Challenges in Dealing with My Selected Topic

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Challenges in Dealing with My Selected Topic

The topic that I will research in my final project is the role of leadership in the management of disasters and emergencies. As I prepare to tackle this subject matter, I anticipate facing several challenges, one of which is the relative overabundance of reading materials and scholarly works relating to leadership. Thus, sorting through them to identify those that will be relevant and specific to my research area will be somewhat challenging in that it will require establishing a particular set of inclusion criteria. Also, this will be a challenge in that it will complicate the scoping of my literature review. Scoping the literature review is crucial in identifying its linkage with the research questions, especially when qualitative research methods are adopted, as Fellows and Edwards (2014) suggest.

The second challenge is the quantity of literature. Given the potential of the overabundance of sources and reading materials on the construct of leadership, the quantity of literature that I will likely access will be overwhelmingly large. Dealing with such literature quantity will be a challenge for me because a literature review is usually an iterative engagement rather than a linear process. By iterative I mean that literature review entails managing the quantity of literature accessed, retrieving data that will support the framework of my research, and determining the keywords and alternative search terms while constantly looking for new research sources to validate findings (Hagen-Zanker & Mallett, 2013; Lentz et al., 2016). For this reason, I will most likely find myself revisiting each of the literature-review steps multiple times before I can complete my literature review.

The third challenge I anticipate to encounter is the concern relating to the narrowness or broadness of my study focus. I see this concern as inevitable because I have to balance the focus to ensure that it is neither too narrow nor too wide, as Donahoe and Ross (2013) advocate. On the one hand, a study focus that is too narrow will imply possibilities of covering little about the topic because I cannot find enough information to work with (Fayetteville State University, 2020), hence missing out on the real impact of the research. One the other hand, a study focus that is too broad will be deemed vague while leading to the problem of overabundance of information that can overwhelm my research efforts. For this reason, I will be obliged to prepare myself for adapting my research as I skim through literature to ensure I maintain the desired level of study focus and make my research manageable.

The fourth challenge that I expect to face when researching my selected topic is the time management issue. As I grapple with attaining a balance between my part-time job commitments and research efforts, meeting research project deadlines, and juggling other tasks, I will need to manage my time better. A significant amount of time will be necessary for me to conduct an in-depth inquiry into literature, engage in an intense exploration, and draft and polish my research project paper. Accomplishing these research steps without proper time management will be impossible.

The last challenge will entail choosing the right research methodology that appropriately aligns with the scope and design of my research. While the research methodology is the necessary procedure for moving forward with my research topic, getting it to align with my research question will be challenging because it will require considerations of three factors. These factors will include honing my research design, soliciting feedback from my instructor, and deciding whether a qualitative or quantitative orientation or a mixture of both approaches will best work for my research methodology.

References

Donahoe, D., & Ross, J. (2013). Chapter 7: Student scholarly writing: The seminar paper. Legal Writing Pedagogy: Commenting, Conferencing, and Classroom Teaching. Pressbooks.

Fayetteville State University. (2020). Develop a research topic. Fayetteville, NC. Fayetteville State University. Retrieved June 06, 2020, from http://library.uncfsu.edu/reference/intro-to-library-research/develop-a-research-topic.

Fellows, J., & Edwards, M. (2014). User guidelines on qualitative methods in health workforce planning and forecasting. London: Centre for Workforce Intelligence.

Hagen-Zanker, J., & Mallett, R. (2013). How to do a rigorous, evidence-focused literature review in international development: A guidance note. London: Overseas Development Institute.

Lentz, J., Kennett, M., Perlmutter, J., & Forrest, A. (2016). Paving the way to a more effective informed consent process: Recommendations from the clinical trials transformation initiative. Contemporary clinical trials, 49, 65-69.