Applied Research Methods in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Mitchell Brown, Kathleen Hale

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781118904435
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica pubblica

A complete guide to applied research, featuring original data and detailed case studies

Applied Research Methods in Public and Nonprofit Organizations takes an integrative approach to applied research, emphasizing design, data collection, and analysis. Common case studies across chapters illustrate the everyday nature of research, and practical exercises reinforce concepts across all sections of the text. The book includes forms and formats for data collection and analysis, plus writing excerpts that demonstrate results reporting and presentation. The accompanying instructor's guide features assignments, discussion questions, and exercises referenced in the book, and the authors' own data sets are available for use online.

Conducting research, analyzing results, and synthesizing the findings for key stakeholders is fundamental to the study and practice of public and nonprofit management. Aligned with management curriculum for both sectors, the book focuses on the common ground these organizations share when it comes to planning, conducting, and using research in day-to-day professional activities. The original research examples presented are in the context of this shared commonality, including resource acquisition, evaluative processes, and future planning through the lens of common social policy issues facing leaders today. Topics include:

• The research process and applied research designs
• Applied research questions and literature
• Data collection in the field and survey research
• Data analysis, writing, and presentation

The examples highlight intergovernmental institutions in which public service occurs, and provide expanded reach to nonprofit organizations and the networked collaborations that make up a significant portion of today's public service. For students and practitioners of public administration, public policy, and nonprofit management, Applied Research Methods in Public and Nonprofit Organizations provides a comprehensive reference to this critical skillset.

Part One
Research Basics: What Do We Want to Know and Why?

Chapter One
Overview and Context of the Research Process

To establish a common point of departure for understanding the research process, we begin with an overview of that process and a review of the particular vocabulary associated with it. Learning to be comfortable with this vocabulary is a necessary part of becoming capable consumers and producers of applied research.

THE RESEARCH PROCESS

The research process is the result of a combination of good ideas and questions about theory and practice, systematic and appropriate data collection and analysis, and communication about results. In short, the research process encompasses the steps shown in Figure 1.1. These steps consist of

1. Forming ideas and research questions
2. Developing theories and hypotheses
3. Constructing a research design as a plan for data collection and analysis
4. Implementing the research design through the collection of data
5. Analyzing those data
6. Drawing conclusions and communicating about research

Figure 1.1 The Research Process

As Figure 1.2 illustrates, each of these steps encompasses a collection of concepts and approaches and can proceed in different ways.

Figure 1.2 Inside the Steps of the Research Process

Although each of these stages appears to be distinct, the research process is actually an iterative one, meaning that we continually review and refine our work while we are involved in each step and across the steps. In some approaches, particularly qualitative research, we are also expected to review prior steps of our work and refine them based on our analysis and findings. Through iteration, we are continually reviewing and refining to make improvements to our work. A significant dimension of the research process involves examining the various components of each stage and making decisions about how to proceed; this examination also results in considerable revision along the way.

The concept of an iterative process may run counter to what some of us think about the research process. We may think of the research process as linear and may believe that these midcourse corrections distort its scientific integrity. However, although there is a logical progression of steps that we follow, in practice the process often folds back on itself, and we continually make revisions as our own learning as researchers expands.

Our research ideas and questions come from our own experiences and are also informed by the published work of others. We use the previous work of others on similar questions to help us understand what has been accomplished and what is already understood about the area in which we are interested. In applied research, we focus on the practical world and its problems and conditions. It is common for researchers to draw on and seek out the ideas and experiences of practitioners in order to design this type of research, provide data, and implement solutions. We refer to this published work as the literature on a given question or subject.

In terms of the research process, we read and observe and think about the world around us in order to develop a research question. Good research questions typically have relevance to real-life problems, issues, or concerns. For example, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting rehabilitation for drug addicts as an alternative to prison might ask, “Is a rehabilitation program more effective than prison in preventing return to drug use?” or “Is one form of rehabilitation better than another?” A public commission interested in developing new public service programs for older citizens might ask, “Do the current services provided in our city meet the needs of our older citizens?”

The literature that has been developed by others helps shape an empirical theory that will serve as the foundation of our research process. An empirical theory essentially reformulates the research question based on current knowledge from research, observation, and logic about the phenomena under investigation. Our empirical theories are almost always based in the literature. After developing an empirical theory, we develop hypotheses. Hypotheses are simply the statements that propose an explanation of how the concepts that we are investigating work together. For some research questions, hypotheses are related to our ideas or understandings about cause—one or more factors are thought to cause a particular result. Hypotheses should flow naturally from the empirical theory.

In some instances, new phenomena emerge, and there is no literature that addresses them. In these instances, we engage in exploratory research, which investigates these new phenomena and contributes to the development of new theories based on our observations. A theory that emerges from exploratory research is commonly referred to as grounded theory, which means generally that it is grounded in interpretations of observations.

The next step in the research process is to plan for data collection, which involves a number of practical concerns, such as where and how we can obtain the data necessary to answer our questions. A key component of this stage is operationalization. This simply means that we need to define each of the elements of the research question and the hypotheses. More specifically, we need to describe each element, identify how it will be measured, and specify the data that we will use to measure it. In our example of a public commission interested in providing new services to its older constituents, we could be interested in the concept of “need.” We could operationalize “need” as the opinion of the affected group about the desire for particular services such as meals, transportation, or companionship, and measure that need by collecting data from a survey of older constituents.

There are, of course, myriad ways to operationalize, measure, and collect data. Often the most exciting part of the research process is collecting the relevant data. When we collect our own data, we call these data primary data. When we use data that someone else has collected, those data are referred to as secondary data. Continuing with our illustration, if we collect data through a survey of older constituents, those are primary data. In contrast, if we gather data about the opinions of older adults from surveys that were conducted by others—the U.S. Census, for example—then we are using secondary data. After data have been collected, we analyze them and compare our results to the hypotheses that we proposed earlier in the process. We relate our results either to the theory that we are testing or to the theory that we are building. The techniques we use to analyze data depend on the types of data we have collected. The final steps in the process involve interpreting the results of our analysis and communicating about them in order to better understand our world, improve policies and programs, and refine our theories.

The Applied Research Context

There are multiple ways to approach the universe of social science research. A key distinction that we make in this book is to focus on applied research as opposed to basic research. The purpose of applied research is to understand and help solve practical problems. This typically includes problems associated with whether and how to undertake new programs or modify existing programs, and includes questions about design, resources, planning, development, implementation, and improvement—all of which are aspects of the work conducted by public agencies and nonprofit organizations. It is important to note that applied research focuses on problems as opposed to fields of academic study per se. Applied research may combine literature and/or theory from multiple academic disciplines in order to understand an issue or to identify particular solutions. Applied research also typically involves interaction between researchers and stakeholders, perhaps even entire communities. We will cover that interaction throughout the chapters as we discuss the various asp...