Public Funds Provision for Parks and Leisure Areas - Assignment Example

?PUBLIC FUNDS PROVISION FOR PARKS AND LEISURE AREAS of Introduction The Newtownville district council leisure services department is at present facing an economic crisis. The department is also encountering severe pressure on how to use the available limited resources. The Newtownville district council is popularly known for offering quality leisure service to its customers for a long period (Knapp and Hartsoe, 2006, p. 67). To counter these setbacks, the department is planning to recruit a research company to assist in the allocation of the limited resources and to search for the most effective ways of implementing the proposed plan. The Newtownville district leisure department is evaluating the most appropriate methods of rationalizing its services by reducing its cost of operation. In its new initiative, the department is also considering to involve local population in the collection and allocation of funds. Additionally, the department is planning to obtain financial sponsorship and support from the local business community. To facilitate success in the new development, partnership with local business community is essential (Raymore and Scott, 2007, p.21). To overcome the current predicament, the department’s management is currently on the verge of exploring their commercial interests as well as involving the general public in the improvement of its services. The department is planning to increase the range of audience in their leisure services. Currently, the regular audiences of the department facilities entail local middle aged people among other age groups (Cranz, 2001, p. 121). The department is planning to develop their services to include the requirement of elder people in the society as well as visitors from other areas. Most of the audience visit the Newtownville district council leisure facilities to relax and to enjoy the attractive parks in the areas. The new project aims at expanding their services to incorporate other services (Gobster, 2001, p. 211) The Newtownville leisure services department is also planning to elevate the type and the number of personnel involved in taking care of the available park services. Currently, the department is planning to incorporate local people in the management of its recreational facilities. The department is also looking for financial assistance from local business community (Freysinger 2003, p.253). The local business community is expected to be involved in the management and in financing the management of the parks. To meet its future plans, the department is planning to use the profound reputation of the parks and other communal leisure areas in attracting local business people and community to volunteer in taking care of the park facilities (Raymore and Scott 2007, p.21). The department plans to involve local people in the preliminary planning of the new development. The council also intend to conduct a survey to examine other methods relevant in appealing local volunteers to work in the communal leisure areas and parks. Additionally, the department is planning to advance the family requirements and needs in the park. The department is planning to liaise with local people to understand the areas which need improvement. According to the department, the areas which need improvement include improvement in food service delivery as well as improving the quality of food offered to families, which use council leisure facilities in picnics. The existing gap in service delivery results from inadequate number of employees in the park coupled with a decline in the quality of food to the visiting families (Mertes, 2006, p. 47). To address the root cause of these inefficiencies, the council is planning to hire a research agency to assess the long term requirement of families which uses the park in their leisure activities. Regarding commercial interests, the leisure services department is planning to increase its financial sponsorship. The department is anticipating encouraging firms to pay for the maintenance and upkeep of particular park sections and beds. The maintenance and upkeep fees are expected to facilitate in the advertisement purposes (Crompton and Kaczynski 2003, p.127). To encourage firms to participate in this initiative, the department is looking for most effective measures to make these parks viable for their investment. Some of the plans it intend to employ entail involving the private sector in the management of the funds as well as coming up with comprehensive initiative of ensuring transparency in the management of funds. Organisations are also encouraged to use the available services in the department to explore the available investment opportunities. Some of the organisations encouraged to use the available services include; community based organisation, Non-governmental organisation, religious organisation, and civil society organisations (Freysinger 2003, p.253). Organisations can use the facilities in the recreation centres and parks in organising and holding meetings, in outings, board meetings, and sensitising the public about their parks (Crompton and Kaczynski, 2003, p.127). To attract and retain organisation in the park, the department intend to consult with the targeted organisation to understand their needs. Some of the plans the department is planning to incorporate in their services include providing adequate and spacious meeting halls, increasing security in their premises, advancing the quality of service delivery and modernising leisure facilities. This research proposal focuses on exploring appropriate ways of increasing the sponsorship through encouraging firms to pay for the upkeep and maintenance of some specific parks, beds and increasing the number of audience in the parks (Crompton and Kaczynski, 2003, p.127). Objectives The main objective of this proposal is to identify the most appropriate method to employ in increasing the number of audiences in Newtownville district council parks as well as increasing sponsorship to the new development in the council. However, due to financial and time constraints, the research will not be in a position to evaluate ways of incorporating organisations in the department’s new development. The research will also not evaluate family development. Specific Research Objectives To evaluate means of attracting