CHAPTER THREE

METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents the methodology that will be adopted during the study. It describes and discusses; the research design, sample size and selection, the data collection methods used and their corresponding data collection instruments, data management and analysis procedure as well as steps that will be taken to ensure validity and reliability during the study and measurement of variables.

3.2 Research Design

The study will adopt a cross sectional design. Explanatory research helps a researcher to analyze patterns, formulating hypotheses that can guide future endeavors. According to Amin, (2005) If a researcher is seeking a more complete understanding of a relationship between variables, explanatory research is a great place to start. Since the study seeks to examine the relationship between variables, a simple bivariate correlation design will be adopted to determine the relationship between organizational capacity, top management, quality of evaluations and utilization of evaluation findings.

The study will use both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The quantitative approach will be adopted because the study intends to examine the factors affecting the utilization of M&E findings. Such an endeavor can best be achieved when a quantitative approach is used because it allows for collecting numeric data on observable individual behavior of samples, then subjecting these data to statistical analysis (Amin, 2005:5).

A qualitative approach will also be adopted to enable the researcher capture data that will be left out by the quantitative approach. This will be aimed at capturing more in-depth information on the topic under investigation.

3.3 Study Population

Sekaran (2018) defines a population as the entire group of people, events or things that a researcher wishes to investigate. This is the total population that will be used in the study, this specific population has been arrived at due to their experience and knowledge on the subject matter on assessment of the functionality of the monitoring and evaluation system and the performance of the public sector program.

Population of respondents

Source: Ibanda, (2019)

3.4 Study Sample

Mugenda and Mugenda (2003), argue that it is impossible to study the whole targeted population and therefore the researcher shall take a sample of the population. A sample is a subset of the population that comprises members selected from the population. Using Krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table for sample size determination approach, a sample size of 73 employees will be selected from the total population of 90 employees of Masaka district local government.

Table 1: Sample Size Determination

Source: Chief Administrative Office, Masaka district local government (2017)

3.5 Sampling Techniques and Procedure

A number of sampling techniques will be used to select respondents to the study namely; simple random and purposive sampling techniques. The lower level Staff will be selected using simple random sampling technique. Simple random sampling will be used because it ensures generalizability of findings and minimizes bias (Sekaran, 2003).  Purposive sampling technique will be used to select the health officials. These key informants will be purposively sampled because they are believed to have technical and specialized knowledge about the topic under investigation by virtue of the offices that they hold.

3.6 Data collection Methods

The section presents data collection methods which include survey method, interview and documentary review. The following data collections methods have been chosen because of their numerous advantages.

3.6.1 Survey Method

The study will use the questionnaire method to collect data. The questionnaire will be used because it allows for the collection of data from a big group of respondents in a short period as suggested by Mugenda and Mugenda (1999: 107). The questionnaire will also be used because it allows busy respondents fill it at their convenient time. It also allows respondents express their views and opinions without fear of being victimized (Oso & Onen, 2008:18).

3.6.2 Interview Method

The study will employ interview method. Interviews in this study will help the researcher obtain more information on the topic under investigation. Interviews will be used because they fetch a variety of ideas needed for the study and gives a deeper understanding of the topic. This method will also be used because it will offer the researcher an opportunity to adapt questions, clarify the questions by using the appropriate language, clear doubts and establish rapport and probe for more information (Sekaran, 2003:253).

3.6.3 Document Review Method

The researcher will review documents in order to obtain recorded information that is related to the issue under investigation. This method will be used because it enables the researcher access data at his convenient time, obtain data that are thoughtful in that the informants have given attention in obtaining them and enables the researcher obtain data in the language of the respondent (Oso & Onen, 2008: 45).

3.7 Data Collection Instruments

The instruments used in this study will be questionnaire, interview guide and document review checklist.

3.7.1 Self-Administered Questionnaire

The study will employ a questionnaire as a tool of data collection. The questionnaire for staff will have 5 sections (see appendix I). Section A will deal with the demographic characteristics of the respondents, section B will focus on technical capacity, Section C will focus on financial capacity, Section D will be concerned with the quality of evaluation activities and section E will be concerned with the utilization of M&E findings.  The questionnaires will be closed ended. Closed ended questions will be developed to help respondents make quick decisions; in addition, closed ended questions will help the researcher to code the information easily for subsequent analysis and narrow down the error gap while analyzing data as observed by Sekaran (2003:231).

3.7.2 Interview Guide

An unstructured interview will be used as a tool for collecting in depth information from the key informants. The guide will have list of topical issues and questions which will be explored in the course of conducting the interviews. The guide will be drawn with the questions soliciting for the perception of the key informants regarding the factors affecting the utilization of M&E findings within the public health facilities. The interview guide will be used because it obtains in-depth data which may not be possible to obtain when using self-administered questionnaires (Mugenda & Mugenda, 1999:17; Kakoza, 1999:27).

3.7.3 Documentary Review Checklist

A document review checklist will be used to collect more in-depth data on the topic under investigation. This will also enable the researcher to supplement the data that is acquired from the interviews and questionnaires. The researcher will analyze the documents and publications related to the study topic. Documents that are expected to be reviewed include Ministry of Health reports, Journals, and Newspapers.

