Research methods for public administrators / Gail Johnson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnson, Gail, 1947-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Public administration--Research--Methodology.

Public administration.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 269 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Distribution:

London : Bloomsbury Publishing, 2024

Place of Publication:

Westport, Conn. : Praeger, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

A simple, straightforward presentation of the concepts, methods, and tools of research in the public sector, emphasizing the "how" of research - how to do it, how to make sense of it--all in one reader-friendly volume stripped of arcane theory and impenetrable mathematics. Without jargon or mathematical theory to hinder a quick understanding and use, here are the research tools and techniques you can grasp and immediately apply to obtain research services from others or do research yourself. Johnson makes clear that to succeed in any public agency management position, you have to be able to think analytically and know how to assess the quality of research results. By providing the underlying concepts and just enough methodology to operationalize them, she gives you exactly what you need--in a clear, straightforward way that takes the fear out of learning. You will find here an especially wide range of practical guidelines and examples, all from the author's own and others' experiences in a variety of settings within the public sector.; Throughout her book she emphasizes the "how" of research--how to do it, how to make sense of its findings--and covers all the basic statistical tools, concentrating steadily on interpreting research results. An important, reader-friendly text for students of public administration, and for their often perplexed colleagues already on the job. Johnson explains that public administrators do not do research themselves all that often. But with the rising demand for results measurement, balancing scorecards, benchmarking and assessing customer satisfaction, they do need to understand the basics of what research is and at least have more than just a glimmer of how it is done. Her book offers both--a simple, easily grasped presentation of research concepts and principles, plus all of the essentials of doing program evaluation, policy analysis, and applied social science. It is especially useful as a text in such courses as research methods, program evaluation and introduction to applied statistics, usually found in public administration programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels.; And for people already in jobs outside the academic community, people who are now asked to do tasks that they seldom did before--and never expected they would be asked to do--it is essential

Contents:

Cover

Research Methods for Public Administrators

Contents

Illustrations

FIGURES

TABLES

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction: Research Methods for Public Administrators

INTENTION

WHY IS RESEARCH IMPORTANT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR?

WHAT IS RESEARCH?

TYPES OF RESEARCH

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

ETHICS AND PRINCIPLES OF GOOD RESEARCH

OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK

2 Basic Concepts

THE SECRET LANGUAGE OF SCIENCE

Theory

Hypothesis

Variables

Variable Values

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN VARIABLES

Direction of Relationships

Direct Relationship

Inverse Relationship

Nonlinear

THE CHALLENGE OF DETERMINING RELATIONSHIPS

MEASURING RESULTS: PROGRAM OUTCOME MODEL

CONCLUSION

3 What Is Your Question?

DETERMINING YOUR QUESTION

TYPES OF QUESTIONS

Descriptive Questions

Normative Questions

Relationship Questions

A Logical Theory

Time Order

Co-variation

Elimination of Rival Explanations

LINKAGE: QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES

NOTE

4 Designing a Research Study

HOW DOES DESIGN CONNECT TO THE QUESTIONS?

ELEMENTS OF DESIGN

Before and After Measures

Comparison Groups

Random Assignment

TYPES OF DESIGN

Experimental Design

Quasi-Experimental Designs

Correlational Design with Statistical Controls

Interrupted Time Series

Nonexperimental (or Pre-Experimental) Design

Pre/Post Without Controls (Also Called Before and After Design)

Static Group Comparison

The One-Shot Design

CASE STUDY

INTERNAL VALIDITY

Threats to Internal Validity

History

Maturation

Testing

Instrumentation

Regression to the Mean

Selection

Attrition

KEY POINTS ABOUT DESIGN

5 Choosing Measures

DEVELOPING A MEASUREMENT STRATEGY

Defining Key Terms

Definition Challenges

Setting Boundaries

Operational Definitions.

