The Transforming Leader: A Meta-Ethnographic Analysis

Community College Review, Winter, 1998 by C. Dean Pielstick

The author describes an analysis of the leadership literature conducted to identify the themes, patterns, and connections that define transformational leadership. Meta-ethnography is explained as a method to conduct an interpretive synthesis of qualitative research and other secondary sources as a counterpart to meta-analysis for quantitative research. The literature on transformational leadership and related sources on community college leadership provided the data for the study, which were analyzed using open coding and the constant comparative technique to produce a profile of transformational leadership. The profile rests on seven major themes that the author describes and elaborates upon in terms of connecting concepts and how community college leaders can apply them: creating a shared vision, communicating it, building relationships, developing a culture, guiding implementation, exhibiting character, and achieving results.

James MacGregor Burns's Pulitzer prize winning Leadership (1978) transformed our thinking about leading. Since his seminal work, a great deal has been written about the nature of leading. Roueche, Baker, and Rose (1989) focused on leadership in community colleges and identified the importance of shared vision and other factors in transformational leadership. Much has been written about the characteristics and actions that define a transforming leader, but few community college leaders have the time to study and synthesize the available literature on leadership.

This report describes a meta-ethnographic study of the leadership literature that was conducted to identify the themes, patterns, and connections that define transformational leadership. This information was developed for used by community college leaders who find themselves in the permanent whitewater of constant change as they move into the twenty-first century.

Research Design

The purpose of this study was to analyze and synthesize the research literature about transformational leadership and to identify the patterns and connections that describe transformational leadership. Meta-analysis can be used for such cross-study analyses. However, it is limited to comparable quantitative studies (Wachter & Straf, 1990). This excludes qualitative research, theoretical literature, and other professional expertise. Consequently, meta-analysis was not considered an appropriate methodology for this study.

A research methodology that can be used to integrate the findings of multiple sources and methods of qualitative research is meta-ethnography. Meta-ethnography provides a way to conduct an interpretive synthesis of qualitative research and other secondary sources, as a counterpart to meta-analysis for quantitative research (Noblit & Hare, 1988):

  Our meta-ethnographic approach enables a rigorous procedure for deriving
  substantive interpretations about any set of ethnographic or interpretive
  studies.... A meta-ethnography can be considered a complete study in itself.
  [Meta-ethnography] compares and analyzes texts, creating new interpretations
  in the process. It is much more than what we usually mean by a literature
  review. (p. 9)

Meta-ethnography evolved from meta-analysis. As an interpretive methodology, meta-ethnography is not limited to synthesizing strictly comparable studies as meta-analysis is. Meta-ethnography may be used to synthesize information regarding a phenomenon such as transformational leadership that has been extensively described in a variety of other sources including quantitative studies, qualitative studies, and professional expertise. Thus, meta-ethnography provides a way to analyze and synthesize the literature on transformational leadership.

Criteria of Soundness

To have value, research must conform to rigorous standards. The traditional standards of sampling, reliability, and validity regarding quantitative research do not apply to qualitative research. In their place, researchers have established various "criteria of soundness" for design and methods (Marshall & Rossman, 1989, p. 144). Three lists of criteria were synthesized to create the criteria for this analysis (Lincoln & Guba, 1985, p. 290; Marshall & Rossman, 1989; Miles & Huberman, 1994): Credibility shows "that the inquiry was conducted in such a manner as to ensure that the subject was accurately identified and described" (Marshall & Rossman, 1989, p. 145). Transferability refers to the generalizability of the findings. Lincoln and Guba (1985) place this responsibility on those who make the generalization. Dependability requires accounting for dynamic changes in the phenomenon of study, design, or methodology as appropriate. Confirmability reflects the degree of objectivity demonstrated by the researcher. Utilization/application/action orientation suggests whether the findings have value for practitioners.

Triangulation provided the primary technique used for ensuring the soundness of this analysis. Triangulation was accomplished by using multiple studies, multiple types of sources, and a review of the findings by two experts. The reviewers were recognized experts and leaders in the field of leadership training.