A Mixed Method Research for Finding a Model of Administrative Decentralization

Abstract

One of the critical issues of administrative decentralization in translating theory into practice is understanding its meaning. An important method to identify administrative decentralization is to address how it can be planned and implemented, and what are its implications, and how it would overcome challenges. The purpose of this study is finding a model for analyzing and evaluating administrative decentralization, so a mixed method research was used to explore and confirm the model of Administrative decentralization. In the first phase, in order to explore dimensions and indicators of administrative decentralization model, Grounded Theory method was used. According to the results of Grounded Theory analysis, 38 interviewees pointed to 6 dimensions of Planning, Service delivery and programs/projects implementation, financial management, Human resources management, Information management and Operation maintenance in administrative decentralization. In the second phase, the answers of 300 participants to administrative decentralization questionnaire were studied in a quantitative survey by using confirmatory factor analysis test and the validity of the above dimensions was confirmed. AMOUS 18, ATLAS.ti 6 and SPSS 18 softwares were used in the analysis of qualitative and quantitative data.