Taking its lead from a growing literature dealing with the research methods employed in management and adjacent disciplines and from the editors’ goal of encouraging a diversity of methodological positions in the pages of Leadership, this article reports the findings of a content analysis of the research methods employed in empirical articles during the journal’s first five years of publication. Particularly in comparison with a comparable study of the North American journal, The Leadership Quarterly, the content analysis findings reveal a greater tendency to employ a qualitative than a quantitative research approach and for qualitative interviewing and the qualitative analysis of documents to be predominant methods of data collection. At the same time, the findings also reveal similarities with traditional journals in terms of the methods employed, such as a relatively low take up of mixed-methods research.
Alise MA and Teddlie C. ( 2010) A Continuation of the paradigm wars? Prevalence rates of methodological approaches across the social/behavioral sciences. Journal of Mixed Methods Research4: 103-126.
2.
Avolio BJ, Walumbwa FO and Weber TJ(2009) Leadership: Current theories, research, and future directions. Annual Review of Psychology60: 421-449.
3.
Bass BM ( 1985) Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. New York: Free Press.
4.
Berelson B. ( 1952) Content Analysis in Communication Research. New York: Free Press.
5.
Bryman A. ( 2004) Qualitative research on leadership: A critical but appreciative review. The Leadership Quarterly15(6): 729-769.
6.
Bryman A. ( 2009) Mixed methods in organizational research. In: Buchanan DA and Bryman A (eds) Handbook of Organizational Research Methods. London: Sage, 516-531.
7.
Bryman A. and Bell E. ( 2007) Business Research Methods, revised ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
8.
Collinson D. and Grint K. ( 2005) Editorial: The leadership agenda. Leadership1(1): 5-9.
9.
Conger JA ( 1998) Qualitative research as a cornerstone methodology for understanding leadership. The Leadership Quarterly9(1): 107-121.
10.
Conger JA and Kanungo RN ( 1999) Charismatic Leadership in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
11.
de Vaus D. ( 2001) Research Design in Social Research. London: Sage.
12.
Fiedler FE ( 1967) A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness. New York: McGraw-Hill.
13.
Friedrich TL, Byrne CL and Mumford MD (2009) Methodological and theoretical considerations in survey research. The Leadership Quarterly20(1): 57-60.
14.
Gardner WL, Lowe KB, Moss TW, Mahoney KT and Cogliser CC ( 2010) Scholarly leadership of the study of leadership: A review of The Leadership Quarterly’s second decade, 2000-2009. The Leadership Quarterly, in press.
15.
Hanson D. and Grimmer M. ( 2005) The mix of qualitative and quantitative research in major marketing journals. European Journal of Marketing41(1/2): 58-70.
16.
House RJ and Dessler G. ( 1974) The path-goal theory of leadership: Some post hoc and a priori tests. In: Hunt JG and Larson LL (eds) Contingency Approaches to Leadership. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 29-55.
17.
Hummerinta-Peltomäki L. and Nummela N. ( 2006) Mixed methods in international business research. Management International Review46(4): 439-459.
18.
Hunter ST, Bedell-Avers K. and Mumford MD ( 2007) The typical leadership study: Assumptions, implications, and potential remedies. The Leadership Quarterly18(5): 436-446.
19.
Insch GS, Moore JE and Murphy LD ( 1997) Content analysis in leadership research: Examples, procedures, and suggestions for further use. The Leadership Quarterly8(1): 1-25.
20.
Jackson B. and Guthey E. ( 2007) Putting the visual into the social construction of leadership . In: Shamir B, Pillai R, Bligh MC and Uhl-Bien M (eds) Follower-Centered Perspectives on Leadership: A Tribute to the Memory of James R. Meindl. Greenwich, CN: Information Age, 167-186.
21.
Jackson B. and Parry K. ( 2008) A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Leadership. London: Sage.
22.
Leithwood K. and Mascall B. ( 2008) Collective leadership effects on student achievement. Educational Administration Quarterly44: 529-561.
23.
Lowe KB and Gardner WL ( 2000) Ten years of The Leadership Quarterly: Contributions and challenges for the future. The Leadership Quarterly11(4): 459-514.
24.
Mintzberg H. ( 1973) The Nature of Managerial Work. New York: Harper & Row.
25.
Molina-Azorín JF(2009) Understanding how mixed methods research is undertaken within a specific research community. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches3: 47-57.
26.
Ospina S. ( 2004) Qualitative methods. In: Goethels GR, Sorenson GJ and MacGregor Burns J (eds) Encyclopedia of Leadership , Vol. 3. 1279-1284.
27.
Payne G., Williams M. and Chamberlain S. ( 2004) Methodological pluralism inBritish sociology. Sociology38: 153-163.
28.
Pink S. ( 2007) Doing Visual Ethnography: Images, Media and Representation in Research, 2nd edn. London : Sage.
29.
Podsakoff PM, Todor WD, Grover RA and Huber VL ( 1984) Situational moderators of leader reward and punishment behaviors: Fact or fiction? Organizational Behavior and Human Performance34: 21-63.
30.
Rynes SL, Hillman A., Ireland RD, Kirkman B., Law K., Miller CC, Rajagopalan N. and Shapiro D. ( 2005) Everything you’ve always wanted to know about AMJ (but may have been afraid to ask). Academy of Management Journal48(5): 732-737.
31.
Scandura TA and Williams EA ( 2000) Research methodology in management: Current practices, trends, and implications for future research. Academy of Management Journal43: 1248-1264.
32.
Wood M. ( 2005) The fallacy of misplaced leadership. Journal of Management Studies42(6): 1101-1121.
