THEMATIC ANALYSIS

PRESENTATION

Alexander Roberts
January 28, 2023
OGL 482: Org Leadership Pro-Seminar II
Dr. Janice Lawhorn
INTRODUCTION
The goal of a thematic analysis is to identify themes, i.e. patterns in the data
that are important or interesting and use these themes to identify patterns of
thought and value. This is much more than simply summarizing the data; a
good thematic analysis interprets and makes sense of it.

Throughout this presentation, past articles of coursework and reflection will

be reviewed for key themes, subjects, and values. Extrapolation of noted
keywords will be further explored.
 Research
➢ Assessments ➢ Keywords ➢ Relationships Method
➢ Previous ➢ Phrases ➢ Identified
Coursework Values
➢ Reflections
DATA SOURCING
• Leader Identity Narrative (LIN) – An exercise conducted to examine key
moments throughout personal leadership development from adolescence to
the present. High and low points have been identified as turning points of
substantial change.
• Career Anchors Assessment (CAA) – Taken from Unit 1, the Career Anchor
Assessment serves to define which of our needs has the highest priority;
which of the factors in our work lives we may not be willing to give up
because they represent who we really are.
• Work Style Fit & Graph – Taken from OGL340: Socrates, the Super Worker,
we conducted self-assessments to determine our preferred working styles
and differentiated the types of work that is accomplished between surface-
level tasks, group project tasks, and organizational-level tasks.
• Life Design – This assignment analyzed our past accomplishments and
created a road map for the future with information taken from another
assessment to determine our motivational values.
DATA SOURCING (CONT.)
• DISC Personality Model - This assessment is designed to test personality by
calculating my personal DISC profile based on everyday typical behavior.
The DISC factors: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Compliance
explain behavior towards others and the everyday things that I do.
• Enlisted Performance Reports (EPR) – Written every year, these reports
capture accomplishments and are used to archive performance trends.
• Three Qs – A set of three questions proposed by Michael Himes.
• Kuder Assessments
 Career Interests – Rates how much you would like or dislike each activity. Asks,
“What do you like to do?”
 Skills Confidence – Rates how confident you are that you can accomplish each
activity. Asks, “What do you believe you're good at doing?”
 Super’s Work Values Inventory – Rates how important work-related values are
to you.
THEMES OVERVIEW
It is possible for personal values to change over time and thus the themes of
one's recent work might contradict past reflection. Identifying themes is half
of the thematic analysis process, while the remaining half is understanding
why those themes have changed. The following are the ten themes that have
been identified between all my data sources.
THEME ONE
• Theme Statement – I am motivated by stability and order.

• Supporting Data
 Life Design - According to my life design, my number one value is the amount of
stability I have within certain aspects of my life – namely career and financial
stability.
 Career Anchors Assessment - Although it was not my highest scoring field on the
assessment, security, stability, and organizational identity was my third highest
rank.
 Kuder Career Interests Assessment – I achieved a high conventional for my career
interest, indicating that I prefer to work with set rules rather than exploring new
ideas.

Reflection: I am not sure if stability and order were my priorities during my adolescence,
but they are worries that I am constantly considering. My career in the military has
helped quell these thoughts, but they linger from time to time.
THEME TWO
• Theme Statement – I take pride in my accomplishments.
• Supporting Data
 Career Anchors Assessment – Technical/functional competence was my highest
rating at 69.
 Kuder Career Interests Assessment – My enterprising score is equal to my
conventional score and indicates that I am motivation by achievements and take
pride in my goal accomplishments.
 DISC – Dominance was, by far, my highest rating and it is noted that I tend to want
to be recognized for my efforts and that I usually lose interest in a project once the
challenge is over.