3.8 Validity and Reliability of the Research Instruments

3.8.1 Validity

Validity is defined as the extent to which results can be accurately interpreted and generalized to other populations (Oso & Onen, 2008). While Borg & Gall, 1989 as cited in Onyinkwa, (2013) validity is defined as the degree to which results obtained by the research instrument correctly represented to the phenomenon understudy and Mugenda & Mugenda, (1999) as the accuracy and meaningfulness of inferences which are based on the research results.

Amin, (2005) recommended minimum CVI of 0.7 to be used. Validity will be tested using content validity index which involves judges scoring the relevancy of the questions in the instruments in relation to the study variables.

The formula for Content Validity Index is;

CVI =

Where CVI = content validity

n= number of items indicated relevant.

N = total no. of items in the instrument

In this study, validity will be achieved by establishing content validity. The researcher will achieve content validity by using the experts to assess the validity of the research instrument. The experts especially research supervisors and consultants from UTAMU will be given data collection tools to assess whether the items in the instruments are valid in relation to research topic, objectives, and questions. From the instruments they will declare some items valid and others invalid. Those declared invalid will be dropped, others adjusted, while the valid ones will be maintained.  Then content validity index (CVI) will be computed by dividing the number of items declared valid by total number of items/questions in the data collection instrument.

3.8.2 Reliability

According to Mugenda and Mugenda, (2003) reliability is the measure of the extent to which research instruments are able to provide the same results upon being tested repeatedly.

Crobach’s coefficient alpha (a) as recommended by Amin, (2005, P.302) will be used to test the reliability of the research instrument. The instrument is deemed reliable if reliable of 0.7 and above is obtained and therefore, it will be adopted for use in the data collection.

Formula for reliability is

=       ( )

Where  = alpha reliability co efficiency.

K=Number of items included4 in the questionnaire

= sum of variance of individual items

= variance of all items in the instrument.

To ensure credibility and trust worthiness of qualitative data the researcher will ensure that only the officials who are employees of Masaka district local government local government will be interviewed.

The coefficient ranges between a=0.00 for no reliability, a =1.00 for perfect reliability. The closer alpha gets to 1.0 the better. If the study findings result to Cronbanch’s Alpha of 0.7 and above, this will signify that research instrument is good enough for the study. According to Amin (2005), all the measurements in the instrument that show adequate levels of internal consistency of cronbach’s alpha of 0.77 and above are accepted as reliable.

3.9 Data Collection Procedure

The researcher will obtain a letter of introduction from UTAMU which will be presented to the authorities at in the public health units in Masaka district local government and after that she will obtain a list of all the staff in the organization.

The researcher will randomly select respondents to participate in the study, a self-administered questionnaire will be used to collect information from the above mentioned respondents.

The researcher will also purposively select senior and middle level managers who will be interviewed.

3.10 Data Analysis

3.10.1 Analysis of quantitative Data

Descriptive statistics namely frequency counts, percentages will be used to analyze the respondents’ demographic characteristics and the mean and standard deviation will be used to analyze the respondents’ opinions on the factors affecting the utilization of M&E findings within the public health units in Masaka district local government.

Data will be analyzed and correlated using Pearson Product-Moment correlation coefficient to establish the relationship between technical capacity, technological capacity, quality of M&E systems and the utilization of M&E data as suggested by Sekaran (2003), Amin (2005) and Oso and Onen (2008). Regression analysis will be used in determining the strength of the relationship between the variables, this will be possible by determining the value of R-squared value the higher the R-squared value the stronger the relationship. For this study, the three dimensions of technical capacity, financial capacity and quality of M&E will be regressed utilization of M&E findings within the health facilities. This will be aimed at determining the effect of each of these factors on the utilization of M&E findings.

The statistical package which will be used for analysis of data in this study is the SPSS version 16.0. Different statistical techniques will be used namely: correlation and regression analysis. The upper level of statistical significance for hypothesis testing will be at 5%. All statistical test results will be computed at 2-tailed level of significance.

3.10.2 Analysis of qualitative data

Qualitative data will be analyzed using content analysis. Responses from key informants will be grouped into recurrent issues. The recurrent issues which will emerge in relation to each guiding questions will be presented in the results, with selected direct quotations from participants offered as illustrations.

3.11 Measurement of variables

Data on the respondent’s views and opinions about the factors affecting the utilization of M&E data will be obtained using scaled variables from a self-developed questionnaire.

A five point Likert ordinal scales ranging from; strongly agree which shall be assigned 5, strongly Agree, 4 agree, Not Sure assigned 3, Disagree allocated 2 and strongly disagree allotted 1 to obtain responses on the variables. The Likert ordinal scale has been used by numerous scholars who have conducted similar studies such as Bowling, (1997).

The structured questions will be measured using the following variables;

Technical Skills Capacity; Adequate personnel, experienced personnel, Qualified Personnel.

Financial Capacity; Availability of funds, Timely funds, adequate funds, Accountability.

Quality of M&E findings; Timeliness, Relevant, Well written, methodologically correct

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