1.7 Research Methodology Essay

1.7 Research Methodology
1.7.1 Research design
Researchers, at least of the social persuasion, have long agreed that qualitative data can enhance quantitative data and also lead to a better understanding of the strengths of a given program (Plewis and Mason 2005).This thesis will therefore, employ both qualitative and quantitative methods to improve the validity of the research results (Alasuutari, 2010). Through mixed method research, which has developed to become a third major research approach or research paradigm according to Onwuegbuzie et al. (2010), this study will capitalised on the relative strengths of the different techniques and combined them effectively to enhance the research project. Since all research methods have cost and
In specific terms, the study will purposively select one hundred and two (120) and it will include thirty (30) revenue collectors, eighty five (85) respondents comprising assembly members, unit committee members, chiefs, opinion leaders in community suburbs, drivers, and hawkers, traders in the market and community members and five (5) local government officials, such as municipal chief executives, municipal planning officers, municipal finance officers, head of revenue collection unit, and municipal budget officer because they encapsulate a critical knowledge base of the local government system, and also have lived experiences working with the local government. This is in line with the suggestions that such a technique in the least is based on the need to isolate some specific units, for the important information they can share with the researcher to help answer the research questions (Teddlie and Yu 2007). Therefore, choosing from this critical mass of respondents will help the study to gather deep and diverse information unique to the local government administrative setting, only available to the selected respondents, and without having to sample a large quantity of individuals (Maxwell
The aim is to extract maximum meaning from the data sets by gestalt switches between approaches of analysis (Onwuegbuzie et al. 2010). Because of the leverage to switch between analytical methods, performing cross over analysis will certainly allow this study to combine both quantitative and qualitative assumptions and stances, and this, arguably will help to further construct validity and ensured what Greene et al, (1989) refers to as complementarity (Sanyare, 2013). Since a greater portion of the data will be qualitative, diverse and complex narratives, descriptions, perceptions and perspectives methods will be used (Braun and Clarke 2006; Plewis and Mason 2005). In a word, the data obtained through interviews and observations will be captured using field note books, dairies and digital tape-recordings. Upon which they will be transcribed, collated and processed in various ways. The data will therefore be analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientist (SPSS)