Proper Scholarly Research and Practice

The author of this brief essay has been asked to conduct a review of a set of articles and then offer a response to a few questions. These questions include what a review of the literature is meant to do, how this literature review relates to the predefined problems and questions identified by the researcher and what other hypotheses and questions might arise while looking at the provided articles. Indeed, it can be very useful to engage in a literature review, either as the main way a research program is executed or as part of a primary study. While literature reviews can be botched and mishandled if done incorrectly, they can be a very positive thing for good research and scholarly when done correctly.
Analysis
As explained by the commentary for the second module, the goal and reason to engage in a proper literature review is clear. Indeed, it serves as a foundation for the paper that is otherwise to be written. It serves as a bit of a starting point for the broader research and journey that is to come. Rather than starting from zero when it comes to the methodology, results and/or discussion that is to come later in the report, the literature review serves as a verification of why the further study in a report was done the way it was, why that other study proceeded as it did and so on. To put things concisely, the authors of a study or report use a literature review as a sort of third party verification and listing of the presumptions and assumptions that underpin the new material and research that is in this new report. For example, if a person was doing a report on the decriminalization of drug use, they would likely cite other reports and studies, whether it be from the same country as the new study or a different one, that support the practice or at least support the idea that further research should be done. This helps to justify and support, before the new material is even covered, why the new directions and ideas are being explored (USC, 2017).
The author of this report is now directed to look at the Greenwood article and assess how the hypothesis offered for this new study is supported by the literature review. Of course, the hypothesis that is new centers on the idea that the terminal values for Baby Boomers, Generation X and Generation Y are all different. In looking at the literature review within the Greenwood report, the literature review is rife with references to the work of others inclusive of what defines each generational band and what makes them different in terms of behaviors, culture and attitude. There are also broader definitions of culture, values and how all of this tends to happen and perpetuate on a generational level. The assignment now asks what other hypotheses could be generated in addition to what is already present. In looking at the existing ones, all that is really said is that there are statistically significant differences and not much else. To state the obvious, one could go much further. For example, one could be specific to the United States and note that a main difference between the Baby Boomers and Generation X centers on the massive swing in public culture and patterns from the time just after World War II (1945 to the early 1960’s) and what came thereafter with the Generation X people when Vietnam and other social or political strife was going on such as the oil crisis, the resignation of Nixon and LBJ being chased out of office. There is nothing wrong with the existing hypotheses but they are very general and lack any sort of real value or specificity (Gibson, Greenwood & Murphy Jr., 2011).
Conclusion
A hallmark of any good amount of research involves the tying in and correlation with other sources that are proven, peer-reviewed and scholarly. Even when a new piece of research is trying to break new ground and cut against the grain, there at least has to be an identification of what is agreed with and also what is established that may run counter to what is being newly asserted. Just making wild claims with no tie-in will almost certainly lead to ambivalence.
References
Gibson, J., Greenwood, R., & Murphy, Jr., E. (2011). Generational Differences In The
Workplace: Personal Values, Behaviors, And Popular Beliefs. Journal Of Diversity
Management (JDM), 4(3), 1. http://dx.doi.org/10.19030/jdm.v4i3.4959
USC. (2017). Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: 5. The
Literature Review. libguides.usc.edu. Retrieved 10 August 2017, from
http://libguides.usc.edu/writingguide/literaturereview