Chapter III: Methodology As observed in recent years, large organizations are facing multiple data breaches from hackers who are trying to steal sensitive information. With the increase in technology, attackers with malicious intent are finding advanced methods to breach into the organization or even simple by exploiting known risks that could have been avoided by the organization by updating their systems on a regular basis (Alawneh, 2008). The most recent breach that we all were aware off was the Equifax data breach where it was reported that millions of its customers personal identifiable information (PII) were stolen, information such as social security number , an individual’s name, financial record, driver’s license number, etcetera.. The purpose of this paper is to how organizations can protect themselves from data breaches. What are the ways in which their data can be exposed and does employee awareness will help organizations protect themselves from being attacked from various sources? Design of the study: The data collected in this paper was a mixed approach. The collected data was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The researcher developed a questionnaire containing both open-ended and close-ended questions and all of this was administered through LimeSurvey. And most of the participants response was recorded when they were trying to explain their understanding of a breach and how data leaks can be classified into intentional threats and inadvertent threats as these recording were transliterated for further analysis using otter A.I. And each session from the participant lasted from 45 – 90 minutes depending on the tasks being performed. Data collection and participants: All the participants involved in the sessions have worked or currently working in financial organizations. Participants read and signed a consent form explaining the purpose of the research and were given the option to skip a question if they feel uncomfortable in answering a question. Participants were recruited through ads from social media and from known contacts whose education and work experience are related to the study that was being conducted. There were around 50 participants in total, 30 males and 20 females, they ranged in age from 24 - 57. When asked about data breaches and do they know who their organizations protect itself from data breaches as part of employee awareness, 40 said yes and 10 said no. And when asked about taking or participating in any data security training conducted by the organizations, 35 said yes and 15 said no. And when asked about recording their answers on a device 45 said yes and 5 said no, For the 5, we noted down their answers on a paper with their consent. Data analysis and Sampling procedures: The participants responses were addressed in two sections which are quantitative and qualitative. When analyzing the qualitative data from the questionnaire we conducted a thematic analysis in order to better analyze ...

1. Chapter III: Methodology
As observed in recent years, large organizations are facing
multiple data breaches from hackers who are trying to steal
sensitive information. With the increase in technology, attackers
with malicious intent are finding advanced methods to breach
into the organization or even simple by exploiting known risks
that could have been avoided by the organization by updating
their systems on a regular basis (Alawneh, 2008). The most
recent breach that we all were aware off was the Equifax data
breach where it was reported that millions of its customers
personal identifiable information (PII) were stolen, information
such as social security number , an individual’s name, financial
record, driver’s license number, etcetera.. The purpose of this
paper is to how organizations can protect themselves from data
breaches. What are the ways in which their data can be exposed
and does employee awareness will help organizations protect
themselves from being attacked from various sources?
Design of the study:
The data collected in this paper was a mixed approach. The
collected data was both qualitative and quantitative in nature.
The researcher developed a questionnaire containing both open-
ended and close-ended questions and all of this was
administered through LimeSurvey. And most of the participants
response was recorded when they were trying to explain their
understanding of a breach and how data leaks can be classified
into intentional threats and inadvertent threats as these
recording were transliterated for further analysis using otter
A.I. And each session from the participant lasted from 45 – 90
minutes depending on the tasks being performed.
Data collection and participants:

2. All the participants involved in the sessions have worked or
currently working in financial organizations. Participants read
and signed a consent form explaining the purpose of the
research and were given the option to skip a question if they
feel uncomfortable in answering a question. Participants were
recruited through ads from social media and from known
contacts whose education and work experience are related to the
study that was being conducted. There were around 50
participants in total, 30 males and 20 females, they ranged in
age from 24 - 57. When asked about data breaches and do they
know who their organizations protect itself from data breaches
as part of employee awareness, 40 said yes and 10 said no. And
when asked about taking or participating in any data security
training conducted by the organizations, 35 said yes and 15 said
no. And when asked about recording their answers on a device
45 said yes and 5 said no, For the 5, we noted down their
answers on a paper with their consent.
Data analysis and Sampling procedures:
The participants responses were addressed in two sections
which are quantitative and qualitative. When analyzing the
qualitative data from the questionnaire we conducted a thematic
analysis in order to better analyze the participants response to
the open-ended questions (Namey, 2012). The researcher was
mostly focused on finding a pattern, a trend or an similar ideas
that will help in outlining the analysis. The researcher
developed some code to identify similar themes and patterns.
Then started to build an initial summary or view of these codes
to identify the patterns in which the participants talked about
how insider threats and data breaches and their choice of words
and simultaneously looking for the alternative where they had
different views/insights on a data breach. The top-level codes
were associated with our research questions as they were
primarily focused on (1) How many years have you been
working in financial sector? (2) What are some the standard

