Comprehensive Project, Essay Example

Background

While the non-profit agency provides its services statewide, it is essential to control the quality of service performance. The amount of the agency clients is about 5,000 people, half of which lives in two cities, and the rest dwell in the rural areas. Because of the poor social status, only half of the clients have telephones, so it is difficult to contact them. One more important issue necessary to take into consideration is the poverty condition of the agency clients. The clients meet with service provides whose staff makes 150 members, only once a month. Thus, there is a problem in investigating quality control in person or via phone. The most appropriate way to conduct this social research is via mail survey with corresponding questions. The survey is going to be anonymous while there will be a possibility to state the name of those who want to be contacted for the problem examination. Moreover, this project will not require many costs as this is a non-profit agency. The budget of $4,000, 10 student interns, and 3-month term will be enough to collect data, analyze the problems, and develop ways of improvement.

Qualitative Methods of Social Research

As the investigation of service quality is a social research, thus, this project requires the application of qualitative methods of research. Qualitative researches are targeted to collect data pertaining to the assigned issue; moreover, they are to provide a person’s understanding of the issue and people’s behavior. Therefore, qualitative researches aspects are what, when, and where accompanied with why and how aspects. There are many effective methods of researches such as statistics or experiment, but they are not applicable to this project as they are better to be used in the scientific field. This project concerns evaluation of social group and its assessment of the quality of service performance. Thus, the aim of this project is to provide a credible data that will meet the purpose of this study. The qualitative research questions concern four aspects – purposes, conceptual context, methods, and validity (Maxwell, 2009). The role of conceptual concept is to inform and to support the research through a variety of concepts, expectations, theories, assumptions, and beliefs. The expectations of these projects are to receive a fair and objective respond. This aspect is similar to literature review in academic writing, and serves as a background of the research (Maxwell, 2009). Qualitative researches should have a high level of validity as they provide a clear and objective picture of the issue to be discussed (Maxwell, 2009). Thus, there is a necessity to choose a right subject group for the project completion and success.

Methods of qualitative research are highly-varied such as participant observation, direct observation, unstructured interviewing, or case studies (Trochim, 2006). These methods require personal involvement in the project, and constant interactions with the examined subject group (Trochim, 2006). This is not appropriate for this study as there are limited human and money resources assigned for the project completion; moreover, there is a time limit of three months. The clients of this agency are not able or eager to meet service providers more often than once a month, so there are a number of boundaries making the project completion a difficult task. Each social research should be well-planned to achieve the desired outcome; moreover, it should involve the consideration of ethics and the rights of its participants (Bickman & Rog, 2009). Thus, the research design should include strategies aimed at obtaining the informed content, issues and techniques pertaining to ensure privacy and confidentiality, and ways of research risk recognition to enhance the research outcomes (Bickman & Rog, 2009). Therefore, the research passes four stages – definition, design/planning, implementation, and follow-up. According to Bickman and Rog (2009), the most appropriate method for collecting information from a large number of correspondents is telephone or mail surveys. In case of this study, the number of clients makes a number of 1,500 people, and a number of service providers is 150 staff member who are spread all over the state.

Choosing a Subject Group for Data Collection

The data for this project can be collected on the response basis of clients and service providers. As the main goal of this study is to identify existing problems of quality performance, to analyze them, and to develop improvement ways, the data should be credible and objective. Moreover, it is critical to have an ability to discuss the problem and its causes, so it is considerable to be in contact with respondents. It is hardly possible that clients will agree to provide their names or other personal information, so the project can be only anonymous. Moreover, some clients may not like being involved in such kind of activity; this may have a negative effect on the agency’s popularity. It is also critical to take into consideration that the clients live below the poverty line, so they have other issues that are more important for them.

The ethical aspect of respondents is also notable; people who have no money for a living or a residence often find themselves in a desperate situation. Such desperation often drives people to crime such as violent attacks, gangs, or drug dealing (Ferrell & Hamm, 1998). Unfavorable social environment reflects personality which is mainly based on survival skills that rule person’s perception of the world, attitudes, and actions. This scope of individual characteristics was investigated by Ferrell and Hamm (1998) who revealed that a person in such poor conditions cannot be objective and neutral.

Having analyzed clients of this agency as a subject group, it has become evident that it is almost impossible to achieve credible assessment of the performance quality. Thus, it is clear that this project needs another group of respondents – service providers. Though they work with clients who experience poverty, and may feel sympathy to them; service providers are more likely to provide a clear picture of the service delivery. First of all, they are closely connected with their clients, know their needs, and, probably, emotionally participate with the subject of the work (Ferrell & Hamm, 1998). Therefore, providers are able to identify problems and gaps in the existing structure of the service delivery, suggest ways of improvement, and collaborate with the executive staff to ensure client satisfaction and organizational success. Moreover, service providers are members of the agency staff, so they are interested in its prosperity. As 100 of service providers work in two cities, and the rest 50 are spread in the rural areas of the state, their response will reflect the situation in accordance with the geographical, social, and ethical aspects.

