The Capital Veterinarian Clinic (CVC) is a facility that is located in Sacramento, California, and it is oriented to providing high-quality veterinary services in the community. Currently, the organization’s hierarchy is headed by Dr. Marissa Sandoval, the Clinic Director, who supervises the operations in the CVC. The work of nine Staff Veterinarians, as well as eight Interns, is supervised by newly appointed Dr. Kim Chung, the Senior Staff Veterinarian, who has assumed the role after Dr. Rachel Silverstein.
There are several problems that are associated with this appointment: not all Staff Veterinarians support Dr. Chung as a leader, she does not know how to organize her work with the team, and there are assumptions that Staff Veterinarians are inclined to borrow supplies. The diverse team of twelve Veterinary Technicians is supervised by Florence Meyers, and problems are observed in employees’ interactions with Meyers because of her leadership style.
Furthermore, there are also difficulties in relationships with diverse team members, including Staff Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians. The problem is associated with organizing the Christmas party. The purpose of this case study analysis is to identify research questions related to the problems determined as major obstacles to the organization’s development, recommend quantitative and qualitative methodologies to find answers to the set questions, describe approaches to applying the selected methodologies, and discuss the methods of analyzing the collected information.
Key Research Questions
In order to focus on resolving the issues that are identified in relation to the organization’s teams, it is necessary to determine the appropriate research questions (Beer & Spector, 1993; Bissell & Keim, 2008). The first question to pay attention to is, “What leadership style should be followed by the Senior Staff Veterinarian in order to address the needs and expectations of the team?” The second question that is related to Dr. Chung’s activities is, “What actions should be taken by the Senior Staff Veterinarian to organize the work of the team in the most efficient manner?” The third question is related to the ethical problem: “What types of organizational behavior are viewed as appropriate and non-appropriate in the CVC?”
It is also important to formulate research questions to address the issue of communication with the diverse staff in this organization. It is necessary to answer the following questions: “What approaches are viewed by the staff as contributing to the development of the organizational culture and employees’ cooperation?”, “What attitudes do employees have regarding diversity in the CVC?” “What strategies should be used to support diversity in the organization?”. The answers to the research questions can be utilized to improve the organizational culture in the CVC.
Recommendations regarding the Use of Quantitative and Qualitative Research Methodologies
To answer the research questions and propose a set of recommendations in order to improve the situation in the CVC, it is necessary to combine both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. First, it is necessary to propose the quantitative methodology based on a survey to answer the question regarding the appropriate leadership style for the Senior Staff Veterinarian. The survey conducted with the help of a questionnaire is also appropriate to find answers to the question about ethical issues and acceptable organizational behaviors in the CVC.
The quantitative methodology is based on presenting the findings in a numerical form, and these results will be generalized to explain the tendencies in the CVC (Buckley, 2015). Still, the qualitative methodology should be used in order to answer the question about effective actions to be taken by the Senior Staff Veterinarian to organize the work of the team. The qualitative approach is important to focus on the narratives and visions of the staff to examine the problem in detail (Bosio, Graffigna, & Scaratti, 2012). Qualitative methods are helpful to disclose actual visions and intentions of the staff to predict further changes in the organization.
There are also problems that are associated with the concept of diversity and cooperation between Veterinary Technicians and their supervisor. Therefore, it is important to collect general information regarding the interactions, culture, and diversity in the organization with the help of quantitative methodologies (Lee, Choi, Moon, & Babin, 2014). Furthermore, it is necessary to focus on the qualitative methodology in order to discuss the identified problems, communication, and diversity promotion in the CVC. In this case, the qualitative methodology supports the quantitative one while guaranteeing the complex analysis of the issues.
Implementation of Methodologies and Types of Data
Quantitative methods are appropriate to be used in the organization with the help of surveys that are based on self-administered questionnaires. It is important to prepare three questionnaires that should be spread among employees by using e-mails. The first questionnaire should include items to assess leadership styles and practices followed in the organization and determine the most appropriate ones to be followed by Dr. Chung (Janicijevic, 2010).
The second questionnaire should include items about appropriate and non-appropriate organizational behaviors, ethics, and employees’ attitudes to resolving moral issues. The third questionnaire should include information about the nature of communication, diversity, culture, and cooperation in the organization, as it is viewed by employees and supervisors (Lee et al., 2014). The questionnaires will be organized with the focus on the Likert scale to evaluate answers, and the data will be provided in numbers to be analyzed with the help of statistical tools.
The qualitative methodology is based on conducting interviews and collecting narratives. After analyzing the numerical data, it is important to focus on the detailed examination of determining problems and conduct interviews with supervisors and team leaders. Furthermore, it is also important to organize focus groups to involve team members and discuss the most critical questions. Moreover, it is necessary to focus on the secondary data and review the human resource management documents to conclude about the effectiveness of diversity strategies followed in the organization. The data gathered with the help of interviews, focus group sessions, and reviews will be provided in the narrative and report forms.
Analysis of the Collected Data
In order to conclude regarding problems in the organization and recommend approaches to overcome the issues, it is necessary to analyze the collected information. The quantitative data should be calculated with the help of statistical tools. Evaluators should refer to measuring statistical averages and calculating the standard deviation and distribution to conclude about answers or items that are selected by employees often than other options (Buckley, 2015).
This approach will be useful to provide the general data related to employees’ preferences regarding leadership styles, leaders’ activities, ethical behaviors, types of communication, and levels of diversity, among other aspects.
The qualitative data received after conducting interviews and focus group sessions will be analyzed with the help of coding the information and identifying major themes. The qualitative data received after reviewing the human resource management documents should also be analyzed with the help of identifying themes that are associated with tendencies in the organization (Bosio et al., 2012). These approaches to analyzing qualitative information are important to determine themes and aspects that are accentuated by the majority of employees. As a result, these themes can be viewed as influencing the development of diversity, cooperation, and ethical practices in the organization.
Conclusion
This paper presents the research questions that are effective to guide the discussion of problems in the CVC and describes research methodologies that can be used in order to collect the data and analyze the situation in detail. The problem is in the fact that Dr. Chung, as the Senior Staff Veterinarian, should focus on developing their leadership skills and organize the cooperation with the team. However, to choose the most effective approaches to working with the team’s representatives, it is necessary to collect and analyze the data related to employees’ attitudes, visions, and typical behaviors.
Furthermore, there is also an ethical problem that requires immediate resolution. As a result, it is also necessary to propose effective approaches to collecting information regarding ethical practices in the CVC. In addition, the organization seems to have an ineffective diversity policy that leads to conflicts and communication problems. The research and assessment conducted in the organization should also address questions in this area. Therefore, both quantitative and qualitative methodologies associated with the use of questionnaires, interviews, reviews, and focus groups are important to be used to examine the situation in the CVC.
References
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