Mixed-Methods Inquiry in Public Administration: The Interaction of Theory, Methodology, and Praxis

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estelle Raimondo ◽  
Kathryn E. Newcomer
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Assessment System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Performance Assessment System ◽  
Single Method ◽  
Personnel Administration

Although the methods wars that were entrenched in most of the social science disciplines well into the 1990s have purportedly ceased, methodological diversity remains rare in public administration. We suggest that the productive interaction between methods, theory, and praxis in the field of public administration requires further methodological integration. Through a review of articles published in Review of Public Personnel Administration ( ROPPA) since 2011, we show that the promise of mixed-methods design has not fully materialized. We explore avenues for implementing mixed-methods research designs that are particularly appropriate for examining the behavior and motivations of public service personnel by identifying examples of articles in ROPPA that used a single-method approach but could have usefully leveraged a diversity of methods to answer their primary research question. We then support our case for the use of integrated mixed-methods with a study of the institutionalization of a performance assessment system in an international organization.

Poetry and Mixed Methods Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-165
Author(s):  
Mandy M. Archibald ◽  
Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Hermeneutic Circle ◽  
Arts Based Research ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Human Creativity ◽  
Poetic Representation

Integration—or the meaningful bringing together of different data sets, sampling strategies, research designs, analytic procedures, inferences, or the like—is considered by many to be the hallmark characteristic of mixed methods research. Poetry, with its innate capacity for leveraging human creativity, and like arts-based research more generally, which can provide holistic and complexity-based perspectives through various approaches to data collection, analysis, and representation, can offer something of interest to dialogue on integration in mixed methods research. Therefore, in this editorial, we discuss and promote the use of poetry in mixed methods research. We contend that the complexities and mean-making parallelisms between poetry and mixed methods research render them relevant partners in a quest to complete the hermeneutic circle whose origin represents experiences, phenomena, information, and/or the like. We advance the notion that including poetic representation facilitates the mixed methods research process as a dynamic, iterative, interactive, synergistic, integrative, holistic, embodied, creative, artistic, and transformational meaning-making process that opens up a new epistemological, theoretical, and methodological space. We refer to this as the fourth space, where the quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods, and poetic research traditions intersect to enable different and deeper levels of meaning making to occur. We end our editorial with a poetic representation driven by a word count analysis of our editorial and that synthesizes our thoughts regarding the intersection of poetry and mixed methods research within this fourth space—a representation that we have entitled, “Dear Article.”

Creating and Implementing a Mixed Method Research Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 604-613
Author(s):  
Mette L. Baran ◽  
Janice E. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Core Characteristics

This chapter serves as a guideline for outlining the core characteristics of mixed methods research (MMR) and the various steps researchers undertake in order to conduct a research study. The purpose is to create a worksheet assisting the researcher step by step from beginning to end following the seven steps to conducting research. While the focus is on MMR the steps are similar for any type of research methodology. It is important to note that MMR is not a limiting form of research. Researchers need a MMR question and a mixed methods purpose statement for the research project. This chapter will also help explain why mixed method research is one of the best approaches in answering a research question. Finally, the chapter includes a suggestion to the importance of adding a visual diagram of the MMR into the research project and into the final report.

Mixed Methods

2021 ◽  
pp. 169-174
Author(s):  
Manfredi Valeriani ◽  
Vicki L. Plano Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Qualitative Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Central Idea ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Quantitative And Qualitative Methods

This chapter examines mixed-methods research, which is an approach that involves the integration of quantitative and qualitative methods at one or more stages of a research study. The central idea behind mixed-methods research is that the intentional combination of numeric-based methods with narrative-based methods can best provide answers to some research questions. The ongoing attempts to construct a simple and common conceptualization of mixed-methods provide a good indicator of the status of mixed-methods itself. mixed-methods research has emerged as a formalized methodology well suited to addressing complex problems, and is currently applied throughout the social sciences and beyond. Nowadays, researchers interested in combining quantitative and qualitative methods can benefit from the growing knowledge about the epistemological foundations, essential considerations, and rigorous designs that have been advanced for mixed-methods research.

