Understanding Research Methods

A Guide for the Public and Nonprofit Manager

Donijo Robbins

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781351537995
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Política y relaciones internacionales
• Subtopic: Política

Managers and administrators in the public-policy and nonprofit sectors rely heavily on analytical skills to quickly pore through a massive amount of research. They dissect it and apply specific, useful data that can inform critical policy changes and help them improve their organization's overall performance and financial position. To master this vital role, it is imperative that they and their staff learn to be more efficient at collecting, analyzing and evaluating research material, by discovering how to ask the right questions and quickly discern valuable information from useless data.

A Blueprint to Streamline Every Aspect of the Research Process

Focusing on the entire research process from start to finish, the compact but comprehensive Understanding Research Methods: A Guide for the Public and Nonprofit Manager explores the research designs and analytical tools that are the foundation for decision-making. Relying more on concepts and analysis than on mathematics, this text provides insight into the definition, process, importance, and capabilities of research – addressing the topic from the perspectives of both the producer of data and the consumer who evaluates its usefulness.

Broken down into three sections, the book:

• Gives an overview of the research process, the construction of measures, and research ethics
• Elaborates on planning a research method, presenting common research designs used by practitioners and the most useful, popular ways to collect data
• Focuses on tools available to analyze and then communicate data – specifically univariate and bivariate analyses

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This versatile text is intended for dual uses – as a textbook for graduate and undergraduate students in public and nonprofit administration and public policy, and as a practical guide for the average administrator. Both groups will learn how to develop proper research questions, define specific research purposes, and form hypotheses that avoid confusion in measurement and analysis. Imparting basic practical knowledge, it outlines effective approaches to gather accurate, relevant information and then effectively interpret and communicate it.

Chapter 1

Introduction to Research

1.1    Introduction

Becoming a master of administration and management rests on the ability of the manager, director, administrator, or practitioner to think analytically. As such, administrators ask and answer questions that will improve the organization’s performance, customer service, financial position, and overall decision-making capabilities. Research provides managers with the diagnostic capacity to accomplish these mighty tasks. The veracity and pervasiveness of the information, facts, and figures collected in the research process are the elements that ultimately influence the decision-making process. As a result, the public and nonprofit administrators and decision makers must understand research, its definition, process, importance, and capabilities, and do so from the views of both the consumer and producer of research. This book provides that understanding. More specifically, this book journeys through the development of research such that the novice research begins to appreciate research and understand its usefulness in the decision-making process.

1.2    Research

Research is information gathering through a variety of methods to describe a concept and then explore or explain relationships between the concepts. This definition encompasses two guiding questions of the research process: what does the researcher want to know, and how will the researcher measure it?

To answer these questions, all researchers follow a similar process. They begin with a question, develop a research plan, collect and analyze the data, and communicate their findings. Consider the following examples of research.

1.  The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine conducted a 4-year risk assessment of cloned animals to determine if animals or humans are at risk. Using data from cloned animals provided by two cloning companies and literature written by experts in the field, the FDA concluded that cloning poses no risk to the cloned animals and that the food from cloned animals is safe for human consumption.¹

2.  The San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California, is home to a thriving dairy industry as well as extreme ozone pollution. The pollution is thought to come from bovines and the farms in which they live, but the amount and source of pollution is debated. Some scientists blame fermented manure and lagoons for the pollution, whereas others blame cow belching.² In addition, the science supporting the belching theory estimates the emissions to be half of what the other scientists believe. Moreover, citizens of the Valley perceive the quality of air to be worse than it was 10 years ago; however, pollution has decreased 80% in the past 10 years.³

3.  Twenty-seven different groups made 27 different recommendations regarding children and exercise. To put an end to the conflicting information, a panel funded by the Centers for Disease Control concluded that children should get one hour of exercise over the course of each day.⁴

4.  The federal government invested $150 million and established a task force to combat human trafficking in the United States because expert testimony suggested that an estimated 50,000 people were trafficked into the country every year.⁵

The research and conclusions just described vary by researcher, but in all cases, the researchers follow a similar path: he or she asks questions and seeks out information to answer these questions, and in all instances, the findings could potentially influence the decision-making process, particularly policy changes. Therefore, even when the research might be incorrect, the decision maker must understand the validity and reliability of all research.

1.3    Overview of Book

This book is short and to the point, and is the result of 10 years of classroom and service learning experiences from teaching graduate and undergraduate students who have little to no statistical or mathematical background and who work in hospitals, nonprofits, and small government organizations. It supplies practical knowledge of the most common research techniques used by practitioners. Therefore, this book is more basic than advanced, and relies more on the administrator’s conceptual and analytical skills rather than mathematical skills.

This book is divided into three sections, each organized according to the research process that is most useful for public and nonprofit administrators. The first section provides an overview of the research process, the construction of measures, and research ethics. The second section, the research plan, presents the common research designs practitioners use and the most popular ways to collect data. The third section focuses on the tools available to practitioners to analyze and communicate the data collected. Specifically, univariate and bivariate analyses are discussed. In addition, directions to compute these analyses in Microsoft Excel 2003 and 2007 are included. Excel is used because it is available to almost everyone, whereas other statistical programs require an expensive site license.

