Public Management Research and a Three Qualitative Research Strategy

Abstract

The study of public administration and management requires scientific steps, because of the philosophical views of research as scientific process that lies on ontology, epistemology, and methodology. The qualitative method is a major aspect of public management research, which also has been criticized from different perspectives; especially, in relations to its characteristics (proximity to quantitative method, determinism, finding actual causation, objectivism etc.). The main purpose of this article therefore, is to discuss the basic scientific steps in public management research and to focus on literature review, interview, and documentary analysis as qualitative strategies in data collection, analysis, and interpretation in public management research for especially young researchers and also old researchers in this unique field. In addition, this paper tries to contribute to the views that the qualitative method is still one suitable method for public management research and different strategies could be adopted in one research task through the mixed method.