Article analysis refers to the art of breaking down a piece of literature to demonstrate an understanding of the piece of literature. Typically, article analysis involves summarizing the main points of an article. This helps ensure the audience understands the major points discussed in the article without much struggle or difficulty. Article analysis helps one understand what he or she has read. It also helps sharpen an individual’s critical thinking skills. The steps involved in analysing an article include skimming through the article, reading the article, and digging deeper into the content of the article. Once you have read and understood the article, summarize the main points. This paper will delve into analyzing three articles. These articles include the article “ A quantitative study of military career transitions with an emphasis in knowledge management” by Janice Sharkey; “Retention of non-traditional students: A quantitative research study” by Shirley Nickolas; and Gender-based comparison of project manager leadership behaviors: A quantitative study by Dona Karch. It is important to note that only the results/discussion section of these three articles will be analyzed.
Article #1
Sharkey, J. L. (2011). A quantitative study of military career transitions with an emphasis on knowledge management (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).
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Janice Sharkey conducted this study to determine the factors that influence soldiers’ inability to transition to the next career. Some of the variables that were measured include TAP workshop effectiveness, one-on-one counseling effectiveness, adequate computer services, soldier transition confidence index, and expected transition service performance. The settings of the study were the Texas Army Career and Alumni Program (ACAP) center. From the study, the researcher found that the transition soldiers sought ACAP assistance for reasons, which include voluntary separation (50.17%), retirement (19.51%), leaving active duty (4.88%), and other (25.44%). With regard to pay grade, more than half of the transition soldiers that were studied indicated that their pay grade was E1 to E4.
With regard to demographic characteristics, the majority of the transition soldiers seeking transfer were Caucasian male soldiers, aged 18 to 25. In addition, the majority of the transition soldiers seeking transfer were high school/General Education Level (GED) graduates with less than 11 years of active duty service. With regard to the level of education, the education levels of the participants ranged from some high school to a master’s degree. The majority of the participants (196) had attained high school/GED level of education followed by associate degree (63), bachelor’s degree (23), master’s degree (3), and some high school (2).
According to the findings of the study, most of the transition soldiers thought that TAP workshops and counseling programs at the facility were effective. In addition, the transition soldiers thought that computers and internet services were adequate. The researcher also performed ANOVA tests to determine if there is a correlation between soldier transition confidence index and two independent variables, namely, education level and reason for seeking ACAP assistance. The test results indicated that there is no significant difference between soldier transition confidence index and education levels. The ANOVA test results also showed that there is no significant difference between soldier transition confidence index and reasons for seeking ACAP resistance.
Article #2
Nichols, S. J. (2009). Retention of non-traditional students: A quantitative research study . The University of Phoenix.
Shirley Nicholas conducted this study to determine the factors that influence the retention of non-traditional freshmen at a higher learning institution located in the Midwestern U.S. Some of the variables that were measured include attitudes towards studying (attitude), social norms, perceived behavioral control (control), and students’ behavioral intent to remain in school (intention). A total of 133 students participated in the study, but only 116 were included in the analysis. ANOVA test and common method variance (CMV) were used to analyze the data. Although the results from these test analyses revealed a strong model fit, underlying measurements were weak.
Out of the five variables that were measured, only one variable (attitude) contained sufficient construct validity to represent a valid and reliable measure. The other variables, which include social norms, control, and intention, did not correlate with retention. The reliability of the measurement scales was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha ( a ). The results indicated that only the attitudinal scale (attitude) was reliable ( a = 0.92). The other scales (Intention, Retention, and Control) were not reliable, and the values were substantially less than 0.70.
The scores of Norms ranged between 1 and 4, with a mean of 2.6 and a standard deviation (S.D.) of 0.85. With regard to intentions, the scores ranged between 1 and 4.3, with a mean of 2.6 and SD of 0.75. Scores for control ranged between 1 and 5, with a mean of 3.11 and SD of 1.4. Attention positively correlated with retention (r=0.33), p<0.5). Its scores ranged between 1 and 5, with a mean of 2.1 and a SD of 1.1. With regard to demographic characteristics, particularly gender, the female gender significantly contributed to the model. Overall, the main finding of the study was that the behavioral intent to remain in school (Intention) was the main factor that influenced the retention of non-traditional freshmen at the higher learning institution located in the Midwestern U.S.
Article #3
Karch, D. M. (2012). Gender-based comparison of project manager leadership behaviors: A quantitative study (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).
Dona Karch conducted this quantitative study to determine if there exists a difference in leadership between female project managers and male project managers. The researcher also conducted this study to determine if there exists a difference between female project managers and male project managers in terms of how they view important leadership behaviors. The study involved a total of 66 participants (female = 30, male = 36). In terms of industry, the study found that 24.2, 13.6%, and 34.8% of the participants were from the computer and telecommunication industry, financial services industry, and engineering construction and mining industry, respectively. In terms of qualifications or work experience, the study found that 30.3% of the participants served as project managers for 11-20 years. In addition, 18.2% of the participants help the position of Project Manager, whereas 71% had a certification related to project management.
From the findings of the study, male project managers perceived inspiration motivation as most important (mean = 1.222, standard deviation = 0.303). In contrast, female project managers perceived individualized consideration as most important (mean = 1.264, standard deviation = 0.479). Both male project managers and female project managers perceived management by exception as least important. With regard to leadership behaviors, both male project (mean = 1.708, standard deviation = 0.556) and female project managers (mean =1.819, standard deviation =0.662) had inspiration motivation as one of their leadership behavior. In contrast, they both male project managers (mean = 4.417, standard deviation = 0.665) and female project managers (mean = 4.550, standard deviation =00.407) had laissez-faire as the least evident leadership behavior. With regard to female and male project managers’ views of important leadership behaviors, the study found that the views were equal for men and women (F =3.060, p = 0.035). Generally, there exist small variations between female project managers and male project managers in terms of views on important leadership behaviors and actual leadership behaviors.
Conclusion
This paper delved into the analysis of three articles –the article written by Karch, Nickolas, and Sharkey. These three articles covered different research topics, but they all presented the findings of their study very well. Overall, the activity of analyzing the result/discussion section of these three articles was very fruitful.
References
Karch, D. M. (2012). Gender-based comparison of project manager leadership behaviors: A quantitative study (Doctoral dissertation, Capella University).
Nichols, S. J. (2009). Retention of non-traditional students: A quantitative research study . The University of Phoenix.
Sharkey, J. L. (2011). A quantitative study of military career transitions with an emphasis in knowledge management (Doctoral dissertation, University of Phoenix).