Reflection: Ever since I graduated high school, I’ve made it a point to be as perfect as I
can be in my task accomplishment. This did not occur before graduating and I still feel
the effects of not being the best I could’ve been.
THEME THREE
• Theme Statement – I am independent and trusted to make many decisions
on my own. I do not have to constantly report to a supervisor.
• Supporting Data
 Super’s Work Values Inventory – Independence is my third highest value ranking
 DISC – My dominant rating indicates that I am usually self-sufficient and
individualistic.
 Work Style Fit – I am labeled as an adaptor/independent worker, both of which fit
perfectly into what position I am in right now within my work center.

Reflection: My career is full of guidelines and rules that I am legally bound to, and these
make it incredibly easy to be self-sufficient and know what to do in most situations.
While I oversaw multi-million-dollar projects, I was expected to be the decision-maker for
the foreseeable future.
THEME FOUR
• Theme Statement – Income/financial stability is my main career motivator

• Supporting Data
 Super’s Work Values Inventory – Income is my highest value ranking
 Life Design – We laid out and defined a road map of the near future that included
the unpredictable and I ranked income as the building block for stability
 Leader Identity Narrative – I did not mention it within my submission, but I
developed a monetary mindset while in high school that led me to a large amount of
disposable income

Reflection: I am not sure why I was so concerned about my financial stability when I was
younger. The more I reflect on it, the more the concept points back towards my father’s
frugal nature and resourcefulness.
THEME FIVE
• Theme Statement – I prefer to work in a position of authority.
• Supporting Data
 Career Anchors Assessment – Right behind technical/functional competence on the
assessment was managerial competence, a skill that I’ve been semi-forced to
develop.
 Work Style Graph – My preferred work style has been identified at the project or
organizational level rather than individual tasks.
 Kuder Career Interests Assessment – All of the listed occupations to explore pointed
towards managerial and executive positions, the only outlier, to my surprise, is
museum curator.

Reflection: This theme is relatively new. It wasn’t until about 2019/2020 that I had any
position of authority within my workplace. However, I seemed to fit the bill well despite
developing workaholic-like tendencies. Now, I prefer to be leading change rather than
following orders.
THEME SIX
• Theme Statement – I prefer to solve problems with guidelines and
networking.

• Supporting Data
 Kuder Skills Confidence Assessment – Enterprising was by far the highest interest I
had from the assessment and indicates that I prefer to problem solve by social
influence and control.
 DISC – Compliance is my second highest scoring category. Some behaviors that are
shown include acting in a tactful, diplomatic way and strive for a stable, ordered
life.
 Work Style Graph – My preference of working at the project-level came to be
because I like being able to coordinate and communicate between different agencies
what needs to be done.

Reflection: This statement slightly overlaps with the first theme that I noted, the fact
that I lean towards progress that occurs within guidelines and required order. The
networking aspect of this statement is one that has developed only recently.
THEME SEVEN
• Theme Statement – I enjoy the altruistic feeling of helping others.
• Supporting Data
 2021 EPR – I was a part of Operation Allies Welcome and aided the
evacuation/integration of Afghan citizens while at Ramstein AB.
 Leader Identity Narrative – I mentioned early on in my narrative story that I chose
to spend a lot of my free time tutoring the middle school that was around the corner.
 2019/2020 EPR – I incorporated my hobbies into volunteer opportunities. In 2019, I
officiated as jump master for British skydivers. In 2020, I helped train classes at
intermediate rock climbing gyms.

 Contradicting Data
 Career Anchors Assessment – Sense of Service/Dedication to a Cause was my lowest
scoring total by far.

Reflection: I am unsure if I truly enjoy volunteering my time for other causes or if I just
do it if it interests/benefits me. My performance reports usually require that I have at
least one instance of volunteering, and it usually the bit that I dread the most.
THEME EIGHT
• Theme Statement – I value proper preparation and time management.

• Supporting Data
 Life Design – My life design lists out certain goals for emotional, mental, and
physical health. Nearly half of the goals listed had “time” as the main requirement
to achieve them.
 Three Qs – Time management is one of the strongest traits I have, and I started
developing the skillset about 15 years ago when I first entered high school.
 DISC – Dominance was my highest scoring field and I am labeled as wanting to aim
high, and labeled as generally resourceful and adaptable.

