Methodology and Rationale

Smith 1

Latorrie Smith

Dr. Clifford Stumme

Interdisciplinary Studies 400-B02

1 June 2020

Topic and Research Question

Topic: Exploring the Emotional Intelligence Strategies used by Business Leaders in the United

States to Enhance Effective Team Communication.Exploring Business Leaders in the United

States and the Strategies they use to Enhance Team Communication

HypothesisHypothesis: Emotional intelligence impacts the effectiveness of communication

among project team members.: PMs’ strategies to enhance communication skills among project

members.

Research Question: How does emotional intelligence promote effective communication among

members of a project team? What are the strategies that PMs utilize to enhance communication

skills among project members?

Disciplines Incorporated: Communication and Business.

Justification: Communication is essential in any aspect of life and, therefore, in business.

Communication and business make an interdisciplinary in that for a business to run effectively,

communication is vital. For the research topic, business leaders in the United States, especially

project managers, will be analyzed to understand how their communication strategies enhance

communication between them and project team members that they lead as well as

Commented [SCJ(AS&AS1]: Avoid the word “and.” It

turns one topic into two.

Commented [SCJ(AS&AS2]: This is pretty broad and

vague. Get more specific.

Formatted: Font: Not Bold

Commented [SCJ(AS&AS3]: A hypo should be a

prediction of a future result. What observable, measurable

result are you predicting in an experiment situation?

Formatted: Font: Not Bold

Commented [SCJ(AS&AS4]: Don’t we already know the

answer to this question? I would think we could find this in

an article or a textbook? Keep in mind that you should be

proposing unique, new research. Now, there is a way to dive

into this topic deeper and find new research, but you’d have

to narrow and get unique to the point that no one else has

studied this before.

1

2

3

4

Smith 2

communication among the team members.. The study will incorporate a qualitative single case

study research to answer the research question. The sample for the study is senior-level PMPs in

Virginia. The members are from the PMP association in Virginia. Various methods can be used,

such as quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. When researchers use

numerical data, then the research is quantitative. In qualitative research, the aim is to learn the

understanding of the participants on the research question. A mixed-method applies both

qualitative and quantitative studies. Quantitative and mixed methods cannot be used in the

research, and the most applicable one is a qualitative approach. Given that there are no variables

to be compared, qualitative research is most suitable. Also, the research question seeks to

understand the approaches used by the PMPs, which is qualitative in nature.

Comment Summary Page 1

1. Please go back to my models and the podcasts. This is pretty vague, and I'm not sure how we'd study this. Team members in what field? What does emotional intelligence mean? How would we measure it or know it was there? What does "effectiveness" mean? What kind of communication? Lots of questions. You need to narrow and refine.

2. Good job mirroring hypo. 3. Still good disciplines. 4. You've got your work cut out to improve this, but feel free to email me your next draft.