Method of the Data Collection

As it has been explained above, this project requires a qualitative method of social research. Among other methods of this kind, the most appropriate are mail or phone surveys. Probably, phone survey is a quicker solution for this project; however, the respondents who are service providers at the same time may be distracted from their direct responsibilities that may lead to client dissatisfaction with the provided services. Thus, the method of this research will be a personal mail survey as its questions can be answered in sessions and will not take much time and energy from respondents. Moreover, this method is quite costless that is also a considerable factor as the budget estimated for the project is $4,000. The major role in the survey is played by research questions that are targeted to perform two functions – to focus the project study on its conceptual context and purposes, and to serve as guidance of how to conduct the survey (Maxwell, 2009).

Thus, it is critical to formulate the survey questions properly to be able to receive a desired outcome. To avoid misunderstandings and difficulties with questionnaire, this survey will not contain alternative questions, negative connotations, multiple-meaning words such as just or any, and ethically inappropriate language. The body of this survey is going to be presented by close-ended and open-ended questions. Common issues that can be identified through general questions will occupy the first part of the survey. Though closed questions are often considered restricting respondent freedom through forcing him or her to choose ready-formulated options, they are more likely to be completed to the fullest extent (Marcinowicz et al., 2007). The data collected by this part of the survey will be used to produce a rating picture. Special questions beginning with ‘How’ and ‘Why’ and phrases starting with ‘Tell us about’ will encourage respondents to provide full meaningful answers to some specific issues. Open-ended questions are critical for a good survey as they contain suggestions or important points of view of respondents that are almost impossible to identify through closed questions (Marcinowicz et al., 2007).

However, the percentage of incomplete open-ended questions is higher than the same of closed questions as they require more effort and analysis. According to the study of Marcinowicz et al. (2007) dedicated to the effectiveness of closed and open-ended questions concerning patient satisfaction with a family doctor, the first open-ended question was answered by 361 patient while the second one – only by 166 (Marcinowicz et al., 2007, p. 87). Therefore, it is essential to combine the survey body with both types of questions to receive the full vision of the situation. Open-ended questions are more valuable because they provide additional information of personal expectations or experiences; this portion of data will be used for content analysis. This will allow identifying the most crucial issues pertaining to the service delivery, the existing gaps and problems in the field, and, probably, uncovered client demands and needs. Proper analysis will make it possible to design and to develop ways aimed at improving the performance quality. Thus, this survey may be used as guidance of the further development and advancement of the agency.

Procedures of Human Subjects Protection

The aim of this project is to identify the level of the performance quality of the service delivery, and to provide improvement ways if necessary. Therefore, the whole scope of collected data is going to be used only to pursue these purposes. No publicity measure will be applied to these data to ensure personal confidentiality. This project will serve only as an informed consent based on respondent’s understanding and appreciation of the facts and future implications. No evaluations or assessment of a respondent will be made on the basis of the survey completion; thus, this project is targeted to provide a high-quality performance of services, and concerns service providers only in the context of receiving objective response pertaining to the issue. The agency has a clear understanding of ethical principles, and is going to respect human rights and freedoms. If a respondent considers some questions inappropriate or inadequate to the situation, he or she is completely welcomed to skip it, or to leave the personal remark. Therefore, confidentiality provision is a significant consideration of this survey project. Nevertheless, if a respondent is eager to provide his or her personal information for further contacting to discuss the issue, it will be highly appreciated on behalf of the executive staff.

The whole scope of data collection is going to be kept on the Director’s computer with no access to it of anybody else. The login and password will be known only by the Director; moreover, the office is always closed at the Director’s absence. Therefore, there is no need to expect the findings of the survey to contain personal information or reference to be available for other members of the staff. At first, results of the survey will be presented in the printed format to make it easier to conduct proper analysis and investigation of the data. After the completion of the process of studying all the received materials, an Excel or Word application will be used to create a computer archive. The printed form of survey papers will be destroyed through paper disintegrator. These measures are necessary to ensure confidentiality of respondents, and to encourage their participation in the project. Therefore, the executive staff tends to receive a fair and objective estimate of the quality performance of the service delivery.

Reference

Bickman, L., & Rog, D. (2009). The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Ferrell, J., & Hamm, M. (1998). Ethnography at the Edge: Crime, Deviance, and Field Research. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.

Marcinowicz, L, Chlabicz, S., & Grebowski, R. (2007). Open-ended questions in surveys of patients’ satisfaction with family doctors. Journal of Health Care Research and Policy, Vol. 12, Iss. 2, pp. 86-89.

Maxwell, J.A. (1997). Designing a Qualitative Study. In L. Bickman, & D. Rog (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Applied Social Research Methods (pp. 69-100). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Trochim, M.K.. (2006). Research Methods Knowledge Base. Retrieved from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/contents.php