|
home | strategy development | strategy
skills | site
index | access
keys
Collecting data - Data types & sources
>
in practice
Strategy work needs to be informed by the highest
quality and most up-to-date data and knowledge possible. Those
involved in strategy work need to be aware of the breadth of data
types and sources available, and be 'intelligent consumers' to
know how to bring it to bear in a timely fashion to inform their
thinking.
However, strategic thinking should not be
paralysed by the absence of perfect information. Instead a pragmatic
approach is needed to make judgements and take decisions based on
the data available at the time. Stratgies need to be adaptable
enough to respond to new data as it emerges.
Data Types
The broadest and perhaps most
common distinction is between quantitative and qualitative data
types:
- Quantitative: numerical data that can be measured in units
- time, money, volume, percentage etc.
- Qualitative: descriptive data that uses words to record
observations, thoughts or opinions.
Quantitative data can be generated by measurement
or by asking closed questions, while qualitative data is typically
generated by observation or by asking open-ended questions. While
insights can be gained from isolated pieces of either quantitative
or qualitative data, strategic decisions need to be based on
reliably representative or statistically significant data.
Specialist advice should be sought if the validity of data is in
question.
Another broad distinction can
be drawn between data that are:
- Cross-sectional: observations collected at a single point
in time
- Longitudinal: observations collected over a period of
time.
Cross-sectional data provide a snap shot, while
longitudinal data allow trends to be observed over time.
Longitudinal data, by its nature, takes longer to produce and is
hence more costly, however it overcomes the bias inherent in cross
sectional data when, for example, examining the variation in a
variable with age.
Data can also be distinguished
by the use to which they will be put. Typical uses of data in
strategy work include measuring or describing:
- Trends - the changing state of the world over time
- Preferences - what the public and stakeholders value, and
what they think about certain issues
- Finance - how much is spent, lost, earned, saved, invested
etc
- Performance - the outputs or outcomes of an intervention or
service
- Evaluation - how well an intervention addresses the
underlying issues
- Impacts - the level and nature of unintended consequences of
an intervention
- Benchmarks - how the current situation compares to other
similar situations
- Forecasts - what the future may hold.
Government Specialists
To ensure that strategy work is
based on the best data and knowledge available it often needs to
draw on experts or specialists - either for their superior content
knowledge or their skill in collecting and handling particular forms
of data. There are number of specialisms within government that can
provide expertise in different forms of data collection,
interpretation and analysis. These include:
|
Economists |
Economics is concerned with macro issues of the economy
as a whole - inflation, interest rates, employment,
taxation, government spending etc, as well as micro issues
such as resources allocation, labour supply, pricing, and
consumer behaviour. Much of the work of economists is
concerned with bringing an analysis of these issues to bear
in determining the nature of economic and social problems
and their causes, establishing the rationale for government
intervention and the role of markets, and designing and
appraising policy options. A chief economist in each
department heads the economics specialism. See the Government
Economic Service website for details of the kind of
roles that economists play in each department |
|
Operational Researchers |
Operational Research is the application of scientific
methods to management problems. It aims to provide a
rational basis for decision-making, by understanding and
structuring complex situations. Often this involves building
mathematical models to predict system behaviour and thereby
assist the planning of changes to the system. Contact the Government
Operational Research Service. |
Scientists |
The Office of Science
and Technology leads for government in supporting
excellent science, engineering and technology and their uses
to benefit society and the economy. The OST also hosts ForeSight
which aims to increase UK exploitation of science by
either identifying potential opportunities for the economy
or society from new science and technology, or considering
how future science and technology could address key future
challenges for society. |
Social Researchers |
Social research is about measuring,
describing, explaining and predicting social and economic
phenomena. In government, this relates to policy
development, implementation and delivery and to the
estimation of policy impacts and outcomes. Social research
explores social and economic structures, attitudes, values
and behaviours and the factors which motivate and constrain
individuals and groups in society. Contact Government
Social Research. |
Statisticians |
National
Statistics provides up-to-date, comprehensive and
meaningful data on the UK's economy, population and society
that can be used to create evidence-based policies and
monitor performance against them. |
Data Sources
The data and knowledge that
inform strategy development and strategic thinking can and should
come from a wide range of sources. Specific arrangements may be
required in each situation to benefit from more informal sources
such as the first-hand experience of front life professionals, but
for more systemised data, there are a large number of readily
accessible sources.
Learning from experience
There are many of ways of ensuring
that up-to-date data and learning from the front-line is fed back
into strategic thinking, including:
- Publishing early drafts of proposals to elicit challenge and
feedback
- Using pilots and controlled experiments to test out options
- Engaging stakeholder communities in ongoing dialogue
- Identifying best practice and looking for lessons that can be
learned
- Encouraging horizontal networks of professionals, operating
units and front-line staff to enable experience to be quickly
shared
- Responding to informal information and gossip (the NASA lesson
from the Shuttle disaster)
- Granting flexibility to innovate and break the rules (e.g.