more local audiences in the park and outdoor leisure areas. To assess the most effective facilities to be incorporated in the park to attract elder and senior people in the society and visitors from other areas of the country. To examine other services which can be included in the park to attract and retain more audience in the park. To examine ways of attracting local business community in the development of the council parks and outdoor areas. To evaluate the most effective ways of attracting more sponsors in their development. To assess the most appropriate ways of encouraging firms to pay for maintenance and upkeep for specific parking and bed sections. To evaluate ways of incorporating firms in the management of the council finance. To examine the most appropriate means of sharing the profit acquired in the parks among all involved stakeholders Research Design The research will employ descriptive research design. In this study, the researcher will use the qualitative research method to access the most appropriate way of improving the performance in Newtownville council’s leisure service department. The method will help in describing, validating and in explaining the findings in the study. The method will also provide a variety of data, which will be used in making concrete recommendations (Jackson, 2009, p. 41). In the study, the researcher is planning to conduct a creative exploration on the current financial status of the department and access the most productive measure to employ in accomplishing the proposed recommendations. The most appropriate descriptive research design method to employ in this study will be the survey method. The researcher will use questionnaires to acquire answers to the pending questions in the department. Questions in the questionnaires will cover all areas under study and focus on recording the most pressing concerns of the target audience. The researcher will use the participants’ answers to describe the situation in the department and in providing the most appropriate recommendations. In the study, the researcher will use open ended questionnaires to give room for participants to express their views concerning the improvement needed to turn around the performance of the department (Jackson 2009, p. 41). Open ended questionnaire will also facilitate the understanding of the problem from different viewpoints. Methodology This section discusses the type of research approach to be employed in the research alongside the appropriate data collection techniques. The research will employ both qualitative and quantitative research design. Qualitative research is viewed as exploratory and involves the utilization of techniques that are unstructured based on samples that are small. Qualitative method focuses on quality over quantity. In addition, it seeks to find out the perception of people about specific issues. For instance, how they feel about a service, product or advertisement and the underlying reasons behind their feelings. Researchers use qualitative research for various reasons. These are such as, understanding and exploring the needs of people, testing reactions to concepts. For example, new services and products, approaches to buying, advertising messages among others. Qualitative research helps in working out the real problems or issues (Kotler, 2003, p.125). Quantitative research methodology will help in determining the population proportions that think or behave in a certain way. Quantitative research involves the use of closed ended interview questions rather than open ended questions. This type of research will be of great significance as the research purpose will be to compare the behavior and views of people of a distinct genders, ages and income levels. Data Collection Methods The research will employ both primary and secondary data collection methods. Primary sources are original sources of data that require the direct involvement of the researcher in the collection process. Primary data is collected through multiple methods such as interviewing, mailing and observation among others. Secondary data on the other hand, comprises of data collected and previously compiled for other researches. Examples of data collected from secondary include companies’ financial statements, annual reports, newspapers, financial and trade journals among others print material (“Methods of Data Collection”). Secondary sources are readily available. Some of the data collection methods that will be used in the research study are such as: Observation: This will involve viewing of the participant’s reactions to the subject under study. It will be vital in testing and formulating the research hypotheses. Interviewing: Both structured and unstructured interviews will be used for purposes of getting in-depth information from the respondents. This is the most preferred method as a majority of individuals prefer talking to writing. In addition, once there is establishment of a rapport, the respondents are willing to give out confidential information. It is suitable for both the literate and illiterate individuals as a community constitutes this entire group. Panel Method: Given that the research focuses on economic conditions, then this method will be suitable for the research study. With this method, the researcher collects data from the same sample participants by personal interviews or mail at intervals. Mail Survey: This method will involve the sending of questionnaires to the study participants with a request to be completed and returned via post. The mail questionnaire will be simple for purposes of making the respondents understand and answer them without any difficulty. Use of survey: this is a data collection tool used by researchers to collect data about individuals. In market research, they are used to gather study participants self-report data. In most cases, it focuses on factual findings about individuals or its aim is to collect the opinions of the surveyors. Sampling Plan Target Population and Sample Size The target population will be the general public and commercial interests in the Newtonville District. This is because it’s the general public who benefit from the leisure services such as outdoor leisure areas and parks. Thus, the rationalization of services as a result of the prevailing economic crisis will greatly impact on them. The commercial interests will be the