RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.3 Research Design
The study of a Narcotic Integrated Budgeting Plan uses available data from fiscal year 2017 to 2018 (1 October 2016 - 30 September 2018). In the initial chapter, an objective was created to outline the rationale for the study by analyzing how effective the budgeting method is in achieving government organizational goals. It is known that totally different organizations set budgets as a way to foresee whether or not their strategic goals don't seem to be met regardless the efforts. Thus, the research design is considered a descriptive and exploratory study. The field of mixed methods has only been widely accepted for the last decade, though researchers have long been using multiple methods, just not calling them “mixed.” Mixed methods research takes advantage of using multiple ways to explore a research problem. Also, the mixed- method research design would be appropriate for gathering both qualitative and quantitative data for solving research problems.
1) Quantitative
This chapter basically views the literature, which includes journals, papers, magazines and articles, just to mention a few. However, empirical evidence from various different levels shows that the budget is an essential tool in organizations.
Questionnaires were distributed to a target population of 19 out of 26 related government officials to explore the linkages and related factors regarding the effectiveness of budget policy. A combination of different approaches was used, whereby each approach serves a different but complementary role within an overall research design.
2) Qualitative
In-depth interviews were selected to explore and explain the nature of this study. An in-depth interview is a loosely structured interview. It allows freedom for both the interviewer and the interviewee to explore additional points and change the direction. The questions will be open-ended questions, which allows the interviewees to freely answer the question.
Also, a qualitative method was used in this case study. A case study is a research strategy and an empirical inquiry that investigates a phenomenon within its real-life context. Case studies are based on an in-depth investigation of a single individual, group
or event to explore the causes of underlying principles of effectiveness for budget policy.
3.3.1 Population
The key informants were selected executives, officers and government officials related to Thailand’s Bureau of the Budget (BOB) and Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). Senior officers and executives who are responsible for and have experience with working on the Narcotic Integrated Budgeting Plan were essential to the study. The study points out the awareness of IBP staff in budget preparation, types of budget prepared by IBP, how the budget contributes to the success of IBP, and the challenges that IBP faces in the budgeting process. Authorities explain the budget summary, conclusion and recommendations on how effective the budget can be to an organization in its budget planning. Government officials from the Planning Department, Policy and Strategy Department, and Budgeting Department are among the qualifying populations for this study.
3.3.2 Sample Size
This section offers the theoretical base of the study and explains what has already been done and located by the investigator within the selected target population.
It specifically reviews literature regarding the performance of various organizations in regard to budgeting. The budget committee may be a coordinative body for the preparation and administration of budgets, it consists of the executive who may be a chairman, division heads, and the budget officer who is responsible for the effective operations of the budget committee. The master budget may be a comprehensive structure-wide set of budgets. The master budget ends up in a collection of connected budgets for a collection period of time, typically one year. It coordinates all the monetary projections in an exceedingly single structure-wide set of budgets for a predetermined amount of time and provides a general image of the planned performance for the budget period. It includes operational budgets and purposeful budgets. Sample size is critical in research in that it represents the number of observations being selected in order to represent the overall possible population to which the researcher intends to generalize. In order to yield accurate results and reliable
data, the sample size must be appropriate to make conclusions about the population as a whole. In this research, there are many parties involved in the budgeting plan process.
This study focusses only the part of budget planning and does not cover expected outcome delivery, due to the requirement of different angles and factors. They can be classified as follows:
Table 3.4 Distribution of Sample Observations
Agencies Government
official %
1. Internal Security Operations Command n/a n/a
2. Office of the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of
Defense n/a n/a
3. Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters n/a n/a
4. Royal Thai Army n/a n/a
5. Royal Thai Navy n/a n/a
6. Royal Thai Air Force n/a n/a
7. Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection
(DJOP) 16 1.8%
8. Office of the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of
Interior 75 8.8%
9. Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA) 29 3%
10. Department of Probation 11 1%
11. Department of Juvenile Observation and Protection
(DJOP) 12 1%
12. Department of Corrections 13 2%
13. Office of the Narcotics Control Board 290 34%
14. Office of the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of
Labour 19 0.02
15. Department of Labour Protection and Welfare 37 4%
Table 3.4 (Continued)
Agencies Government
official % 16. Office of the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of
Education 49 6%
17. Office of the Basic Education Commission
(OBEC) 66 8%
18. Office of the Vocational Education Commission 47 6%
19. Office of the Higher Education Commission 26 3%
20. Office of the Permanent Secretary for Ministry of
Public Health 42 5%
21. Department of Medical Services (DMS) 19 2%
22. Department of Medical Sciences (DMSC) 14 2%
23. Department of Mental Health (DMH 58 7%
24. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 3 0.3%
25. Royal Thai Police n/a n/a
26. Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO) 27 3%
Total (N) 853
Source: Office of the Civil Service Commission, 2016.
The minimum sample of this research is calculated by using the Taro Yamane (Yamane, 1973) formula with a 95% confidence level. The calculation formula of Taro Yamane is presented as follows.
n = N / 1+N(e)2 Where：
n = sample size required
N = number of people in the population e = allowable error (%)
n = 853 / 1+(853(0.05)2) n = 273 (Rounded)
3.3.3 Sampling Design
The sample design refers to the rules and procedures by which some elements of the population are included in the sample. Different sampling methods may use different estimators. This research uses transcripts of individual interviews and focus groups or field notes, copies of documents, and audio recordings from observation of certain activities. In a qualitative aspect, stratified sampling was selected. This is a probability sampling technique wherein the researcher divides the entire population into different subgroups or strata, then randomly selects the final subjects proportionally from the different strata.
Sampling in qualitative research is mainly purposive with specific criteria in the research design. It seeks conceptual applicability rather than quantitative representativeness. This study seeks to capture the range of views/experiences, pursue saturation of data and draw a theory from the data of policy effectiveness, which is an opportunistic sampling approach.