Deciding When to Engage in a Research Activity

The leader should consider the following when deciding the topic area of research as well as when and under what circumstances the research is to be conducted:

Relevance of the Research Question to the Practice Environment and Agency Priority Areas

It is important that the proposed research be consistent with the agency’s needs and contributes to supporting agency practice or policy making. It may be useful to revisit the agency’s strategic plan when presented with requests for participation in research projects. The agency drives the research agenda and at the beginning of any research activity, the questions that need to be answered should be clearly developed and understood by all parties involved.

Staff Availability/Impact on Workload

Many research projects involve some component of data collection by staff. It is important to get a clear understanding from researchers about the data collection process being proposed, how many staff will need to participate and for what period of time. It is also likely that agency program managers and supervisors will be asked to serve on advisory groups as part of the research plan. Additionally, members of your information management and technology team may be involved if extracts of administrative data are included in the project plan.

Consultation

Consult with appropriate representatives from your agency’s legal counsel regarding protection of client confidentiality and ask researchers whether their proposal will be reviewed by a Human Subjects Institution Review Board (IRB) or whether any exemptions apply. Inquire about security protocols for transmission, maintenance and storing of confidential client data by the research organization.

Impact on Operations

Carefully review the impact that any research method may have on agency operations, both positive and negative, and how that impact might be offset by the anticipated results. For example, will random assignment of clients into experimental or control groups increase workload in a particular program area?

Review Requests to Participate in a Research Study

The Research Plan will help to clarify the conditions under which the research can be conducted and encourage appropriate requests for research partnerships. The Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research toolkit also has a good example of a Research Approval Policy.

Cost Effectiveness of Participating in Research

The agency leader is charged with determining when the agency should participate in a research activity. A major determining factor is whether or not the proposed research is connected to one of the agency’s money drivers. A leader will want to know the value of the information being garnered from the research, the costs for line staff to collect data and the levels of research that may determine costs.

Other costs associated with an agency participating in a research project include:

• IT staff resources needed to extract data from information management systems and convert it to a useable form by internal / external research consumers.
• IT resources required to provide training and technical assistance on the use of the extracted data file.
• Staff time required to locate and facilitate access to clients and stakeholders for data collection activities.
• Staff time needed to review research proposals and develop and monitor confidentiality agreements, data security plans and contracts.
• Program manager time to review all reports to be sure that they accurately reflect agency operations.
• Convening of the Research Advisory Group to review study progress at key intervals and final reports.