target population because they are the ones who provide finances for maintenance and upkeep of the recreation sites (Lehmann, 1997, p.220). The sample size will comprise of fifty participants selected randomly. Sampling Procedure The research will employ the use of non-probabilistic sampling design. This is because this sample method provides an extremely useful data. Under non-probabilistic sampling design, convenience sampling will be used to select study sample. Convenience sampling involves the selection of the subjects that are most accessible. It is very cheap in terms of effort, time and money. Data Analysis Qualitative data analysis aims at producing a detailed and complete description. Various methods will be used to analyze the qualitative and quantitative data collected. Given the amount of data collected through qualitative data collection methods, the data will undergo three stages. These are such as data display, data reduction and drawing of conclusion, verification. Data reduction will comprise of comparing, aggregating, contrasting, sorting and ordering of data. In that case, since I will have collected large amounts of raw data, I will examine the selected cases in detail or negative cases for purposes of testing a theory. Various procedures will be applied here such as, identifying of links, patterns and relationships. In analyzing qualitative data, coding is of great significance. Early in the study, I will scan all data recorded for purposes of developing phenomena categories. The categories or themes are what are referred to as codes. They will enable me as a researcher to manage data through storing, labeling and retrieving it according to their codes. The codes will depend on setting, study, research questions and participants. This is because codes are viewed as a meaningful way of understanding the data collected. The final stage of data analysis will be data management. This will be achieved through organizing data physically, using computers and displaying data. The physical way will consist of writing of the initial codes in field note margins, photocopying the notes and storing the original copies. Computers are effective tools in managing and organizing data. They will be used to develop field notes. A variety of software will be used to retrieve and code data. For easy visual display of data, graphs, diagrams, matrices and tables will be used. Conclusion Qualitative research sampling is an area with significant confusion for researchers to be precise on those who have experience in the hypothetical-deductive model. The better understanding of this issue explains the reason why the use of probabilistic sampling is neither efficient nor productive for studies that are qualitative and why strategies that are alternative are used (Burgess, 1989, p.243). Recommendations Marketing research consists of various steps for it to be meaningful. The steps listed below are interrelated with each other. They are in form of question that needs to be addressed by the market researcher. They are such as: planning, problem solving and control. Given the situation at hand, planning will encompass the identification of the sample size, target population, data collection and analysis which will provide insight in solving the problem at hand. In addition, one of the valuable roles of market research is the determination of the issue to be solved. It is only when the issue at hand is precisely and carefully defined, that the designing of research can be done to provide pertinent information (Churchill, 1995, p.93). Definition of the problem encompasses specifying the research objectives. Bibliography Burgess, R.G. (1989). Field research: a sourcebook and manual. London, Routledge. Churchill, G.A. (1995). Marketing Research, Methodological Foundations, New York, The Drydeu Press. Cranz G. (2001)“The politics of park design in Newtownville district council: a history of urban parks in America”, Cambridge MA: MIT Press. Crompton J., Kaczynski, A. (2003) “Trends in local recreation and park department finances and staffing from 1964–5 to 1999–2000. Journals of Park Recreation Administration, 21:124–44. Freysinger V. (2003). “Life span and life course perspectives on leisure. In: Jackson EL, Burton TL, eds. Leisure studies: prospects for the twenty-first century”, State College PA: Venture Publishing, 19, 99:253–70. Gobster P.(2001). “Neighbourhood—open space relationships in metropolitan planning: a look across four scales of concern”, journals of Local Environment, 6:199 –212. Jackson, S. (2009). Research Methods and Statistics: A Critical Thinking Approach 3rd edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Knapp R, Hartsoe C.(2006). “Play for America. The national recreation association”, Arlington VA: National Recreation and Park Association. Kotler, P. (2003). Marketing Management (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc., Prentice Hall. Lehmann, D. R., Gupta, S., and Seckel, J. (1997). Market Research. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Marshall, M.N. (1996). Sampling for qualitative research. Family Practice, Vol.13, no.6, pp.522-525. Mertes J. (2006). “Park, recreation, open space and greenway guidelines”, Alexandria, VA: National Recreation and Park Association. Method of data collection. Viewed 25 June, 2012, from, http://www.globusz.com/ebooks/MarketingResearch/00000016.htm Raymore L, Scott D. (2007). “The characteristics and activities of older adult visitors to metropolitan park district”, Journals of Park Recreation Administration, 16:1–21 Appendix Questionnaire to evaluate the most effective ways of increasing the number of audience in Newtownville council leisure services Participant’s name (not mandatory): Age: Location: Gender: Occupation: Have you ever visited the outdoors leisure areas and parks in the Newtownville Council? How frequent do you visit the park? How are the services in the park? What did you went there to do? Would you like to be in the park again? Would you like to visit the facilities again (if yes why?) Were you frustrated in the park (if yes why?) Which areas would you like improved? Is the area appropriate for holding meetings? Which kinds of meeting are favourable in the area? Have the park incorporated new technologies? Which technologies are most appropriate in the area? What would you like to meet in future? Read More