Comprehensive Capstone Exam - Aaron Murdock

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A2. Quantitative Research

INTRODUCTION/RATIONALE

There has been a rise in popularity of the tabletop role-playing game (RPG) “Dungeons

& Dragons” (D&D) in recent years, particularly since the release of the fifth edition in 2014, and

which has been ushered by the rise of livestream broadcasting of games on sites like Twitch.tv

(DeVille, 2017). It has featured on such popular shows as ​Stranger Things (​ DeVille, 2017) and

Community ​(Woerner, 2011). According to Mike Mearls, who wrote the preface to the ​Player’s

Handbook​ (2014), “Playing D&D is an exercise in collaborative creation.” It is a joint

storytelling process between a​ dungeon master​ (DM) and the players that involves chance,

decision-making, group interaction, and emotional investment. This is a ripe atmosphere for

developing skills and growing as a group and as individuals. Following that line of thought, we

developed the following hypothesis:

H1: Being a dungeon master has a positive effect on developing desirable leadership

skills.

H0: Being a dungeon master does not have a positive effect on developing desirable

leadership skills.

Desirable leadership skills as outlined by Myatt (2012) are named in the methods below,

as are the two leadership styles from Cornelissen (2017). Understanding these, other hypotheses

appear:

H2:​ Transformational ​DMs exhibit more leadership skills than ​transactional​ DMs.
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This hypothesis is based on the idea that ​transformational​ leaders encourage performance

by offering opportunities for growth, not incentives (Cornelissen, 2017).

LITERATURE REVIEW

Capodagli and Jackson (2016) quote Walt Disney, who defined leadership as “the ability

to establish and manage a creative climate in which individuals and teams are self-motivated to

the successful achievement of long-term goals in an environment of mutual respect and trust”

(Capodagli & Jackson, 2016, p. 77). Cornelissen (2017) describes two “leadership styles” that

include ​transactional​ and ​transformational​. ​Transactional​ leadership involves a transaction,

such as incentives for good performance. ​Transformational​ style encourages subordinates to

perform at a higher level and provides opportunities for personal or professional growth. Both

styles are necessary in various settings. In the case of D&D, it may be that ​transformational ​DMs

encourage players to role play with the incentive of a good story over in-game rewards.

METHODOLOGY

Participants will be gathered on a volunteer basis from two sources: Facebook and

Reddit. Both sites have groups and subreddits dedicated to discussion among dungeon masters.

Participant dungeon masters must be 18 years or older, have at least six (6) months of experience

as a dungeon master (playing at least once every two (2) weeks), and be willing to host game

sessions once every two weeks for four (4) months. They must have at least two (2) and no more

than eight (8) other players in the game. Participating DMs will be surveyed before the

experiment begins to determine which style they tend to use at the game table, ​transactional o​ r

transformational (​ Cornelissen, 2017). Each game session will be recorded on video for later

reference.
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The main tool of measurement will be adapted from the article by Mike Myatt from

Forbes (2012). Mike outlines ten measures: Character, Vision, Strategy, Tactics, Focus,

Persuasiveness, Likeability, Decisioning Ability, Team Building, and Results. Each measure is

worth up to ten points, then graded on a standard scale of “A” equaling 90 to 100 points, “B”

equaling 80-89 points, etc. to “F” equaling 59 points and lower (Myatt, 2012). DMs will

self-report the ten leadership abilities using the same grading scale at the beginning of the study.

After playing with their respective groups for four (4) months, the same DMs will self-report on

the measures again, and will this time be graded by the researchers as well. Thus, there will be

three comparisons among these measures: DM self-reported pre-experiment vs DM

post-experiment, DM self-reported pre-experiment vs Player post-experiment, and DM

post-experiment vs Player post-experiment. We will also compare ​transactional ​DMs vs

transformational​ DMs in within each of the previous three measure comparisons (Cornelissen,

2017). The purpose is to find correlations between leadership styles and grades and how both

changed from before the campaign to after. To control for one variable, the same pre-written

story modules will be given to each DM to play with his/her group, but how those players follow

it will be up to them.

The data will be analyzed using ANOVA because of the three “samples”: DMs

pre-experiment, DMs post-experiment, and DMs as graded by the researchers post-experiment.

