The research methods of completed South African doctoral research output in public administration from 2000 to 2005

Abstract

This dissertation examines the research methods that were used by doctoral students in Public Administration from the period 2000 to 2005. In order to identify the research methods used, it first looked at the purpose of doctoral research in Public Administration. It further identified ten research methods that can be used by doctoral students in Public Administration. When presenting the findings on the purposes of research it was found that 50% of the theses were descriptive and 30% were aimed at developing or improving administrative technology. Three categories were mainly used as units of analyses, namely interventions, organisations and institutions and social actions and events. The units of observations included individuals, official documents and scholarly literature. Of the ten research methods, only four were mostly used; Quantitative1, Hermeneutics, Qualitative1 and Qualitative2. This dissertation also identified that a significant association either exists or do not exist between the chosen variables.