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Graduate Studies in Leadership (MA & PhD)

Research Strategies
First things first...

Research success necessitates organization and a research plan:

  • Good notetaking is vital, including an organized way to capture the information needed to cite your sources properly.
  • Your credibility as a researcher is related to your ability to plan and organize your work.
  • Good notetaking helps to prevent plagiarism.
The Benefit of Background Information

Once you have your research question(s) and topic, it is important to find sources to build your background information:

  • Tertiary sources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.) are very helpful in building your background knowledge of a topic.
  • Background knowledge means taking note of the specialized vocabulary, people, places, and dates associated with the topic.
  • This knowledge is how you will best build relevant keyword and subject searches.
Research Emotions

The research process is emotional and cyclical!

  • At the beginning you might feel excitement about your topic or uncertainty in your abilities or a little bit of both.
  • During the process you will have highs and lows, successes and frustrations, as you search for sources and really dig into the material.
  • The highs and lows will come and go throughout the process—this is all perfectly normal.
  • Even at the end, especially of a big project that you have spent a lot of time on, you might be excited to be finished, nervous about your grade, or a bit unsure of what do to with all your free time.
  • It's all normal!
Using the PEO Framework

Using the PEO Framework to Formulate Research Questions in Leadership Studies

The PEO framework—Population, Exposure, Outcome—is a useful tool for developing focused, answerable research questions, particularly in qualitative research. While originally developed for clinical contexts, it is increasingly applied in fields such as education, organizational behavior, and leadership studies to explore lived experiences, perceptions, and contextual influences (Booth, Sutton, & Papaioannou, 2016).

  • Population (P): The group or demographic under study

  • Exposure (E): The experience, condition, or environment being examined

  • Outcome (O): The result, perception, or theme of interest

Using the PEO model ensures that research questions are both structured and exploratory—ideal for studies examining leadership behaviors, practices, or development within specific populations or contexts.

Example: Leadership-Focused PEO Question

  • P (Population): Mid-level managers in nonprofit organizations

  • E (Exposure): Participation in leadership coaching programs

  • O (Outcome): Perceived impact on leadership confidence and decision-making

Sample research question: "How do mid-level managers in nonprofit organizations perceive the impact of leadership coaching programs on their confidence and decision-making?"

This question is aligned with qualitative methodologies such as thematic analysis or phenomenological inquiry and supports the development of effective search strategies for relevant literature.

Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Richardson, W. S., Wilson, M. C., Nishikawa, J., & Hayward, R. S. (1995). The well-built clinical question: A key to evidence-based decisions. ACP
Journal Club, 123(3), A12–A13.
Teesside University. (2022). PEO for qualitative research. LibGuides. https://libguides.tees.ac.uk/c.php?g=677985&p=4862473

Reference Mining

Reference mining—also known as citation searching—is the process of using the reference lists of scholarly works and citation tools to discover additional, relevant sources. It allows you to build a more comprehensive, connected, and high-quality literature review by following scholarly conversations both backward and forward in time.

 

Backward Reference Mining

This involves reviewing the reference list or bibliography of an article to find older or foundational sources that the author used.

How to do backward reference mining:

  1. Locate the articles reference list or bibliography
  2. Scan the list for titles relevant to your research topic
  3. Search for those titles using:
    • Google Scholar
    • Databases

Forward Reference Mining

This involves finding newer articles that have cited the article you are currently reading--helping you trace how the conversation has evolved.

How to do forward reference mining:

  1. Search the article's title (or DOI) in:
    • Google Scholar
    • Semantic Scholar
  2. In Google Scholar
    • Locate the article in the search results
    • Click the "Cited by" link below the article to see newer works that cited it.
  3. In Semantic Scholar:
    • Enter the article title or DOI in the search bar (avoid full citations in APA style).
    • On the article's page, scroll to the "Citations" section to view newer articles citing the one you're using
Subjects: Leadership