Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods in Pursuit of Richer Answers to Real-World Questions

Abstract

Qualitative methods are relatively scarce in public administration research. This imbalance between qualitative and quantitative methods poses three significant concerns. First, there is a risk that measurement hurdles, coupled with the distance that quantitative methodology fosters between academics and administrative practice and practitioners, undermines our inclination and capacity to study policy-meaningful research questions that matter in the real world. Second, and related, the causality underlying the real problems that policymakers and public organizations face is often much too complex to be captured by one type of methodology, whether quantitative or qualitative. Third, quantitative methodology is most conducive to testing already available theories and hypotheses, as opposed to theory building. I propose that the answer to these concerns lays in denouncing commitment to abstract philosophical divisions and advancing collaboration between qualitative and quantitative researchers and versions of mixed methods that transcend mere triangulation. These arguments are illustrated in relation to the study of bureaucratic discrimination of minorities.

Keywords:

• Methodology
• mixed methods
• qualitative methods

Notes

1 See Riccuci (2008, 2010) for a nuanced depiction of alternative paradigms and their implications for the study public administration.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sharon Gilad

Sharon Gilad is Associate Professor at the Federmann School of Public Policy and Government and the Political Science Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She completed a PhD in Political Science at the University of Oxford and Nuffield College and held a lectureship at King’s College London. She served Associate Editor of Public Administration Journal (2016–2019). She studies bureaucrats and bureaucracies’ responses to public pressures and demands, as well representative bureaucracy and bureaucratic interface with minorities.