Research Proposal: Leadership in a Digitally Competitive Environment

This document presents a Ph.D. research proposal focusing on organizational leadership within the context of a digitally competitive environment. The research aims to identify new leadership attitudes essential for success in modern business. The proposal outlines the significance of organizatio...Read More

Running head: PH. D. PROPOSAL LETTER
Date:
Name of the Supervisor/guide:
Name of the Institution:
Address of the Institution:
Subject: Letter for the Approval of Research in Organizational Leadership
Dear (name of the supervisor/guide),
I intend to research and present a paper on Organizational Leadership. My area of
research will be the new leadership attitudes that are required for the present digital
competitive environment. The research topic will be: New Leadership Attitudes Needed to
Compete in Modern Business Environment.
The reason that I have chosen this area of study is because of the rising importance of
Organizational Leadership. Organizational leadership is concerned with goal setting. It
creates goals for the employees individually as well as for the teams that are there in the
organizations. During the coursework, we learnt that the main purpose of leadership is to
create a more acceptable work environment that will increase production and turnover for the
organization. For this reason, the kind of leaders that the organization is led by, is extremely
important. Leadership is required for the growth of all organizations.

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With the advancement of digital age and growth of industrial sector in the world has
led to the increased need of leaders in the organizations. Since the 90s most organizations
have gradually adopted to digitalization to secure growth in the organization. The growth of
this trend and the subsequent success of it, needs to be analyzed. From that analysis, the gap
in research, a new attitude that leaders need if they aim to become successful in the age of
digitalization, will be determined. The objective of my research will be devising a new style
of leadership that will be able to have the ability to transform an organization that have been
adversely affected due to digitalization.
This study will give me insight to the workings of an organization. The factors that
affect the organization are important to understand to select leadership styles. There are
several practices of leadership methods that have been applied by the leaders of numerous
organizations. The recent growth of digitalization has resulted to issues that are affecting
enterprises. This is the reason why the demand of organizational Leadership studies are
increasing exponentially. This study will give me the ability to understand the different
aspects of organizational management, the psychology of the human resources and the kind
of leadership that are applicable for different organizational environment. In practice, it is
seen that, leadership style evolve slowly as changes to organization occur. It is necessary to
find out what instigates these changes and whether it can be anticipated beforehand. The need
for that is to be able to be ready if any major changes occur or have the ability to perform
damage control. As a leader of an organization, it will be my responsibility to monitor
changes in the external environment and anticipate what their effects can be. Depending on
that I will have to decide strategies that will minimize any threat and the effects of it.
The research questions that emerges from the study perspective are, how digitalization
has affected the structure and management of an organization, how do the effects of
digitalization in an organization lead to the adoption of new leadership styles and what is that

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new leadership attitude which will ensure organizational success and will help gaining
competitive advantage in the new age of technology.
This research will benefit me in many ways. From this research, my knowledge about
this topic will become extremely detailed. I will be introduced to many literature that will
provide me with knowledge. During the process of information collection, I will be meeting
many people and through the interaction with them I will be able to understand the recent
trends in organizational leadership. This research will also help me in my future career. A
doctorate degree in Organizational Leadership implies in depth knowledge of the topic and
having the ability to lead any organization and make positive changes to the organization. I
intend to be able lead an organization in future, and for that reason the knowledge that this
research will give me is extremely important. I believe that this paper will also give me
competitive advantage when I apply for a managerial position of any organization as this will
show the organization heads that I have the insight, learning and knowledge that is needed to
lead an organization.
For the completion of the project, I will be taking both primary and secondary sources
of data. The primary sources of data will be collected from organizations that are small,
medium and large. The primary data is needed for any effective research. For this research, a
certain amount of primary data will be collected. The sample size that I have chosen for this
research is 165 people. 150 employees and 15 leaders will be interviewed across 15
companies. I will prepare a survey questionnaire that will focus on the changes that they
have felt has happened within the organization, what technological changes have occurred,
how are they reacting towards those changes, the level of satisfaction of the employees after
the changes were made, whether it increased or decreased, any changes that occurred
regarding the leadership styles in those organization due to technological changes, how did
the change in leadership approach have affected them, what possible changes are there that

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they think will make the operations of the organization more smooth and effective. For the
managers, a face to face interview will be necessary. The reason behind this is their
knowledge in the particular operation. Being the leaders, they are privy to information and
policies that the other employees might not be. They are the practitioners of leadership and
thus will have much more information to offer for the sake of the research. Moreover, there
might be questions arising from the interview that will be difficult to address and understand
if they are answering in a questionnaire. As for the secondary sources, they are needed to
establish the research trend of the study. The secondary sources of data will be collected from
the institution library and online articles. The literature review will trace how different kinds
of leadership styles have revolutionized organizations and other motivating factors devised
by the leaders to motivate and retain employees.
Problems that might arise during the tenure of the research procedure are difficulty in
finding applicable literature and previous study that will give insight to the topic. The
availability of online sources are also limited. Moreover, another problem with secondary
sources of data are their relevancy and dependability. In most cases, the researches that are
available are outdated. These researches have no relevancy or credibility in recent times.
Relevant sources that are also recent are difficult to find. The libraries that I have access on
might not have them. This will result to a time taking process of discovering the right sources
to trace the growth. As for the primary sources of data collection, the difficulty lies in
securing the appointments to meet the employees and managers. The people who are to be
interviewed could be unavailable due to some circumstances and might be uninterested to
take part. In most cases, the managers and other leaders of any large organization are
continuously engaged in varying jobs and it is very difficult to secure an interview with them.
In that case it will take more time to complete the project. Another problem that could occur

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is time allotted for the research. Resources granted for the research work could also become a
problem.
The data analysis method that will be adopted are both qualitative and quantitative in
nature. The data collected from the primary data collection will be analyzed quantitatively.
The online and library literature sources will be evaluated using the qualitative method of
data analysis and the relevancy of the literature as well as scope for improvement as proposed
by them will be discussed.
The research will be conducted using Saunders’ Theory of Research Onion. This
methodology will be help me in unravelling the different layers of the research and address
each issue individually and learn from them. Through this methodology, I will gain
knowledge on the present situation of digitalization in different organizations, how they are
affecting the employees and their performances, which organizations have considered
changes in leadership styles to revolutionize themselves, what effects have they faced due to
the changes, how is the digitalization phenomena expected to change the global business
scenario and leadership methods.
Due to the vastness of the project I will be needing a grant of (sum of money). For the
research, online sources are needed to be accessed. In many cases these sources are limited to
premium users. That requires quite a bit of budget. Moreover, the interviews will be
conducted over companies spread at different locations. Travelling to those places will need a
reasonable amount of money at disposal. Budget is also needed to acquire appliances and
gadgets that will facilitate the research.
The time needed for the completion of the project will be close to 1 year. the
construction of the research paper will take 1 week, after that the primary sources will be
researched which will take about one month to come up with relevant studies that will give

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proper insight to the topic. After that, the questionnaires and interview question sets will be
prepared and appointments will be taken. After the commencement of the interview, it will
take two to three months to complete all the interviews. The next two months will be taken to
analyze the information collected in qualitative and quantitative method. The next month will
be taken to draft the research paper and submit it with proper procedure.
It is widely believed that leaders have the ability to change the world. Thus,
leadership studies has great scope in the future. Researches should be conducted thoroughly
to find out the many aspects of leadership potentials.
To conclude, I respectfully request that I may be granted the budget and approval that
I need to carry out the research on organizational leadership and its different aspects.
From
(Name of the Student)

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