Studying Non-Democratic Regional Organizations: Methodological Issues

2019 ◽  
pp. 66-75
Author(s):  
Anastassia V. Obydenkova ◽  
Alexander Libman
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Research Strategy ◽  
Regional Organizations ◽  
Large N ◽  
The World ◽  
Small N

The chapter describes the methodology of this book’s analysis. In particular, it presents details on our mixed methods research strategy and how the insights from the small-N studies contribute to the large-N research. In particular, it describes the benefits of using a concurrent instead of a sequential research design for our research question; it shows how we integrate the findings from the world-wide (large-N) analysis with the analysis of three regional organizations in post-Soviet Eurasia (combining large-N and small-N approaches). It also shows how the theoretical concept of non-democratic regional organizations can be operationalized empirically and presents details on the data that are used.

Creating and Implementing a Mixed Method Research Study

2016 ◽  
pp. 293-302
Author(s):  
Mette L. Baran ◽  
Janice E. Jones
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Final Report ◽  
Mixed Method Research ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Conducting Research ◽  
Core Characteristics

This chapter serves as a guideline for outlining the core characteristics of mixed methods research (MMR) and the various steps researchers undertake in order to conduct a research study. The purpose is to create a worksheet assisting the researcher step by step from beginning to end following the seven steps to conducting research. While the focus is on MMR the steps are similar for any type of research methodology. It is important to note that MMR is not a limiting form of research. Researchers need a MMR question and a mixed methods purpose statement for the research project. This chapter will also help explain why mixed method research is one of the best approaches in answering a research question. Finally, the chapter includes a suggestion to the importance of adding a visual diagram of the MMR into the research project and into the final report.

Construct the Logic Model and Research Design (Step 3)

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-88
Author(s):  
Edmund M. Ricci ◽  
Ernesto A. Pretto ◽  
Knut Ole Sundnes
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Research Design ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Disaster Response ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Logic Model ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Evaluation Team ◽  
Mixed Method Design

A ‘mixed-methods’ research design, based upon the categories contained in a disaster response logic model, is suggested as the best approach to capture the complexities of the medical and public health disaster response experience. A mixed-methods design allows the evaluation team to collect and combine data from direct observation, medical records, interviews with victims, health professionals, family and friends of victims, public safety officials, other government and non-governmental officials and from public documents. Validation in a mixed-method design is based upon the concept of triangulation. The term triangulation is used in behavioral research to describe the process of obtaining data from three or more different sources and then comparing the findings to assess consistency across sources. In this design, both qualitative and quantitative data are collected and then merged during the analysis phase. Each data set is used to validate and enhance the other in order to improve the validity of the conclusions reached and the recommendations that follow. However, not all data need be combined. The mixed-method design allows for the analysis of certain types of data separately and then applied to the appropriate research question because there may be no appropriate comparative data.

Using a Narrative Approach to Analyze Longitudinal Mixed Methods Data

2020 ◽  
pp. 155868982095323
Author(s):  
Maureen R. Waller ◽  
Lenna Nepomnyaschy ◽  
Daniel P. Miller ◽  
Meaghan Mingo
Keyword(s):  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Mixed Methods Research ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Longitudinal Survey ◽  
Fragile Families ◽  
Narrative Approach ◽  
Case Histories ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
Longitudinal Survey Data ◽  
Research Designs

Despite growing interest in longitudinal mixed methods research designs, more strategies for analyzing and integrating these data are needed. This article contributes to the field of mixed methods research by presenting a novel narrative approach to data analysis in longitudinal studies. Our approach involves the transformation of longitudinal survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study into narrative case histories. We use qualitative interviews from participants in an embedded study to select survey variables for data transformation and to explain unexpected survey outcomes. Our analysis shows how multiple factors converge to enable or constrain fathers’ involvement with children in five different fathering trajectories, and how the narrative frames of some disadvantaged fathers may facilitate their sustained involvement.

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