A500.3.4.RB – EXPLORE THE HUNT LIBRARY

           As a full time employee and an online student pursuing a master’s degree program in Leadership, the convenience of academic resources is of utmost importance.  Hunt Library is an excellent resource for my matriculation.  I can access any resource material at any time electronically.  Since it has an option of accessing resources digitally, it offers no physical boundaries; retrieving information is very convenient; the resource materials are available for my use round the clock; but most especially, it provides me with the link to other resources of other digital library.  Library resources are boundless.

            According to Cornell University Libraries (2015), “scholarly or peer-reviewed journal articles are written by scholars or professionals who are experts in their fields”. 

UTSA Libraries (2015) defines scholarly or academic sources:

Their purpose is to share information within the subject field and they are based on original research and experimentation.  They are suitable for academics, and are supported by a system of learning and study.  They are less widely circulated than popular sources and may be understand only to those who work or study in particular field.  In addition, scholarly sources are juried through peer review (referee process).

In order to “ensure that the articles that wind up in academic journals have scholastic merit and contribute to the overall research in the field” (UTSA Libraries, 2015), journal editors who elect to release the information, forward the article to the appropriate scholar of the field.  The scholar of the field will have no knowledge of the name of the author in order to guarantee that assessment is purely based on the article’s merit instead of the notoriety of the author.

            Utilizing Hunt Library in searched for an article about leadership concepts, I came across an article entitled “Kunja leadership: concept and nomological validity”, authored by Su Young Ryu of School of Business, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, South Korea.  Ryu’s research objective was to deliver a system of leadership that could be practiced or applicable in a Confucian culture.  It also aims to support a systematic design that can assimilate the behaviors and traits of a leader’s influence to others, genuinely.

            Ryu’s research paper was reviewed and assessed by a philosopher or a scholar of the field.  The research paper defined kunja as “leader with moral virtues who leads people” (Ryu, 2015).  It was further stated that “humanity, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and trustworthiness” (Ryu, 2015) are sets of values that induces our humanity.  The paper further defined Kunja Leadership “as the influencing process of a leader who makes members agree to achieve upper-level goals and voluntarily cooperate to improve performance by practicing moral virtues and creating the sense of community” (Ryu, 2015). 

            The research paper that was focused on the concept and nomological validity of kunja leadership (KL) introduced three verifiable explorations or studies.

Study 1 - investigated the concept of KL and suppositional framework.  The measurement scale used in Ryu’s investigation, corroborated that the five concepts of KL (humanity, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom and trustworthiness) are indisputably correlated and can be confidently revealed as the “moral traits and managerial behaviors” (Ryu, 2015) of an outstanding leader.

Study 2 – The convergent and discriminant validity of KL was interrogated in this stage.  The questionnaire used in this study constituted factors about traits and behaviors comparable to kunja leadership (KL), transformational leadership (TL), and authentic leadership (AL).  The results validated the “hypothesis that KL would be a mutually exclusive and independent concept from TL and AL” (Ryu, 2015).

            Study 3 – “Trust in the leader was defined as loyalty, perceived fairness, and general satisfaction with the leadership style” (Ryu, 2015). 

The efficiency of KL was the core of Study 3’s experiment.  The impact of trust in the leader on identified group performance and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) at the team level, was the core of the experiment.  The outcome of the experiment implied that trust in the leader infringed the correlation between KL, group performance and OCB.

            In summation, although Ryu’s research paper of the concept and nomological validity of kunja leadership was not able to objectively supply comparison between kunja leadership, transformational leadership and authentic leadership, the similarities of the concept of KL to other leadership models will assist in defining the future validity and originality of KL.

            Popular sources like Google search engine, “are widely available, usually cheaper to acquire, and can be understood by almost every person with basic literacy skills.  They tend to promulgate known ideas and theories” (UTSA Libraries, 2015).

            An article entitled, “Organizational Leadership Concepts”, written by Osmond Vitez of Demand Media, can be found electronically utilizing Google search engine.  The article exhibits Vitez’ assumptions and conjectures of organizational leadership. 

            According to Vitez (2009), “organizational leadership often manifests itself in a business owner or executive directors of a company…Organizational leaders may respond to various negative business situations based on their core personality traits”.  Vitez further wrote that the characteristics of “enthusiasm, conscientiousness, boldness, self-assurance and competitiveness” (Vitez, 20019) are traits of leadership that provide anyone the business proficiency that enable them to carry out assigned tasks or motivate people to perform tasks along with a leader especially in the midst of a difficult situation.  The effect of strong leadership brings an organization an advantage, not only to present its organizational goals and objectives, but most specially, to influence employees in achieving them.

            Vitez’ and Ryu’s article are very distinctive.  Vitez’ article was purely based on his own perception, idea or even perhaps his own experiences.  He did not present any proof nor justification to substantiate his claim.  Ryu’s article on the other hand, was based on experimentation and researched to validate her thesis.

 References:

Ryu, Su Young, “Kunja leadership: concept and nomological validity”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 08/2015, Volume 36, Issue 6. Retrieved from http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/doi/full/10.1108/LODJ-12-2013-0167

UTSA Libraries.  Scholarly Resources. Retrieved from http://libguides.utsa.edu/content.php?pid=104024&sid=782402

Cornell University Libraries. Distinguishing Scholarly from Non-Scholarly Periodicals: A Checklist of Criteria: Introduction & Definitions. Retrieved from http://guides.library.cornell.edu/scholarlyjournals

Vitez, Osmond, “Organizational Leadership Concepts”, Demand Media. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-leadership-concepts-1212.html