3. security measures that are in place? (3) How does your
organization handle data breaches? (4) What are the
consequences of a data breach? (5) How do you as an employee
protect yourself from being a victim of a data breach? Several
subcategories were created based on the response from the
participants but note that the above are all high-level categories
which are all clustered. Analysis were also conducted on the
questionnaire or the survey whereby aggregating the score from
positive minus to the negative ones. Each response to the
question were scored 1 - 5 where 1 is always 5 is never and 3 is
sometimes.
References:
Julisch K, Dacier M (2002). Mining intrusion detection alarms
for actionable knowledge. In: Proceedings of the Eighth ACM
SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and
Data Mining
Alawneh M, Abbadi IM (2008). Preventing information leakage
between collaborating organisations. In: Proceedings of the 10th
International Conference on Electronic Commerce , ICEC.
Identity theft resource center (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.idtheftcenter.org/ data-breaches/. Accessed: 2019-
04-1.
Namey E. Guest G., MacQueen K. M (2012). Introduction to
Applied Thematic Analysis. Applied Thematic Analysis. SAGE
Publications.

4. Meets ExpectationsChapter Three: Methodology
Meets Expectations
Introduction
Servant leadership has been studied in multiple contexts since it
was introduced as a leadership theory by Greenleaf (1970,
1977). This study sought to contextualize the servant leadership
of a college president and the diffusion of that leadership style
to other levels of the college administration by career
administrators in higher education. The primary research
question in this study was: To what extent does servant
leadership by a college president diffuse to other leaders at the
institution? Based on the literature (Liden et al., 2014; Newman
et al., 2018) one would expect to see some sort of conveyance
of servant leadership to lower echelons of the institutional
administration given that servant leaders attempt to empower
their followers as leaders (Jeyaraj & Gandolfi, 2019).
Research Paradigm
Using Liu’s (2019) methodology as a loose guide, this study
used a qualitative research paradigm. Qualitative research
attempts to understand how individuals or a group perceive,
experience, and engage with a phenomenon or problem
(Creswell & Creswell, 2018). Specifically, this study took a
phenomenological approach which allowed the participants to
expound upon their lived experiences of the phenomenon of
servant leadership and its diffusion through the administration
of an institution of higher education. Phenomenological
research seeks to explore the lived experiences of humans and
how they make sense of those experiences (Moustakas, 1994).
Research Design
In her study of servant leadership by one leader in a large
information technology company, Liu (2019) designed a

5. research project focused on the leader with additional
interviews of the members of his team. This study adopted a
similar approach with modifications given the difference in
studies and what is being studied. Liu (2019) was concerned
with the intersection of race, gender, and servant leadership
whereas this study focused on the conveyance of the principles
of servant leadership throughout an organization.
Phenomenological research considers the primary source of
information to be the perceptions and disclosures of the
participants (Moustakas, 1994). Two methods of data collection
were used: semi-structured interviews and observations.
Over the course of a month, four approximately two-hour
interviews were conducted with the president of Connelly
College (the principal subject). The initial interview was semi -
structured and sought to collect background information on and
thoughts about the subject’s background and his development as
a servant leader. Subsequent interviews were casual and
unstructured focusing on thoughts from previous interviews,
themes arising in other interviews (see below), and comments
on current events relevant to leadership in higher education.
Because of the informal nature of these interviews it was
impossible to present a formal interview protocol, however,
please refer to Appendix C for an informal protocol and guiding
thoughts.
In addition to interviews with the college president,
approximately 90-minute interviews were conducted with five
members of the president’s cabinet including administrators
responsible for finance, human resources, academics, ministry
and mission, and student affairs. These interviews were semi -
structured and focused on the administrator’s thoughts of the
president as a servant leader and if and how they in turn enact
servant leadership in their own areas. Please refer to Appendix
D for an informal interview protocol for these interviews.
A third and final category of interviews were conducted with
one administrator each of whom reports to one of the five
administrators identified above. These interviews were

