South African diplomat in the global context.” The latter major objective is particularly relevant to the management field because it tackles a critical issue; i.e. human resource development through training. The author identified several minor research questions which are centered on the following: determining constituents of foreign policy in the latter nation, determining diplomatic constitutes in the latter country, unraveling the kind of training that diplomats get internationally, determining the challenges faced by those diplomats, determining the necessary skills needed to be a diplomat and the exploring the training programs offered by the FSI training program in improving diplomacy in South Africa. These research questions are of high interest to managerial stakeholders as they revolve around the leadership context albeit in the international relations field. Likely, challenges faced by public administrators are also the same ones faced by leaders in other parts of the corporate arena. (Mashaba, 2008)
Evaluation of methodology
The title of the paper as stated earlier is ‘Leadership and management skills relevant to the South African Diplomat in the global context.’ The research questions identified by the author need to reflect this same theme and they also need to be related to all other aspects of the research such as the purpose statement, the methodology, research design, and problem statement. (Atkinson & Amanda, 1996)
About the statement of the problem, the research questions are quite consistent. First, the author had stated that the diplomatic environment frequently undergoes rapid transformations. Consequently, there is a serious need for efficient coordination, mediation, and most importantly management. Public administrators must be in positions where they can effectively handle this problem. To meet the changing foreign policy challenges, South Africa opted to implement a training program known as FSI which centered on the development of diplomats. It is, therefore, necessary to determine whether this training program was working and whether this can be reflected in the performance of the South African diplomat in the international arena. Such problems necessitate research questions on general trends in diplomacy in the global arena, challenges, and skills needed by diplomats to carry out their duties, localizing the leadership challenges of public administrators in the South African context and relating this to developmental initiatives such as the FSI program. The research questions, therefore, attempted to tackle all of the latter elements and were effective in this regard. The research questions were also well aligned with the purpose statement of the study since a substantial portion of the former were centered on diplomacy, global challenges, and the training program instated by the government.
Because of the nature of the research question, a qualitative study was needed. (Wolcott, 2002) Therefore, the research design and methodology needed to reflect this very concept. That could have been the major reason why the latter author opted to use ethnographic techniques in collecting his data. Examples of such techniques employed included participation observation, structured questionnaires, and document analysis. (Crabtree, 2003) The latter approach i.e. document analysis was particularly relevant because some of the research questions were too broad to use primary data. For instance, the author wanted to find out about challenges in diplomacy within the global context. To get an effective and fair representation of this matter, he needed to look at several resources available on the subject and this is what provided him with an in-depth analysis. It is also very commendable how the latter author chose to approach the matter of participant observation as he employed a systematic strategy where he decided on the group to be studied, built a rapport with them, and analyzed them. In other words, effective alignment of research methodology was done with the research questions in this article.
The author identified limitations, implications, and recommendations
The author’s major concern related to the FSI training initiative instated by the Republic of South Africa. Consequently, the writer focused on members of the South African program alone. The major challenge here is that some of the findings may be limited to the South African context. As such, it will be difficult to apply assertions in other fields of specialty. Consequently, the generalizability of the study comes into question when considering this matter succinctly. Nonetheless, it is very laudable how the latter paper sought to find out the views of FSI developers and FSI beneficiaries to gain a balanced view of the program. However, one can see that there is still a missing link to this kind of work because FSI creators were not sought to determine their take on how effective the initiative would have been.
Aside from the latter issue, the author has asserted that his work will be critical in the field of public administration because the results will give the South Africa government an indication of the efficiency of their foreign policy administrative initiatives. Care needs to be taken in order not to over-generalize the findings. The author ought to realize that there is much more to the South African policy context than just the FSI training program. Leadership and management employ much more than meets the eye. (Bennet, 2006)
Application of methodology
The first aspect of this research that will be highly useful in my study is understanding the importance of a qualitative study. (Spiers, 2002) The latter author opted to go for this kind of approach because he wanted a situation where his research was flexible enough but at the same time insightful into his area of interest. Likewise, I am going to employ such an approach because it is evident that this author was able to understand the issue of leadership in South African diplomacy. An insightful revelation of a certain phenomenon can only be possible through qualitative studies. The employment of ethnography in this particular work was also quite wise because it enforces rigor into the research especially if the matter under analysis revolves around the social sciences. (Polkinghorne, 2005) Through ethnography, I will be able to capture the elements of my research in their natural environments thus ensuring that most of the issues under discussion are covered within their respective context. However, a lot of attention needs to be given to the research process when one chooses to employ ethnographic techniques because frequent data gathering, construction, and hypo study need to be done to ensure that everything is synchronized.
It was also very interesting how the latter writer paid special attention to the ethical aspect of his research. In other words, because human subjects were involved in the survey, then ample consideration must be given to the subjects who need to participate in the study voluntarily and after fully understanding the implications of their involvement in such a survey.
To boost the validity of one’s research, it is always advisable to go for triangulation which refers to the employment of a series of research methods in one study. (Smaling,2002) This will ensure that the weaknesses in one area are duly compensated by the strengths in another. In the study under analysis, its author opted to choose a research design that employed several techniques. Consequently, a rich database was established through all these pathways. Similarly, I will embrace such an approach in my dissertation so that my work can be accepted by all concerned stakeholders.
Conformability is a term used to denote the extent to which one’s studies can be ascertained or confirmed by other stakeholders. (Mc Lellan, 2003) One simple way of achieving this is through proper documentation of the procedure utilized in one’s research. Therefore, when another party goes through the work, they can follow through in simple steps and possibly ascertain that the research was carried out. I will be able to inject this aspect into my work by mostly making sure that I have all the necessary instruments needed to achieve this. For instance, through the use of documentation and visual recordings, it will be possible to look at subjects under a neutral setting and thus ensure that all the issues that have not been discussed are amply taken care of.
Conclusion
The article chosen for analysis is generally a concise paper with clear alignments between research questions and the research design. The author’s choice of methods and his emphasis on validity have been particularly insightful. Nonetheless, issues arise over the generalizability of the study especially since it is restricted to a very small sample space in the South Africa context.
References
Mashaba, J. (2008). Leadership and Management Skills Relevant to the South African Diplomat in the Global Context: An Overview of a South African Diplomat, University of Pretoria. Web.
Spiers, I. (2002). The Pink Elephant Paradox, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 1 (3) Article 4. Web.
Smaling A (2002). The Argumentative Quality of the Quality Research Report, International Journal of Qualitative Methods 1 (3) Article 4. Web.
Crabtree, A. (2003). Design and ethnography. NY: Springer publishers
Atkinson, P. & Amanda, C. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data. Thousand Oaks: Sage
Mc Lellan, E. (2003). Data reparation and transcription. Field methods journal 15(3), 63
Polkinghorne, D. (2005). Data collection in qualitative work. Counseling psychology journal, 52(4), 138
Bernard, R& Gery, R. (2003). Techniques for identifying themes. Journal of field methods 4(12), 4
Wolcott, H. (2002). Writing qualitative research better. Journal of qualitative research in health 14(3), 92-103
Bennet, A. (2006). Recent developments in case studies. Political science review 9(4), 455