Research Designs & Practices in the Study of Public Organizations

Mixed Methods in Public Administration Research

Guidelines to Rigorous Qualitative Research

Rigor in Research: Deductive vs. Inductive Inquiry

Mixed Methods

Epistemology

Lincoln & Guba's (1986) criteria of trustworthiness

Naturalistic, inductive qualitative inquiry

Postpositivistic framework

Dominant philosophical stance in public management

Rich history of qualitative research integration, particularly organizational sciences

Widen pathways for qualitative studies toward influencing public management scholarship

Broader impact in public management if qualitative and quantitative methods are compatible and complementary

The world is complex

Messy domains of inquiry

Qualitative Research: Contributions to Public Management

Advance new theory & discovering nuance in existing theory

Define mechanisms underlying statistical associations

Develop new constructs, frameworks, & typologies

Organizational ethnography

Theory development in public management

Accountability in the public sector

Theories of goal-directed networks

Agency & stewardship theories

Nature of public participation

Foundation to quantitative research on the differences between managers and front-line workers

Public Service Motivation (PSM) - foundation to public management

Explicate how & why: transactions with agencies & service providers - Transaction Cost Economics (TCE)

Discuss the "mythology" of contracting - deeper mechanisms behind TCE

Explain the role of the environment in moderating managerial control vs. success

Inductive vs. Deductive Inquiry; NOT Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Eisenhardt & Graebner (2007)

Quality principles between inductive & deductive inquiry

Deductive: starts with premise, then investigates external validity

Inductive: starts with specific cases to describe phenomena and draw rich insight

Relevance of Advancing Theory

Inquiry-Driven Design

Gap-Driven Inquiry

Principle of inquiry-driven design

Importance of scholarship that advances theory

Criticality of gap-driven inquiry

Relevant findings beyond the study case is foundational to quality conceptualizations

Both inductive & deductive traditions are inquiry driven

Methodological appropriateness is valuable to both inductive & deductive research

Identify & address a gap in the literature

Investigate things that are overlooked, under-appreciated, or misunderstood

Generalizability

Elements of Rigor

Deductive

Inductive

Test the presence of a prior relationship in the population based on a sample

Most cases must conform to a pattern to infer a relationship, as long as the sample is representative

Research Design

Replication

Data Analysis & Interpretation

Should we care about understanding the experience of the individual/event?

Use a systematic method to interpret what is true (in rich detail)

Narrow in on specific types of phenomenon

Is a given interpretation credible given the evidence?

Analyst must draw inference & interpretation from existing qualitative information

Does the research add new insights of a phenomenon of interest to the field?

How trustworthy are the causal factors and significance within the cases?

Sample size (how many is enough?)

Qualitative saturation (dataset is robust/captures important variability)

Data Collection Protocols & Procedures

Sampling

Provide clear & concise descriptions of analysis process & findings

Rigor is best conceptualized via functionality

Clearly describe relevant data for a research question and how the data are obtained

Questions represent a clear conceptual linkage to the research question & a key consideration in the analysis & finding interpretation

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA)

Narrative Policy Framework (NCF)

Framework for Mixed Methods Analysis

Variety in the order of inductive/deductive mixture

Creswell et al. (2003): deductive inquiry for hypothesis testing first, then inductive inquiry during second phase to analyze underlying mechanisms in great depth through qualitative

Considerations of rigor

Dual burden to all the requirements of rigorous design from both inductive & deductive models

Ideally reflect complementarity between approaches & maximize different advantages in inductive vs. deductive designs

Yanow & Schwartz-Shea (2014)

Combination of both qualitative & quantitative analysis

Ospina et al. (2018)

All the tools & techniques that are used to carry out research

Quantitative methods & deductive approach are typically alighned

Qualitative methods & inductive/abductive approaches are normally aligned

Selecting a Mixed Methods Design

Triangulation

Blanket justification for preferring a mixed over a single method

Useful to unpack underlying principle of any MM

Summary of findings from other scholars

Corroborate/complement findings to increase result validity

Gain multi-level understanding of the phenomenon

Connecting & Analyzing Primary Studies

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis)

MMs & Public Administration

Scholarship

Majority of studies adopt MMs, while a portion of them explicitly refer to the use of MMs

Summary of MMs

Sequencing Methods

Sequential

Quali-quantitative (Exploratory)

Parallel

Connecting Methods

Case selection

Themes (hypotheses)

Same sample

Interviews protocol

Themes (survey)

Themes (variables)

Purposive sample

Same data source

Findings combination