The means will be compared across the three samples and any significant relationships noted.

The analysis will be searching for whether both the DMs and researchers report high leadership

grades post-experiment, whether leadership styles changed, and whether those who kept their
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initial leadership styles throughout the game scored high on the leadership qualities test

post-experiment.

Sources:

Capodagli, B., Jackson, L. (2016). The Disney way: harnessing the management secrets of

Disney in your company(3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Cornelissen, J. (2017). Corporate communication: A guide to theory & practice(5th ed.).

London: SAGE Publications.

DeVille, C. (2017, November 16). The rise of D&D liveplay is changing how fans approach

roleplaying. Retrieved April 12, 2019, from

https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/16/16666344/dungeons-and-dragons-twitch-roleplay-

rpgs-critical-role-streaming-gaming

Myatt, M. (2012, June 07). Think you're a leader? Take the test and find out. Retrieved April 14,

2019, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikemyatt/2012/05/22/think-youre-a-leader-take-the-test-a

nd-find-out/#163011a0698f

Woerner, M. (2011, February 11). Did Community just make D&D "cool"? Retrieved April 12,

2019, from https://io9.gizmodo.com/did-community-just-make-d-d-cool-5752137

Wyatt, J., Schwalb, R. J., & Cordell, B. R. (2014). ​Player's Handbook​. Renton, WA: Wizards of

the Coast LLC.

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B1. UNICEF Campaign

Objectives:

● Increase awareness of the UNICEF mission among Utah Valley University students

through online communication by reaching 9,000 likes/shares on social media by the end

of September 2019.

● Engage UVU students in the UNICEF cause by recruiting students to join UNICEF as

volunteers and club members to spread the cause of advocating for children’s rights,

reaching 200 students signed-up by the end of September 2019.

Key Messages

Primary message: As you are building your future at college, help to build those of children

around the world. Become a UNICEF volunteer and spread the cause to save children’s lives.

Secondary messages:

● Children around the world face poverty, violence, disease, discrimination, and death, but

they don’t have to (About UNICEF, 2018).

● There were twice as many child refugees in 2015 as there were in 2005 (Garin, et al.,

2016).

● You can support the UNICEF mission through fundraising and increasing awareness

through online and in-person means.

Strategies

Objective 1, strategy 1: Through moderately interactive channels, educate UVU students about

the mission and message of UNICEF and encourage them to share these on social media.

Tactics:
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● Share articles and videos from UNICEF website on official UVU social media pages and

the new UNICEF UVU Club page using hashtag #UVUSavesKids.

● Encourage club members to share photos of the children who have been helped by

UNICEF efforts on social media, including on the official UNICEF Facebook page.

● Pitch an article to the UVU Review about UNICEF UVU Club and efforts being made

on- and off-campus by UVU students to raise awareness and money.

Objective 2, strategy 1: Through highly interactive channels, recruit UVU students to join the

UNICEF cause on campus and help spread the word of saving children worldwide.

Tactics:

● Create a UNICEF UVU Club on campus and set up tables in the halls biweekly through

the semester to gather volunteers.

● Spread awareness of the cause with flyers on campus handed out by club members.

● Request endorsement from and partner with the UVU College of Health and Public

Service to spread awareness of the needs of children worldwide by announcing current

fundraising efforts by the UNICEF UVU Club.

Objective 2, strategy 2: Host a single-day activity on campus to drum up support for the

UNICEF UVU Club and its efforts, gathering 25 new members/volunteers.

Tactics:

● Spread awareness of the event by posting on social media the few weeks beforehand with

a digital copy of the flyer.

● Request to use the Ragan Theater on campus to have a local non-student volunteer

present about UNICEF.

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● Incentivise attendance by requesting financial assistance from the UVU college of Health

and Public Services to provide food at after the presentation.