KEY ISSUES ABOUT MEASURES

6 Data Collection: Observation and Available Data

DATA COLLECTION: THE DEGREE OF STRUCTURE

COMMON DATA COLLECTION APPROACHES

OBSERVATION

AVAILABLE DATA

Collecting Data from Existing Reports

Evaluation Synthesis and Meta-Analysis

Collecting Data from Paper Files or Records

Collecting Data from Files and Records: Data Collection Instruments

Collecting Data from Documents

Content Analysis

Collecting Computer Data

7 Data Collection: Surveys and Focus Groups

SURVEY RESEARCH

In-Person Interviews

Example of Skip Questions

Questionnaires

Response Rate

FOCUS GROUPS

Typical Elements of Focus Groups

How Many Focus Groups?

8 Sampling Demystified

SAMPLING: THE JARGON

TYPES OF SAMPLES: RANDOM AND NON-RANDOM

Random Sample

Types of Random Samples

Simple Random Sample

Stratified Random Sample

Cluster Sample

Non-Random Sampling

Types of Non-Random Samples

Quota

Accidental

Snowball

Judgmental

Convenience

Combining Random and Non-Random Sampling

DETERMINING SAMPLE SIZE FOR RANDOM SAMPLES

How Large a Sample?

9 Data Analysis for Description

ANALYZING QUALITATIVE DATA

QUANTITATIVE DATA ANALYSIS

Commonly Used Descriptive Statistics

Frequency Distribution

Interpreting the Scales

Other Descriptive Analysis Techniques

Rates

Ratio

Rate of Change

Describing Distributions

Measures of Dispersion

DESCRIBING TWO VARIABLES AT THE SAME TIME

Crosstabs or Contingency Tables

Comparison of Means

COMMON INTERPRETATION MISTAKES

10 Data Analysis: Exploring Relationships

USING CROSSTABS TO EXAMINE RELATIONSHIPS

CONTROLLING FOR A THIRD VARIABLE

EXPLORING RELATIONSHIPS: COMPARISON OF MEANS

STRENGTH OF RELATIONSHIP.

Measures of Association

FREQUENTLY USED MEASURES OF ASSOCIATION

Crosstab Analysis Using Nominal Data

Crosstab Analysis or Correlation Analysis Using Ordinal Data

CORRELATIONS WITH INTERVAL/RATIO DATA

Regression Analysis

Multiple Regression

11 Data Analysis Using Inferential Statistics

THE LOGIC OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE TESTING

Potential Errors in Inference:

Type I Error

Type II Error

Directional and Non-Directional Hypotheses

COMMON TESTS FOR STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Chi-Square

T-tests: Analyzing the Difference in Means

Testing a Hypothesis about a Single Mean

Testing Paired Results: Paired Samples

Testing a Hypothesis about Two Independent Means

Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)

Tests for Statistical Significance in Regression Analysis

REPORTING RESULTS OF STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

12 Putting the Pieces Together

HOW PUBLIC ADMINISTRATORS CAN USE RESEARCH METHODS

QUALITY ASSURANCE IN RESEARCH

LIMITATIONS OF QUANTITATIVE TECHNIQUES

Appendix A The Mathematical Formulae for Selected Statistics

COMMON COMPARISON TECHNIQUES

Calculating Rates

Calculating a Ratio

Calculating the Rate of Change

COMMON DESCRIPTIVE TECHNIQUES

Mean

Median

Variance

Standard Deviation

Z-Score

MAKING ESTIMATES USING SAMPLE DATA

The Confidence Interval

Sampling Error

CALCULATING TESTS FOR STATISTICAL SIGNIFICANCE

T-tests

Measures of Relationship

NOTES

Appendix B Glossary

Appendix C Merit Principles Survey 2000

Appendix D 2000 Citizen Survey Results

Sampling error

Representativeness of respondents

Follow-up on non-respondents

Neighborhoods

Results

Appendix E Guidelines for Reporting Research Results

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING RESEARCH REPORTS.

GUIDELINES FOR WRITING AN EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

GUIDELINES FOR FORMATTING THE REPORT

GUIDELINES FOR USING CHARTS AND TABLES

GUIDELINES FOR PRESENTATIONS

Appendix F Resources

WEB SITES:

Index

About the Author.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [259]-260) and index.

ISBN:

9798216007869

9786610928125

9781280928123

1280928123

9780313011597

0313011591

OCLC:

52751777