The NJ Division of Local Government Services Data Paper Example

A. Overview of Research Methods

The study composed of two components primarily analyses shared services to discover and explain a correlation between efficient service delivery and production of cost savings using the NJ Division of Local Government Services data set from the New Jersey League of Municipalities General Code, 2016-2018. The NJDLGS dataset contains two components, qualitative and quantitative variables describing shared services particularly data from New Jersey municipalities. The dataset includes information on the various actors participated, the timeframe, types of services offered, framing and strategy, potential savings behind each agreement.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The first component of the research is the quantitative study that includes a regression analysis model. Cost savings (revenue generated) is used as the dependent variable, and some main factors for shared services (such as municipal budgets, number/types of shared services, population size, tax rate, the total distance between two municipalities, and total square miles) are determined as the independent variables for this regression analysis. A data set that includes ten pairs of NJ Shared Services Agreements (20 municipalities) has been collected and identified as the unit of study (NJDLGS). Furthermore, the relationships between cost savings and these shared services indicators will be determined and analyzed according to the results of the regression analysis model. The second component is the qualitative study that includes semi-structured interviews. This portion of the study is a supportive tool to offer a conceptual framework and improve the results of the quantitative step as well as to identify the social components of service delivery in the context of shared services within a subset of the sample, New Jersey local governments

B: Component One - The Quantitative Study

Study Design: In this study, the cross-sectional research design is established for the quantitative component. The research design from cross-sectional analysis entails data from sample cases with a single point of data collected from a body of quantitative or quantifiable data in regard with the variables from the detected patterns of association (Bryman, 2014, p.53). Although surveys are implemented in this research method, within the context of cross-sectional research, this study will be driven by official statistics (secondary data).

Samples

Data are taken from the local government projects that deal with service delivery used by the local governments. Local government officials are surveyed on the service delivery with 116 different local public services. Also, data are collected through a survey of city administrators within 24 Michigan counties. Four hundred sixty-eight units were used in the observation on the service sharing with response to 10 different public work services. The inter-local cooperation is used in the measurement of dichotomous variables through local government report on the sharing of service provided to another local government source. Moreover, the government provisions engage in inter-local cooperation through the purchase of the services from one county or city to another. The measure of inter-local cooperation shows the service sharing arrangement through the various levels of shared activities and people served (Leroux & Carr, 2007). The significant limitations of the study prevent the drawing of insights on the factors that are examined hence affecting the extent of the cooperation and partners of the choices.

Measures

The use of logistic regression in examining factors that affect the local government cooperate on various public work services includes the measures for the explanatory variables including economic factors, characteristics of the regional and demographic policies of network planning. Through the cross-sectional multivariate analyses, the value of the dependent variables is conditioned on the other variables hence violating the standard assumption of conditional exchangeability - the basis of clustering of the data with the repeated measures of the subject thus the local government on the cluster variable to be straightforward. The models of measurement treat local governments with each cluster on the decision making cooperate on the services that are affected by the local government municipality as well as township. In Michigan, the local government operates on the expectations of the public services through the provision of essential services to the rural area and villages as designed by the local government (Sako, 2010). The developed services by the local governments provide expanded facilities for the county population as well as full services for the units of the city through an authorized wide range of services. The distinctions of different types of local government shared services approve taxing and bonding authority hence offering the government service responsibilities for the shared cooperation of particular services beyond the expected factors including economic factors, characteristics of the regional and demographic policies of network planning.

Statistical Analyses:

Dependent variables are provided by the cross-sectional multivariate analysis model based on the local government sharing services. From the counties and cities, the public service workers are included in the survey for the local government service sharing.

Independent variable: local government.

The data is exported from the inter-local cooperation that expresses the local government sharing services based on economic factors, regional characteristics, local demographic characteristics, and policy as well as planning networks.

The descriptive statistics will be obtained through the mean, median and percentage distribution.

Through regression analysis, the study will use a variable analysis on the other variable because of estimating the mean and median of the known values of the study. As a result, the regression analysis will be used as a descriptive statistical tool that will determine the relationship between the public service workers and the economic factors, local characteristics, local demographic characteristics, and policy as well as planning networks within the regression model. For the cross-sectional study, the set data from the county units will be limited to the required statistics.

C: Component Two: The Qualitative Study

Study Design:

The local government in the sharing of services attempt to source practices form the corporation and collaborative arrangements. The sharing services have the options from the local governments for delivering services that adopt the alternative model for the prompted information that involves enterprise as well as the discard models that fund the collaborative arrangements. The study case is re-engineered through the approaches that reflect on the changes of continuity for the organizational practices of local government. The understanding of the local government sharing of services uses the case study framework that explores the conceived counties of the public service workers. Through the semi-structured interview, the civil service workers participate in the local government services through the identified units of several counties. The objective of the case study is based on the economic, geographical as well as policy planning that influences the local government service sharing (Harvey & Tulloch, 2006). Subsequently, the objective of the case study underlines the importance of the local government in the public sector through the breaking of barriers that hinder the sharing of services. As a result, there is improved decision making on the local government hence allowing the rights for decision making. As a result, there is sharing of services I the organization through the local governments with the emergence of natural capital to the organization for active service sharing practices.

Sample and Data Collect...