Research conducted by academicians is different from that produced by practitioners. Both groups, however, follow the research process mentioned earlier. In general, practitioner research is directly relevant to the practitioners’ field, whereas academic research tends to be more theoretical, perhaps abstract, and less relevant to what practitioners do on a daily basis. Practitioners argue that academic research places too much emphasis on rigorous methodological approaches and focuses too little on application and relevance.⁶ What practitioners need to understand and use in their decision-making processes is much different from what academics think practitioners need.

Consequently, this book serves two different but equally important, and perhaps overlapping, groups: students studying to become administrators, and those desiring to be practitioners. This text equips current and future decision makers with the necessary tools to design, carry out, and communicate valid and reliable research projects. Moreover, these tools allow decision makers to evaluate the research reports, studies, and projects produced by other researchers. However, this book alone is not sufficient to train those students wishing to pursue advanced graduate studies or write academic-type papers; these are not of practical significance to the average administrator, and are therefore omitted.

1.4    Summary

If I have learned anything from the years of teaching research methods, it is that a course in it, which is generally not taken by choice, is one of the more difficult courses in the graduate program or undergraduate major. At least this is the belief most students have upon entering the class, which results in their asking many questions, including “Why is this class required?” “Why do I have to take this course when my job duties do not include analyzing data or writing reports?”

This attitude produces poorer work habits in the course—doing just enough to get by—and less understanding of the subject. All of these actions lead to bitterness on the part of the students and the professor. So, lose this attitude right now. Take a deep breath, sit back, and relax. There is no binary code to memorize, no imaginary numbers or derivatives to calculate; just basic math skills. Although the formulas look intimidating, they are quite harmless; in fact, the book provides only a few. Mathematical notations, plain English, and examples are used to illustrate the statistical procedures most useful to practitioners. In the end, you will see that research rests more on your ability to think and ask questions than solving formulas.

Exercises

1.  Think of the most recent decision you have made on the job. Did you look for support or evidence for various alternative explanations? If so, how did you go about it, what information did you use, how did you collect it, and how did you apply it to what you wanted to know? What convinced you that one alternative bested the others? Thinking back, do you believe you used the information you gathered properly, that you should have searched for more facts and figures? Explain.

Recommended Reading

Best, J. (2001). Damned Lies and Statistics: Untangling Numbers From the Media, Politicians, and Activists. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Bolton, M. J. and Stolcis, G. B. (2003). Ties that do not bind: Musings on the specious relevance of academic research. Public Administration Review, 63, 626–630.

Kraemer, K. L. and Perry, J. L. (1989). Institutional requirements for academic research in public administration. Public Administration Review, 49, 9–16.

McCurdy, H. E. and Clearly, R. E. (1984). Why can’t we resolve the research issue in public administration? Public Administration Review, 44, 49–55.

Meier, K. J. and Keiser, L. R. (1996). Public administration as a science of the artificial: A methodology for prescription. Public Administration Review, 56, 459–466.

Penner, R. (2003). Congress and Statistics. Washington, DC: Urban Institute. Available at http://www.urban.org/publications/1000584.html.

Rodgers, R. and Rodgers, N. (1999). The scared spark of academic research. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 9, 473–492.

Waugh, W. L., Hy, R. J., and Brudney, J. L. (1994). Quantitative analysis and skill building in public administration graduate education. Public Administration Quarterly, 18, 204–222.

Wright, B. E., Manigault, L. J., and Black, T. R. (2004). Quantitative research measurement in public administration: An assessment of journal publications. Administration and Society, 35, 747–764.

Endnotes

1.  U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Veterinary Medicine (2006). Animal cloning: A draft risk assessment. Rockville, MD: Department of Health and Human Services. Available at http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Documents/Cloning_Risk_Assessment.pdf.

2.  Ruby, S. (2005, January 27). Holy cow! Study cuts emissions in half. Bakersfield Californian.

3.  Sadredin, S. (n.d.). New poll reveals strong feelings, commitments. San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District Commentary on the air quality. Posted on www.valleyair.org. Accessed November 4, 2007.

4.  Yee, D. (2005). Panel says children need an hour of exercise over the course of a day. NCTimes. com. Accessed June 22, 2005, from: http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/06/22/special_reports/science_technology/17_40_416_21_05.txt.

5.  Markon, J. (2007, September 23). Human trafficking evokes outrage, little evidence. Washington Post, p. A01. Accessed from Washington Post.com http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/22/AR2007092201401.html?referrer=emailarticle.

6.  Bolton, M. J. and Stolcis, G. B. (2003). Ties that do not bind: Musings on the specious relevance of academic research. Public Administration Review, 63, 626–630.

Chapter 2

The Research Process

2.1 Introduction

The process of developing any research project entails asking and answering two very simple questions: What do we want to know? And how are we going to measure it? The questions decision makers ask...