Sources:

About UNICEF. (2018, October 01). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from

https://www.unicef.org/about/who/index_introduction.html

Achieving results for children - Home page | UNICEF. (2015, December). Retrieved April 14,

2019, from

https://www.unicef.org/publicpartnerships/files/AchievingResultsForChildrenTheCaseFo

rSupport.pdf

Garin, E., Beise, J., Hug, L., & You, D. (2016). ​Uprooted: The growing crisis for refugee and

migrant children(​ USA, UNICEF, Division of Data, Research and Policy). New York,

NY: UNICEF.
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C1. Ethics in Communication Research

Using human subjects in research inherently carries a responsibility of knowing and

applying ethical principles. As a part of this, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are mandated

by the Public Service Health Act of 1974 for any experiments using human subjects. These IRBs

are meant to ensure the ethicality of research methods on human subjects and are composed of at

least five individuals with diverse professional backgrounds (Gray, Cooke, & Tannenbaum,

1978).

The IRBs use measures as outlined by the ​Common Rule​ as outline by Breault (2006)

below:

1. Risks are minimized by using known procedures.

2. Risk to subjects must reasonable relative to benefits to the same.

3. “Selection of subjects is equitable” (Breault, 2006, para. 19).

4. Informed consent will be sought from the subject or their legal representative.

5. Such consent will be documented.

6. The research plan makes provision to monitor data to keep subjects safe.

7. Confidentiality of subjects is maintained when appropriate.

I believe these measures are necessary to keep the subjects safe from the likes of the horrible

studies done in Nazi Germany or during the notorious thalidomide scandal that came to light in

the 1960s (Breault, 2006).

The idea of ethics is defined by various authors in different ways, as shown in a study

done by Pearson, et al. (2006). They quote Jaffe (2001) in defining ethics as a “moral

responsibility to choose, intentionally and voluntarily, oughtness [what you should do] in values
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like rightness, goodness, truthfulness, justice, and virtue, which may, in a communicative

transaction, significantly affect [yourself] and others” (Pearson, 2006, p. 517). They chose this as

the best definition because it brings in communication specifically, but is also broad enough to

include all the other definitions they studied (Pearson, 2006).

Ethics also matter when reporting the results of research with human subjects. Bean

(2001) studies whether equivocation, which is using ambiguous, evasive language to hide the

truth or protect oneself (Merriam-Webster, n.d.), is an issue in organizational settings that could

reduce objectively reporting results. He found that, in scenarios where a person does not like a

gift but must give a thank you message to the giver, 80.9% of respondents chose an equivocal

answer, while only 3.2% chose a truthful response. This would suggest that in our personal

relationships we use ambiguous messages to try to protect the feelings of others. Bean compared

this against a scenario where someone had to report a failed project. He found that respondents

selected truthful responses 52.4% of the time. However, this leaves the other 47.6% who either

gave equivocal or mostly-true reports (Bean, 2001). This indicates to me that, under certain

circumstances, including professional ones, we are prone to using ambiguous language and not

reporting or telling the full truth when it could prevent future issues. Where this plays into ethical

research is in the reporting of results from human studies. Misreporting could lead to false

information that could harm future test subjects.

As for communication specifically, researchers should be careful to accurately quote

responses and not misconstrue them to align with research objectives. Other potential pitfalls of

communication research include plagiarism, stereotyping, misquoting, and sampling errors. So

many things could go wrong with research that it is best practice to use sources that are
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peer-reviewed, and the results of which have been duplicated in studies by other researchers. It is

also good to remember that what is considered ethical may be broadly defined in different

cultures but using national or international standards like those laid out by the ​Common Rule​ will

give the best basis for best practices.

Sources:

Bean, D. F. (2001). Equivocal reporting: Ethical communication issues. ​Journal of Business

Ethics,29(​ 1/2), 65-76. Retrieved April 14, 2019.

Breault, J. L. (2006). Protecting human research subjects: the past defines the future. ​The

Ochsner journal​, ​6​(1), 15–20.

doi:10.1043/1524-5012(2006)006[0015:PHRSTP]2.0.CO;2

Gray, B., Cooke, R., & Tannenbaum, A. (1978). Research involving human subjects.

