1. Research problem

The purpose of this research is to create a tool kit which combines all the important elements to improve leadership skills for Haaga-Helia students. In addition, this tool kit is based mostly on the integration of theory and practices stem from the research outcomes.

In order to answer the question: ‘What are key elements of leadership and how to develop a good leadership skill?’, the research team will gather information from surveys and interviews to from student perspective in Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences, Porvoo campus. To achieve result with sufficient information, all sub-questions need to be considered and analysed carefully. Those sub-questions create a right path that leads to the exact answer for the main question of the research problem. In details, in attempt to find the respondents’ basic background information, questions such as ‘Which study group are you in?’ and ‘What nationality you really are?’ should be included at the very beginning of the questionnaire. It is notable that the background of students plays an important role in affecting the attitude and opinions toward the leadership issues. In the next step, respondents express the level of leadership satisfaction in their current projects by answering the related questions for instance ‘Are you satisfied with your leader?’ and ‘Do you think leader has the significant role in a project?’. At the final stage, individual expectation and characteristics of a good leader will be collected from questions such as ‘What characteristics that a good leader should have?’ and ‘Which styles of leadership would you prefer?’.

2. Objectives of the research

By interacting between the interviewer and interviewee, applying indirectly discussion about leadership topic with students, the researchers will collect general opinions and personal feelings towards the role of leadership in current or previous projects. Leadership development methodologies should be advanced by results’ assessment and analysis in real settings of this project. The development provides students valuable information to establish a tool kit for leadership development in project management for students.

4. Population and sampling

Term “population” has different meanings depending on the case where it is used. When we think of the term, we usually think of people in some locality, with their different characteristics such as gender, age, wage level, marital status, religion, etc. In statistics the term has a rather different meaning. A statistical population includes all members of a defined group that researchers are studying and collecting information on. All members have common characteristics. The population contains all subjects of interest. (Carroll 2012.)

A sample is a proportion of the population; it is a small subgroup which represents the larger population. Sampling is the process whereby a sample is selected for analysis.

Speaking of big research projects, typically, the population is very large and randomly drawn samples used as material for analysis. (Carroll 2012.)