Research Methodology

Lecture 4: The Critical Literature Review

Prof. Dr. Raghda El Ebrashi

Associate Professor of Strategic Management
Head of the Management & Organization Department
Learning Objectives
 Understand what a literature review is.
 Comprehend the importance of literature review for the overall research.
 Recognize the most important aspects of the literature review and the main sources of
data.
 Literature Review
 A literature review is “the selection of available documents … on the topic,
which contain information, ideas, data and evidence … and the effective
evaluation of these documents in relation to the research being proposed” (Hart,
1998, p. 13).
 It’s an account of what has been published on a topic by accredited scholars and
researchers.
 Enlarges your knowledge about the topic.
 Its an integration of articles/paragraph.
 Its not just a descriptive list of the material available, or a set of summaries.

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 Literature Review
 A literature review should do several things:

1. Summarize the results of past research on the topic.

2. Identify areas of controversies.
3. Identify unanswered questions (research gaps).

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Functions Literature Review
 Research builds on existing knowledge
 One does “reinvent the wheel”
 Find out what variables are important to consider
 Introduce relevant terminology/provide definitions
 Provide arguments for the proposed relationships
 Testability and replicability are enhanced.
 Research findings are related to findings of others.

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Ask yourself
 What is the scope of my literature review? What types of publications am I using (e.g.,
journals, books, government documents, popular media)? What discipline am I
working in (e.g., psychology, sociology, political science)?

 How good was my search? Has my search been wide enough to ensure I've found all
the relevant material? Has it been narrow enough to exclude irrelevant material? Is the
number of sources I've used appropriate? Are they current?

 Have I critically analyzed the literature I use? Instead of just listing and summarizing
items, do I assess them, discussing strengths and weaknesses?

 Have I cited and discussed studies contrary to my perspective?

 Will the reader find my literature review relevant, appropriate, and useful?
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Documentation of Lit Review
 Your conducting research on leadership. You can use one of the following
strategies to organize your lit review section:
 Organizing your writing by time (chronology)- you first discuss early
leadership theories such as the Great Man Theory (19 th century) than
you discuss Behavioral theories (1950s). Than you move on to
contingency theories (1960s and 70s), transformational theory (1990s)
and finally servant and ethical leadership.

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Documentation of Lit Review
 Organizing your writing by issue or theme- For example,
contingency theories versus deterministic theories. Another
example could be behavior-based versus trait-based theories of
leadership.

 Choose the strategy that makes sense to your purpose.

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Literature sources
 Textbooks
 Academic and professional journals
 Theses
 Conference proceedings
 Unpublished manuscripts
 Reports of government departments and corporations
 Newspapers
 The Internet

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Literature Review Sample

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Thanks!
Any questions?

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