Science,201(​ 4361), 1094-1101. doi:10.1126/science.356268

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Equivocation. Retrieved April 14, 2019, from

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/equivocation

Pearson, J. C., Child, J. T., Mattern, J. L., & Kahl, D. H. (2006). What are students being taught

about ethics in public speaking textbooks? ​Communication Quarterly,54​(4), 507-521.

doi:10.1080/01463370601036689
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D1. Culture and Diversity

Culture is defined as “​the way of life of a particular people, esp. as shown in their

ordinary behavior and habits, their attitudes toward each other, and their moral and religious

beliefs”​ (Culture, n.d.). Diversity is “the fact of there being people of many different groups in

society, within an organization, etc.” (Diversity, n.d.). Diversity can be reflected in countries,

regions, communities, neighborhoods, families, individuals, and organizations (​Heuberger,

Gerber, & Anderson, 1999​). Indeed, any group of people can create a culture, though how

diverse that culture is depends on the members’ personal characteristics like language, eating

habits, use of time, beliefs, attitudes, and dress. Understanding the characteristics of a culture can

prevent overgeneralization and stereotyping of those who a part of that culture. Understanding

one’s own culture is an underpinning of cultural competence (​Heuberger, et al., 1999​).

The ​Work Group for Community Health and Development (n.d.) suggests various steps

to take to build culturally diverse relationships. First, they note that ​building relationships with

those from other cultures requires a concerted effort to learn about their cultures. Then the

suggest intentionally placing oneself is situations where there are opportunities to meet diverse

people. Next, read about other cultures, then have courage to ask people about their cultures and

histories. Then be sure to listen to their stories when they tell you about their lives because it

provides snapshots of their cultures, too. As noted above, culture can come down to an

individual, so remember that a person may not be representative of an entire culture. Risk

making mistakes while building relationships. Finally, stand against discrimination when it

occurs. Following these steps can lead to powerful friendships that give meaning to life and

provide opportunities for personal growth. (Work group, n.d.).

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Diversity of subjects is important in research because samples should be random. Having

diverse subjects supplies data from across the population and gives a more accurate account of

how or what people think or do. A lack of diversity can lead to homogenous responses and

incorrect data if the researchers assume that the sample was diverse when it was not. Therefore,

demographic data is gathered: it reduces the risk of sampling errors by ensuring the opportunity

for diverse respondents. However, according to McNett & Kirk (1968), if we consider a truly

random sample to be that taken from a population in a way that provides the same probability of

selection every time a sample is taken, then such a thing is impossible, particularly for humans

because of the diversity of cultural characteristics among individuals.

There are six (6) cultural dimensions as outlined by Hofstede in 2011: Power Distance,

Uncertainty Avoidance, Individualism/Collectivism, Masculinity/Femininity, Long/Short Term

Orientation, and Indulgence/Restraint. The last two were added in later studies. These

dimensions describe culture on a national level and are helpful in international

business-to-business and internal interactions. Indeed, Newman and Nollen researched whether

work performance would increase if workplace culture matched the five dimensions of the wider

national culture (Newman & Nollen, 1996). They found that such performance did increase

when correlated with national culture in four of the five current dimensions at the time of the

study in 1996, uncertainty avoidance being the uncorrelated dimension (p. 766). In high power

distance cultures such as in east Asia, it was found that workers were high performing when they

were less participative in decisions. The other three dimensions had similar results, where a using

the national or local cultural dimension within an organization positively affected work

performance, even increasing profitability (Newman & Nollen, 1996).

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Sources:

Culture | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/culture

Diversity | definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved April 14, 2019, from

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/diversity

Heuberger, B., Gerber, D., & Anderson, R. (1999). Strength through cultural diversity:

Developing and teaching a diversity course. College Teaching, 47(3), 107-113.

doi:10.1080/87567559909595797

Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing cultures: The Hofstede model in context.

McNett, J. C., & Kirk, R. E. (1968). Drawing Random Samples in Cross-Cultural Studies: A

Suggested Method. ​American Anthropologist,70​(1), 50-55.

doi:10.1525/aa.1968.70.1.02a00050

Newman, K. L., & Nollen, S. D. (1996). Culture and Congruence: The Fit Between Management

Practices and National Culture. ​Journal of International Business Studies,27(​ 4), 753-779.

doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490152

Work Group for Community Health and Development. (n.d.). Section 2. Building Relationships

with People from Different Cultures. Retrieved from

https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/culture/cultural-competence/building-relationships

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