Theory and Method of Public Administration

PA 705

Fall 2004

Objectives

The purpose of this course is to provide you with a "toolkit" of research strategies and data analysis techniques that can be used in planning, public policy, and administration.  In addition, it is hoped you will learn to be a wise consumer of research studies.  In the course of their day to day work, public administrator may come across dozens of articles, books, and/or research reports that can aid us in doing our work. However, we have to know which are based on sound research and provide sensible conclusions and recommendations, and which don't. We also have to know how to undertake research  and analysis that we may need to answer in the course of doing our jobs . Even if we don't do that research and analysis as well, we have to be able to tell staff that do what we are looking for an to critically evaluate their findings.  This class is designed to give you an ability to do that. 

For example, in this time of limited budgets and high levels of public dissatisfaction with government programs, public administrators are also being required, as never before, to develop means for effectively measuring their agencies’ performance and the “satisfaction” of their “customers”.  For these reasons as well, an understanding of research design and data analysis is crucial.  As Jeff Brudney noted in a recent article in the PA Times: “Quantitative analyses have become so commonplace in government that no mid-level manager can avoid them.”

In general, the course covers the following topic areas:

•  Research Methodology and Design: will address the frameworks for conducting quantitative and qualitative research designs. We will also discuss how to operationalize concepts, develop hypotheses, identify populations of interest, define independent and dependent variables, choose data collection methods, and how to ensure validity, reliability, and generalizability.  We will also discuss effective means for presenting research findings, including the use of graphs and charts.

• Case Study Research: will cover the design and analysis of case studies, one of the most extensively used research strategies in public administration.

•   Survey Research: will cover the development of questionnaire instruments, sampling procedures, pre-testing, coding data, analyzing it, and drawing conclusions from the results.  

•  Quantitative Data Analysis:  will emphasize techniques for the statistical analysis of data, including the use of computer software to facilitate such analyses.  We will rely primarily on SPSS for Windows, although students are welcome to employ any other software they have available for the completion of their individual assignments.  This section will review descriptive statistics, probability, inference and hypothesis testing, statistical controls, and bivariate and multivariate techniques for the analysis of quantitative data. 

In addition to the knowledge you will gain about research methods and statistics, the assignments in this class are designed to enhance the skills you need as effective public administrators.  These include conducting library- and Internet-based research; critically analyzing and summarizing published research on a particular topic,  developing a research prospectus, collecting and analyzing data; and clearly presenting your findings and conclusions verbally and in writing.  In addition, because team-based work arrangements are becoming more popular in organizations, you will participate as a member of a team to carry out a research project.