Questionnaires and Focus Groups for the Evaluation of Public Essay

Questionnaires and Focus Groups for the Evaluation of Public Perception of Waste Recycling - Essay Example Qualitative research would help the researcher evaluate the public perception of waste recycling in a better way as compared to quantitative study. Another reason behind the appropriateness of qualitative study in understanding public perception is that qualitative study focuses more on getting detailed information about the subject. Questionnaires and focus groups are two of the best examples of a qualitative study in which researchers identify the thoughts and perceptions of different people. Let us discuss these techniques in order to understand the public perception of waste recycling. 1. Questionnaires As Brace (2008, p. 2) states, â€Å"questionnaires are written in many different ways, to be used in many different situations and with many different data-gathering media.† Questionnaire is a method of doing qualitative research, which has advantages over many types of research methods. The reason is that they do not take much time and can easily target groups. Moreover, r esearchers can use focus groups to target large populations in wide geographical areas. Questionnaire is one of the widely used methods of research because researchers can apply it in almost every field of study, such as, healthcare, education, organizational analysis, and system and process analyses. Along with these fields of study, questionnaires also produce good results while evaluating public perception about waste recycling. Waste recycling is a process in which different kinds of household and construction wastes are recycled in such a way that they become available for use in the development of different types of products. Although researchers can use both analytical and descriptive types of questionnaires for getting the facts about waste recycling, but descriptive survey can be more productive for them as compared to the analytic one because it provides them with the real perceptions of people about a given scenario. Therefore, researchers can use descriptive questionnair es to identify the perceptions of different people regarding waste recycling. Moreover, the researcher should use numerical, as well as opinion questions in the questionnaire regarding waste recycling. Linda Goldenhar and Cathleen Connell did a research named ‘Effects of Educational and Feedback Interventions on Recycling Knowledge, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors’ in 1992 in which they studied public perception using feedback groups, education groups, and control groups. The researchers used questionnaires for this purpose. The results revealed that the feedback groups had higher levels of recycling behavior as compared to the control or education groups. In another research, ‘Evaluating the Effectiveness of Deliberative Processes: Waste Management Case-studies’ by Judith Petts, the researcher made use of case studies and questionnaires to gather information about effectiveness of waste recycling processes. The research revealed that people participate a ctively in waste management processes and have a good perception about recycling. 1.1. Advantages of Questionnaires Questionnaires prove to be very useful in conducting qualitative research. Some of the main advantages of using questionnaires in evaluating public perception of waste recycling include cost effectiveness, ease of conduct, answering as no details are required, and no requirement of verbal communication skills. Researchers believe that questionnaires return reliable data from the target population.

Management. Performance Based Budgeting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Management. Performance Based Budgeting - Essay Example While traditional budget tends to attach budget based on expense on specific items, PBB is concerned with general event outcomes (Last, 2009 p.2456). The planned and actual performance are both evaluated in terms of efficiency and effectiveness and the assessment used to allocate resources rather than using blind resource allocation system which emphasizes on organizational units and line item expenses. PBB has an objective of improving efficiency and effectiveness in public expenditure by linking allocation of funds to public organizations to their actual and projected performance (Guajardo, 2001 p.457). A basic form of PBB has a design, which ensures that the participating decision makers provide a systematic consideration to the results achieved by the expenditures at various government units when formulating budget on government expenditure. Performance Based Budgeting needs the following essential elements for proper budgetary planning. First it requires a measurable quantity of inputs available for the given project. These include monetary value of all resources ready to be injected in the project. Another requirement is units of output from the project. This involves assessment of the outcome of the project (Hughes, 2012 p.1004). Next is calculation of efficiency. This involves assigning an amount of input to each unit produced in order to get productivity per unit unit or activity. Lastly is analysis of achievement of the predetermined level of performance. The organization must have set goals, which it wants to accomplish; hence, it is necessary to measure the effectiveness of the management system used in terms of objectives achieved. Policy objectives and organizational goal development is the starting point in the PBB process. The achievement of goal and objectives should be reflected using developed performance measures. In the process of budget preparation, the main considerations are, past performance, current performance and projected future per formance information (Hood, 2009 p. 456). A detailed decisional analysis is undertaken in order to come up with the best and the most appropriate decision. The final decision should be the best in interlinking resources allocations to the measures, objective and goals. The outcome is a final report financial details and the recommended performance information. The report has a description of how the initiated measures taken influence the strategic plan and the projected result from the project. PBB is effective in Periodic project evaluation as regularcheckup is performed as the project proceeds. Financial information and performance information should be appropriately aligned and coincided during the duty execution in order to enhance efficiency in its implementation. Performances audit is done at the end of the financial period or project to determine the effectiveness of the PBB system used. PBB is beneficial in the sense that it raises accountability of an organization, as it se ts targeted outputs that enable the organization to work hard towards achieving. It encourages proper decision-making that are aimed at reducing the gap between the desired level of output and the actual level of output. PBB ensures that government strategic decisions are carefully implemented in terms of financial analysis. It is a tool of trigger to policy makers, customers and service