Identifying Potential Challenges in a Research Proposal

The Impact of Authentic Leadership Utilizing Observational Humor for Organizations to Create a Culture of Diversity Equity and Inclusion.

Three points that could be potential challenges or difficulties and how they will be addressed

1. Potential limitations of the project, even if unavoidable, are not adequately addressed.

Virtually any research project that involves human subjects is likely burdened by some potential limitations (Varsava, 2020), and that is also the case with this research proposal. For example, the research proposal assumes that a sufficient number of the authentic leader’s subordinates will be willing to participate, but the potential for widespread refusal is always present. This potential limitation will be addressed through a preliminary canvass of current employees in the workplace of interest to gauge the extent of their willingness to participate in the proposed study to ensure a sufficient number will be available. In addition, institutional review board-approved informed consent will be obtained from all participants, including the authentic leader.

Likewise, only one case is being used for the proposed case study whereas many case studies use a few or several cases for their analysis (Neuman, 2018). This potential limitation will be addressed by a deep-dive evaluation of the qualitative data that is collected for benchmarking purposes as well as the follow-up data collection after the intervention is completed.

Finally, there may be difficulties encountered with respect to the recordation and transcription of multiple interviews concerning employees’ views about the levels of equity, respect for diversity, and extent of inclusivity in their workplace prior to and subsequent to the administration of the proposed intervention since these will be relatively lengthy interview sessions that may generate dozens of pages of text. The accuracy and completeness of the transcriptions of interviews will be ensured by having the completed transcripts reviewed by a fellow classmate to provide interrater reliability (Belotto, 2018). The review process by the researcher and interrater will continue until a minimum of 80% agreement is obtained (Neuman, 2018).

2. Data analyses have not received adequate consideration, are too simplistic, or are unlikely to yield clear-cut and credible results.

Analyzing qualitative data is a challenging enterprise, and the results of the transcribed interviews will require a significant amount coding into appropriate prevailing themes, a process that is fraught with subjectivity (Belotto, 2018). This limitation will also be addressed by having the main themes that are identified during the preliminary coding verified by a classmate, once again to establish interrater reliability.

3. The data the investigator wishes to use are either difficult to obtain or inappropriate for the research problem.

Not only is the analysis of qualitative data challenging, but obtaining a sufficient amount of data to develop a timely and informed answer to the proposed study’s guiding research question will also be difficult, depending especially on the number of interviewees. This limitation will be addressed by ensuring that sufficient time is allocated to invest in the qualitative data collection prior to the commencement of the proposed study.