Reflection: I know why I started to value time management when I was younger, but the
reason is silly. I wanted to be able to knock out chores as fast as possible just to be able to
play games more. My parents didn’t like this and kept adding more chores which would
just cause me to adjust the equation. I currently hold my Green Belt certification.
THEME NINE
• Theme Statement – I strive for personal and professional development.
• Supporting Data
 Career Anchors Assessment – Technical/functional competence was my highest
rating at 69. While I do not particularly love my current career, I aim to be the most
overqualified at it while I am the rank that I am.
 Super’s Work Values Inventory – (Independence) I believe that having control over
my work and career decisions is essential for professional growth and development.
 Life Design – Within the first few pages of the Life Design assignment, we were to
identify certain benchmarks in our lives, much like turning points. The strife for
excellence is repeated multiple times throughout the benchmarks.

Reflection: I was never really that keen on any kind of development. When I first joined,
I just focused on doing my job, getting paid every two weeks, and that was it. It was until
I tried giving advice to a subordinate of mine that I realized how badly I had been
slacking. If I had been more serious, I’d have doubled my salary and probably be starting
a PhD at this point. I do not regret the time I spent when I was younger though.
THEME TEN
• Theme Statement – It is important that I feel satisfied with my career.
• Supporting Data
 Super's Work Values Inventory – There were a few values listed in my top twelve that
could be used to argue that my workplace is important.
 Kuder Career Interests Assessment – In this assessment, Realistic was just about on par
with Enterprising and Conventional. After reading through the description of Realistic
and reflecting a bit, I do believe I would prefer to work in a career that allows me to use
my hands, whether that be with tools, or if it’s number-crunching.
 Life Design – This may or may not be considered the contradicting data for this theme. I
mentioned within my Life Design that I had not considered my career a source of
satisfaction, but this feeling has changed since the design’s first draft.

Reflection: A satisfying career can lead to increased levels of happiness, better work-life
balance, more job satisfaction, and a greater sense of purpose. Honestly, I should have put this
much higher on the theme list, but I generally don’t feel one way or another towards the work
that I have to do currently. If I had a less ideal position, I’d probably rank this higher.
VISION STATEMENT
To be a strong leader both personally and professionally. And to be known for
inspiring my employees, coworkers, and family to be more than they thought
they could be.

Reflection: As I think about this vision statement, I am reminded of the

importance of being a positive influence on those around me. I do not put as
much effort into being a listening mentor and overall human being than I
should. I often get wrapped up in the production side of my career field and
fail to understand that without the people that are present everyday, nothing
would be accomplished.
MISSION STATEMENT
My personal mission is to use my perception, tenacity, and versatility to
educate, lead, and learn so that I can obtain my career goals, financial
stability, and become the best mentor I can be for those that look to me for
answers.

Reflection: I’ve developed a personalized mission statement in the past, but

that was years ago and my values have certainly changed since then. I
revisited the same method, and I discovered that trying to become a mentor is
much more prevalent. After thinking about it for a bit, I attributed this new
value to the lack of positive mentors in my past and I strive not to emulate
those.
CONCLUSION
Values are at the core of who we are as individuals and help shape who we
become. They provide us with a sense of purpose, direction and meaning in
life. Additionally, they affect our decisions, relationships, and overall outlook
on life, and it is important to keep them in mind in order to make informed
decisions and stay true to ourselves.

The ten themes I have identified throughout this presentation will surely
change over the next 2, 5, and 10 years. Regardless, I believe it is important to
reflect periodically to maintain alignment between what it is I truly want and
feel, versus what is simply said, but not meant.
REFERENCES
• DISC Personality Test. https://www.123test.com/disc-personality-test/

• Kuder Assessments. https://journey.kuder.com/my-assessments/my-

assessment-results