Research Statement

Research Statement

Research Statement

My research philosophy is to pursue new knowledge discoveries and to recognize practical implications for professional practice. I cultivate a high standard of research ethics and maintain a keen sense of the nature of phenomena. I appreciate the necessarily diligent manner in collaboration that enhances productivity and the performance of sustainable research activity. I adopt both qualitative and quantitative research approaches.

Currently, my research focuses on the following three areas: (1) knowledge structures and sharing practices; (2) career, talent, and professional development related to a virtual and technology-centered workforce; and (3) social capital and network analysis in learning and organization development contexts. I am interested in knowledge sharing patterns that would reflect national and organizational cultures, and its antecedents and consequences in the organizational setting. Using a multi-group latent class analysis and structural equation modeling, my dissertation examines what is the nationally specified knowledge-sharing pattern with regard to social capital and intentions for knowledge sharing. It examines the antecedents of this knowledge-sharing pattern and consequences of knowledge-sharing patterns for organizational effectiveness. Also, my current research examines issues of career, talent, and professional development regarding the virtual and technology centered workforce. In a current paper under publication revision, I examined the impact of technology and team success factors in a virtual team setting. Based on the rich context of interview and themes that we covered, the project made a guideline for successful virtual team processes. I am also interested in studying social capital and network analysis in learning and organization development contexts, the impact of which remains largely neglected in HRD literature. One of my empirical research projects on social capital and collaboration in academic community examines this issue, recognized by the Academy of Human Resource Development with a “Cutting Edge Award in 2015” I remain engaged in social network analysis studies, such as Korean mid- and high tech industries’ structural characteristics, and social capital as antecedents of knowledge sharing, using stochastic and statistical social network analysis, multiple regression with quadric assignment procedure (MRQAP).

Along with these research interests, I pursue data and analytics driven approaches that require understanding of various technology and data analysis skills. I have expert understanding in data analysis using R (statistics software package), Tableau (interactive data visualization), NVIVO (qualitative data management and analysis software), Netminer, UCINET (social network analysis), and Vensim (system dynamics and thinking). Regarding my expertise in method and data analysis, I was invited to the Korean R user group to deliver a professional presentation about the stochastic approach of social network analysis in R. Recently, ECCI university at Bogota, Columbia invited me to deliver a professional workshop for social network analysis in R.

My research philosophy has governed my research activities that lead me to be a successful team worker in research practice, and it enables me to discover meaningful and new knowledge that I am proud to contribute to within academic communities and professional practices. Given the change of social phenomena in the workplace and the rapid growth of methodology, these changes require me keep searching for new opportunities to develop my research skills.