6. approximately 90-minutes in length and followed a semi-
structured approach. The same informal interview protocol
found in Appendix D was used in these interviews. In addition
to interviews, field observations were gathered from attendance
at two president’s cabinet meetings.
Research Site and Data Collection Sources
The research and primary data collection site for this study was
Connelly College. Several interviews occurred at nearby
restaurants or cafes as needed to accommodate participant
schedules. Connelly College is a very small, coeducational, and
faith-based college classified as a masters two institution by the
Carnegie Classification (need citation). Located in a suburban
area of a Mid-Atlantic state, Connelly serves a diverse
population with a significant population of first-generation
college students. This site was selected because of its proximity
to the researcher’s place of employment and his familiarity with
both the institution and many of its administrators. Both
Connelly College and the researcher’s institution are members
of a consortium of institutions in the geographic region.
The primary subject in this study was Brian, who has served as
the president of Connelly for approximately one year. Prior to
arriving at Connelly, Brian was the president of a medium
sized, private, nonsectarian university in the Midwest. A career
administrator in higher education, Brian received his doctorate
in education only three years prior to becoming the president of
Connelly. Brian has spoken and written about his orientation as
a servant leader.
In addition to Brian, the following people were identified for
this study based on recommendations from Brian:
· Bruce – Executive-level administrator who holds a doctorate
· Betty – Mid-level administrator who holds a master’s degree
and reports to Bruce
· Debbie – Senior administrator who holds a master’s degree
· Anna – Mid-level administrator who holds a master’s degree

7. and reports to Debbie
· Madeline – Executive-level administrator who holds a
doctorate
· Cathy – Senior administrator who holds a master’s degree and
reports to Madeline
· Grace – Executive-level administrator who holds a master’s
degree and is a member of the founding religious order of the
college
· Evelyn – Mid-level administrator who holds a doctorate and
reports to Grace
· Wade – Senior administrator who holds a master’s degree
· Bridget – Mid-level administrator who holds a master’s degree
and reports to Wade
The names of all participants have been changed and limited
information is provided here in order to maintain their privacy.
All participants were provided with information regarding the
process of the study and what was involved. Each participant
completed an informed consent document before their interview
began. A copy of the informed consent document is available in
Appendix B.
Prior to the beginning of this study, all materials and plans were
submitted for review by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of
the University of the Cumberlands and the IRB of Connelly
College. Both IRBs have approved this project and copies of
their approval can be found in Appendix A.
Each interview was recorded with both a digital recorder and a
cell phone-based recording application and transcribed using
Amazon Transcribe. Transcriptions of each interview was sent
to the respective participant and each participant was offered an
audio file of their interview.
Analysis
Phenomenological research generates a large amount of raw
data which must be analyzed. However, before any analysis was
conducted, the researcher reviewed his own notes and bracketed
his own assumptions and judgements. This step is recommended

8. by Moustakas (1994) in order to eliminate as much research bias
as possible before data is analyzed. Though it is impossible to
completely eliminate research bias in a qualitative and
phenomenological study, this step is very helpful in reducing
that bias. Moustakas (1994) identified four steps in analyzing
phenomenological data: reduction, horizontalization,
imaginative variation, and essence. The first step, reduction, is
achieved by reducing the data into common themes and
experiences as discussed by the participants. The second step,
horizontalization, requires the researcher to obtain a “30,000
foot” view of the data in hopes of viewing it equally. The third
step, imaginative variation, asks the researcher to view the data
from counter and congruent perspectives. The fourth and final
step, essence, draws the data and the other steps together to
form an essence of the phenomenon and the experiences of the
participants.
The researcher proceeded through the analysis process outlined
above. He opted for structural coding with a set of a priori
themes and references derived from the literature including
listening, imagination, acceptance, accountability, persuasion,
and conceptualization (Heyler & Martin, 2018); and
empowering, helping subordinates grow and succeed, and
behaving ethically (Liden et al., 2014). Emergent themes not
suggested by the literature were also noted and coded as part of
the process. The coding process and analysis was primarily
conducted manually, but NVivo qualitative research software
was used for data storage and assistance in identifying emergent
themes.
Other Considerations
While all studies admit of some limitations, this study was
potentially limited in the following ways. First, the sample
consisted of individuals, including the president and three
executive-level administrators, at a very small college. Though
every assurance was given and step taken to reasonably
guarantee the confidentiality of the data, some lower ranking

