Running head: REFLECTING ON YOUR RESEARCH RELATIONSHIPS

Maxwell Exercise 5.1 Reflecting on Your Research Relationships

Karin Fonseca
Valdosta State University

REFLECTING ON YOUR RESEARCH RELATIONSHIPS

Maxwell Exercise 5.1 Reflecting on Your Research Relationships

I have always been interested in organizational leadership. Having worked in the private
and public sector, I have been able to learn and add to the leadership skills and tools I have
attained over time. During a summer course about leadership, I realized there are many types of
leadership, some, which I am not particularly familiarized with, however, that have inspired me
to want to do this study in Church leadership. I have discovered an entire organization that must
lead, strategize and develop in order to grow and continue succeeding in a Church. When I
moved to Valdosta, I started attending CrossPointe Chruch, and by no means I am an extremely
devoted Christian. I know I have much to learn. , This can be a positive thing, as I am entering a
culture I am not so familiarized with. However, the more I heard the stories about the pastor the
more interested I get in understanding his life story and leadership style that has made a small
community grow so much in the past decade. I have had some interaction in a superficial level
with pastor but I cannot say I have a personal or friendship relation with him. I plan to present
the idea of studying the success story of CrossPointe as a partnership project where he could also
benefit from it. I will focus on explaining the importance of analyzing the leadership aspects of
the organization.
As a researcher, I am aware this process will take time and I must start by having an
informal conversation about my research topic and also listen to what the pastor would be
confortable with, as well as his ideas and how he could influence the study in order to gain
something back. Once that partnership is confirmed, I plan to develop a relationship with his
leadership team as well as obtaining contact information from participants that have worked with
him in the past within the organization or in his previous career to obtain more validity. All
participants will be purposefully selected. Another small sample I tend to gather information

REFLECTING ON YOUR RESEARCH RELATIONSHIPS

from is from members of the church. I can randomly select them, or purposefully select them
using some criterias such as years of membership in the same church community, gender, age
group, and others. That could lead this research to involve some sort of quantitative method,
which I am not sure if I would like to add to the research. Hopefully I will be able to add
members insight in a qualitative manner providing validity to the study.
The fact I have attended this particular church could create some disadvantage. I will
have to critically analyze not only my biases issues and myself but be critical in the analysis of
participants information as well. I will have to be extremely careful, as it will be a complex
process. On the other hand, the fact I am not from this country and I am not fully familiarized
with the roots and culture of the institution will also play a challenge. All of the above suggest
pros and cons, which must be critically thought though and analyzed so not to affected the study
of the phenomena.
Because this is a church community, participants will tend to want to help and participate.
On the other hand, for the same reason, I will have to work really hard on the interviews in order
to get the true information to best understand what is going on. I will worry about the
pretending to be or how careful participants will be in answering the questions. Building trust
and transparency is what I consider to be fundamental for the information to be as raw and real
as possible. Furthermore it is crucial that the participants understand the purpose of the study so
that they can truly provide quality information. I personally do not think that status and power
differences in between participants and me will play a role in this particular environment.
Nonetheless, I will be perceptive and try to always make the participants feel comfortable and in
agreement of the processes, ethical and confidential issues. I will explain the research project,
the purpose and allow them to review the material for authorization. I will try to offer my

REFLECTING ON YOUR RESEARCH RELATIONSHIPS

services and time in exchange for theirs as well. With the Pastor, I will express the desire of
working in this project as partners and show the benefits this study could provide not only for
myself, but also most importantly for him and others. I will express my desire to present the
findings in an international conference extending him an invitation as a symbol of appreciation.
We can present it together and bring more audience to the success story of this particular
organization.
In any study there are ethical, philosophical and political issues that can rise, and I plan to
be aware and sensitive to those matters always in honest open communication so that the
relationships built can grow and evolve over time. I am aware there will be need of
authorizations and confidentiality agreements to be put in place to assure the process is ethical
and in accordance to regulations.
Reflection:
This exercise helped me to realize the many factors to consider when developing the
relationships, partnerships and connections that will provide key information to the study. The
main point personally is that one must be aware that the relationship will be always in progress
and adaptation will be required. Another extremely important factor is to always be openminded and critical with the information provided, while always being ethical.