The effect of spiritual leadership on employee effectiveness An intrinsic motivation perspective

The Effect of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Effectiveness: An Intrinsic Motivation Perspective
Q. Does the journal use peer-review? Is it a blind peer-review? (Ulrich's)
Q. What is the credibility or status of the journal?
The credibility status looks good as the H-index shows that there have been 95 articles cited from this journal, Frontiers in Psychology. Moreover, there are a significant number of citations done in recent years and an increasing number of international collaborations, showing that this journal comes in Q1 (quartile), which is the best quartile (Frontiers in Psychology , n.d.). This shows that the journal is quite credible and reliable with its information and sources.
Q. What are the author's credentials, and do these qualify the author to research the topic? (Occupation, education, expertise, book & journal publications, etc.)
The authors are well-educated people; Mr. Wang, Mr. Guo, and Mr. Yakun Ni have studied from the School of Educational Science and Henan University. Mr. Wang has been a part of numerous researches. Especially lately, which shows that he has a wide arena of expertise and knowledge, as well as all the other authors, which prove them to be quite reliable (Wang M (Author), n.d.). Mr. Wang has his own Google Scholar profile, and his widely cited work is "Genome-wide association mapping to candidate polymorphism resolution in the unsequenced barley genome" (Minghui Wang, n.d.).
Q. Does the paper conduct original research or propose a theory/model to explain existing research?
Paper researches a gap identified in previous researches related to the effect of spiritual leadership on the behaviors and their level alterations. The research purpose is unique and identifies the gap in already conducted past researches on spiritual leadership and its correlation with individual-level performance. Not only this, but it also compares it with other leadership styles like ethical leadership to assess spiritual differences or similarity styles. Also, it helps assess if an aspect of spiritual leadership is different and successful in making an individual-level impact on task performances and motivations levels, which was a question posed in previous researches (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, pp. 1-2).
Q. Does the theory/model offer clear and substantive research to support the theory/model?
The article offers substantive research as there are only latent variables available that are supposed to be converted into manifested variables (Lee & Song, 2010). This includes measuring innovation through the performance indicators of how often the individual delves into new initiatives (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, pp. 4-5).
Q. is the research problem and/or hypothesis clearly stated?
It is not stated at the start, but eventually, after studying thoroughly about the background and gap identification, we come to learn of the hypothesis. The research problem is clear, and with several references, the need for conducting this research is very clearly identified, which makes it easier for the audience to understand the problem and why it needs to be researched (Pernegar & Hudelson, 2004). Several sub-questions and narrowing down the topic is of utmost importance to formulate a research problem (Smack, 2015), for which the authors have done well in narrowing down the impact on organizational growth and productivity. This is due to the spiritual leadership to the basic individual level, assessing the intrinsic motivation on the employee level (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, pp. 1-2).
Q. Is the method for sampling or identifying participants systematic and does it avoid bias?
It was done through an election, where the subordinates were asked to rate the leadership styles of the supervisors, and then the supervisors were separated into three categories. There was no sampling method followed and no account for biases taken. Annual Outstanding Supervisors were elected from one industry, where not many details are provided with regards to how the categories were formed and what was done to eradicate the biases (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019).
Q. Are the data collection methods clearly described? Are the data collection methods well designed?
Data collection methods are clearly stated and described as there are two tenures with mentioning the kinds of measures like the leadership and the task performances as well as the type of enterprise (state-owned and non-state-owned) of the subordinates to find the correlation between them. There were different kinds of test runs and multilevel analysis to deeply find out the individual-level impact and variance impact of spiritual leadership style from other types of leadership. They had well-designed questionnaires for each type of behavior, which are supposedly the outcomes of such leadership styles and helps in organizational growth. For instance, vision is equated as the byproduct of a spiritual leadership style (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019).
Q. Are the analytical tools (statistics or patterns and themes)?
The analytical tools were statistical as correlation was calculated through the data gathered, and multilevel analysis was done on a four-factor model, making the outcomes quantitative as well as qualitative (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, pp. 6-7).
Q. Are the findings clearly stated and well supported by the data?
Yes, the findings are clearly stated and are consistent with the conclusions that spiritual leadership promotes organizational growth as it creates motivation and aspiration on the individual level. The data gathered and methodology used incorporates all sorts of possibilities or different levels of factors that can cause the same result as that of spiritual leadership to analyze the variance it creates in comparison with those factors.
Q. Are the conclusions arrived at in a logical manner and sustained by the data and findings?
The conclusions were logically consistent as other leadership styles were explored. This includes benevolent leadership, ethical leadership, which tends to increase the knowledge sharing behaviors, innovation, and motivation levels to analyze the difference spiritual leadership is making despite the other factors (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, p. 8).