9. administrators may have felt less inclined to share their full
perspective. Second, Brian, the primary participant and
president of Connelly College has only served in this role for
one year. Once Brian has been in his position for more years
there may be further diffusion of servant leadership throughout
the administration.
References
Creswell, J. W. & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design:
Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. (5th
ed.). Sage.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1970). The servant as leader. The Robert K.
Greenleaf Center.
Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leader: A journey into the
nature of legitimate power and greatness. Paulist Press.
Heyler, S. G. & Martin, J. A. (2018). Servant leadership theory:
Opportunities for additional theoretical integration. Journal of
Managerial Issues, 30(2), 230-243.
Jeyaraj, J. J. & Gandolfi, F. (2019). Exploring trust, dialogue,
and empowerment in servant leadership: Insights from critical
pedagogy. Journal of Management Research, 19(4), 285-290.
Liden, R. C., Wayne, S. J., Liao, C., & Meuser, J. D. (2014).
Servant leadership and serving culture: Influence on individual
and unit performance. Academy of Management Journal, 57(5),
1434- 1452.
Liu, H. (2019). Just the servant: An intersectional critique of
servant leadership. Journal of Business Ethics, 156(4), 1099-
1112.
Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods.
Sage.
Newman, A., Neesham, C., Manville, G., & Tse, H. H. M.
(2018). Examining the influence of servant and entrepreneurial
leadership on the work outcomes of employees in social
enterprises. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 29(20), 2905-2926.

10. Step 2: Using the electronic databases, find an article published
in the last seven (7) years in an APA journal with a focus on
Personality (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
or Personality and Personality Disorders). The article should
describe, specifically, an experiment or empirical study by the
researchers. This means that the researchers conducted a study
that contains easily identifiable independent and dependent
variables. (Do not select meta-analyses, summaries, editorials,
or theoretical articles. It is your responsibility to make sure
that the journal article you select is appropriate. If you are
unsure about the relevance of your article, contact your
instructor for approval.).
Step 3: Read the article starting with the Title and Abstract,
which will give you a quick preview of the purpose and results
of the article.
Step 4: Read the Introduction. Highlight the purpose of the
article and the author’s hypothesis (e.g., what was studied, what
the authors predicted, and why they found the topic worthy of
study). Pay attention to the context provided for the research
(i.e., what research has been done previously in the field? what
issue or problem is this study trying to address?)
Step 5: Read the Methods section. Note the description of the
participants and any tests, surveys, questionnaires, apparatus, or
other materials that were used. Pay particular attention to the
details involved in the experimental procedure. How were the
variables manipulated or measured? Recall that the Independent
Variable (IV) is the variable that is manipulated by the research
(i.e., whether the room is hot or cold (if that is the variable of
interest) or whether participants are given a placebo, shown any
type of media or other stimuli, given talk therapy, or instructed
to take medication (if that is the variable of interest). Remember
that the Independent Variable is what was different about the

11. experiences of the different groups. Recall also that the
Dependent Variable (DV) is that variable that is measured, or,
the outcome of the study (i.e., test performance or lessening of
depressive symptoms).
Step 6: Read the Results. Try not to get intimidated by complex
statistical analysis. Instead of focusing on the numbers, focus
on the short descriptions that accompany the findings
explaining what the researchers found (i.e., Did the researchers
find evidence that supports their hypothesis?)
Step 7: Read the Discussion. Pay special attention here to what
the authors say about the importance of their findings or the
lack of findings. Think about other things you could do to look
at this issue.
Step 8: Prepare a 2 to 5 page summary of the article in your
own words. Be sure to address the following questions in your
summary:
What is the purpose of the research? (Address specifics
regarding the overall purpose of the research in question.)
What hypothesis is tested? (Provide a clear statement of the
researchers’ prediction.)
How did the researchers investigate their research question?
(Provide details regarding the study methodology.)
What are the pertinent results of the manipulation? (What were
the findings and conclusions drawn?)
What is your personal opinion of the study conducted? Should it
be repeated? What could be improved?
What is your overall impression of the work? What are the
implications of the study for the practice of counseling
psychology?
Your summary should be written as a coherent essay (do not
format as a list of answers to these questions). You may include
additional insights in your analysis, but you must address these

12. key issues.
Step 9: Prepare your Article Review according to the following
guidelines:
Structure your paper utilizing APA style (7th Edition); this
includes title page, headings, in-text citations, reference page,
and general paper format (1-inch margins, double-spaced,
appropriately sized sans serif or serif fonts - e.g., 12 Times
Roman). An abstract is not required.
Apply sound writing mechanics: write with clarity, paying
attention to spelling, grammar, and syntax.
Submit to your Assignment Folder as a single document in
either Microsoft Word, PDF, or RTF format.