Q. Does the article contain reasonable suggestions for future research?
Yes, the articles point out the weaknesses in the current research and the potential future research that could be drawn from this research article clearly at the end of it. As the research was done in China within energy sector industries, more arenas need to be explored to conclude the findings. It doesn't explore the sub-dimensions of spiritual leadership (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, p. 9).
Q. Do you consider the research to be valid and reliable?
The journal; Frontiers in Psychology is a very reliable and credible source, plus the authors involved have a lot of credentials and have worked in a lot of research work. There are multiple citations involved in the paper to establish the background and make the audience understand the need and importance of the issue at hand, providing evidence-based researches. The exogenous variables were controlled, and the results produced were consistently using valid methodologies (The Reliability and Validity of Research). This means that the research was reliable, and the methodology used was valid. This is because correlation tests and multiple level analysis like parallel analysis was done which is one of the most accurate factor reduction model using MPLUS 7.0 for recording the scores (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, p. 9).
Q. How do you rate this article in its value to advancing knowledge?
I think it was pretty good as it successfully established the research after establishing a gap. Moreover, it provided insight into its practical implication, which can help companies understand the employee better and implement strategies along with the spiritual leadership style to enhance their satisfaction levels and stimulate organizational as well as individual growth.
Q. How does it relate to concepts you have encountered in other scholarly works?
It consists of Louis Fry's research conclusion that spiritual leadership can intrinsically motivate the organization towards growth (Fry, Vitucci, & Cedillo, 2005). This research has laid down evidence that spiritual leadership improves the overall productivity of the organization and improves organizational outcomes (Fry, Vitucci, & Cedillo, 2005). There have been so many other citations that have been provided in the research itself whose conclusions have been aligned with the article's findings (Wang, Guo, Ni, & Tang, 2019, pp. 8-9).
Q. Is it relevant to your current work, both scholarly and professionally?
It is quite relevant to my academia and my professional development as it provides insight related to employee motivation levels and their performance-oriented behaviors. Professionally it provides a concrete understanding of how the vision, generous love, and aspirations are well-grounded to produce positive results for the entire organization and how important it is to the development of individuals as well.
Q. Is the paper well-constructed and organized?
The structure of the paper is consistent with the IMRD (Introduction, methods, results, and discussion) with having numerous sub-headings, making it organized as a research article is supposed to be in flow with an organized structure (Pernegar & Hudelson, 2004). The structure is kept simple, with multiple sub-headings to make the explanation more clear and precise.
Q. Is the article written in a manner that can be clearly understood?
The article is understandable, but there are complicated statistics involved, which can confuse the reader as many different levels of analysis are involved. The article is not written with simplistic flow and manner to better help the reader grasp the entirety of the statistical methods involved. Although explanations are very clearly articulated, including the purpose of the research and the theoretical findings.
Q. Does the paper use clear and well-constructed logic?
The paper is logical as it starts with different variables and explains the different factors that can reap the same results for the task performances, layering into each of them, and then finding the variance. It begins with identifying the fact that organizational growth doesn't necessarily translate into individual growth because of which individual-level analysis was conducted for a spiritual leadership style. It involves various theories like intrinsic motivation theory on which the leadership style is based to identify two key purposes of the research.
Q. Does the article make appropriate use of tables, charts, and diagrams add value to the conclusions or the explanation?
It does use visuals to strengthen their research, including the leadership styles and the behaviors it stimulates as well as the statistical data. The visuals make it easy to comprehend the overall findings and what the author is trying to stipulate. There are no charts for representing the collected data or findings, however. The use of visuals is mediocre as that of any research; they are not that much value-adding for conclusions or explanations.
References
Frontiers in Psychology. (n.d.). Retrieved from Schimago Journal and Country Rank.
Fry, L., Vitucci, S., & Cedillo, M. (2005). Spiritual leadership and army transformation: Theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline. The Leadership Quarterly.
Lee, S. Y., & Song, X. Y. (2010). Structural Equation Models. In S. Y. Lee & X. Y. Song, International Encyclopedia of Knowledge (third edition).
Minghui Wang. (n.d.). Retrieved from Google Scholar Profiles.
Pernegar, T. V., & Hudelson, P. M. (2004). Writing a research article: advice to beginners. International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, 191-192.
Smack, J. (2015, March 06). What is a Good Research Question. Research Article.
The Reliability and Validity of Research. (n.d.). Introduction to Psychology- Lumen.
Wang, M (Author). (n.d.). Retrieved from National Library of Medicene.
Wang, M., Guo, T., Ni, Y., & Tang, Z. (2019). The Effect of Spiritual Leadership on Employee Effectiveness: An Intrinsic Motivation Perspective. Frontiers in Psychology.