Health Action Zones) with "venture capital"
equivalents to finance promising new ideas
- Establishing contestability in public services to encourage
new entrants and innovation (as in prisons and welfare)
- Commissioning real time evaluations as well as formal ex-post
evaluations
Learning from systematised data
Strategy work should make full
use of the enormous volume of data that is routinely captured and
systemised for publication by a wide range of institutions. Much of
this data is readily accessible, often without charge via the
internet. Techniques such as systematic reviews and meta-analysis
(explained further in The
Magenta Book) are rigorous methods of consolidating what is
already known about a topic, and should be explored before
initiating any new systematic data capture. Useful data sources
include:
Bank
of England Monetary and Financial Statistics: The Bank of
England publishes a large range of banking, monetary and financial
statistics. Most of the series can be download as Excel files.
Perhaps the most useful publication is the annual Statistics
Abstract.
CIA World Factbook:
CIA site providing a host of economic and other data, on a
country basis. Simply click on the country.
EconData:
(University of Maryland): US and international economic time series
data.
EcoWin:
this is a Swedish site, much of which requires registration, but it
does have a free graphing facility from its databases, which cover
all the major countries. The graphs are excellent and can easily be
copied and pasted into PowerPoint or Word documents.
Eurostat:
provides selected European Community statistics.
IMF:
country reports for all countries of the world can be found on the
IMF website. Three particularly useful publications are the World
Economic Outlook, Annual Report and International Capital Markets.
Each of these has a large statistical annex.
Financial Times:
provides archive articles and statistics on a wide range of economic
and business related issues.
Guide
to Official Statistics: this is a directory of all
statistical censuses, surveys, administrative system, publications
and other services produced by government and a range of other
organisations in the UK. It was produced by the former Office of
National Statistics (ONS) in 2000, so may now be a little out of
date.
HM
Treasury: a useful source of UK data. The Economic Data
and Tools, and the Budget sections are particularly
useful. The Economic Data and Tools section contains Latest
Economic Indicators which in addition to providing recent data
releases, also contains the Pocket Data Book. This is a very
useful monthly publication that downloads as an Excel Spreadsheet,
with 28 tables containing time series data for a range of national
and international indicators, going back to 1980.
Institute of
Fiscal Studies: an independent research body, looking
particularly at the UK tax system, considering the likely effects of
fiscal policy on different sections of the population.
MIMAS
(Manchester University): stores data from the 1981 and 1991
Censuses, UK government surveys, international macro-economic time
series and geographical and satellite sources. Users need to
register with the service.
National
Statistics: National Statistics (formerly ONS) data sets are
now freely available. The Time Series Data section of the
website contains PDF versions of many documents, and downloadable
Excel files of the data. Documents include: the Blue Book,
the Pink Book, Labour Market Trends, Scottish
Economic Statistics, New Earnings Survey, Family
Spending, Social Trends, Regional Trends, Agriculture
in the UK, the Annual Abstract and the Monthly Digest
of Statistics. Tables from other publications including Economic
Trends (Monthly and Annual Supplement) and Financial
Statistics are also available.
OECD:
provides a host of statistics on OECD countries. There is also the
OECD Economic Outlook, a six-monthly publication which contains
macroeconomic data for each of the 30 OECD countries, the EU15, the
Euro area and the OECD as a whole. The data typically covers 20
years with forecasts ahead for the next 2 years.
Policy
Library: a social, economic and foreign policy resource that
covers a wide range of topics and sectors, and provides links to
additional sources of information on each topic.
The
Economist: the website provides archives of previous
articles and special reports and surveys. The Economic
Intelligence Unit Country Briefings also provide a good source
of country information. Simply click on the country to get a
selection of statistics (under Country Profile), and briefing
articles.
UK
Data Archive (University of Essex): contains several
thousand UK, European and International data sets for the social
sciences and humanities from government, academic and commercial
sources. Data sets can be downloaded from the internet or ordered,
although this requires registration.
World Bank
Data Sets: the World Bank site contains a vast database of
economic, social and other development statistics for all countries
of the world. Data can be accessed by country, by topic or by using
a data query (from 54 indicators, 5 years and over 200 countries.)
The World Bank also publishes its annual World Development Report.
There are also a number of specialist social
science databases including: Policyfile, Psyclit, Sociofile, and
Social Science Abstracts. Online social science data sources include
Econlit, PAIS,
EPPI-Centre
Library, the Campbell
Library, the Cochraine
Library, the National
Electronic Library of Health, and the ESRC
Evidence Network. Further detail on these sources can be found
in The
Magenta Book.
Other sources include departmental websites and libraries, which
can provide departmental specific data and links to other useful
sites. It can also be beneficial to search relevant academic and
trade journals or magazines and visit specialist libraries.
References
Research Design, Catherine Hakim
Approaches to Social Science Research, Royce
Singleton, Bruce C Straits & Margaret Miller Straits
For details of both major longitudinal and cross-sectional
surveys in the UK see the UK
Data Archive list of Major Studies.
Collecting data - Data types & sources
In Practice: SU Benchmarking Exercise
A recent exercise undertaken by the SU was benchmarking
UK performance against other developed countries across a broad spectrum
of economic and social indicators. A key task in this was data collection
and analysis. Our approach was to break down the exercise into several
thematic, though related, strands, which each began with a somewhat
informal wish list of data and evidence. One of the lessons we learnt
early on, however, was that some of the desired data simply did not exist,
and much of what was available needed a good deal of reconfiguring and
interpretation.
For the broad range of the issues we were considering,
an obvious source of national and international data was the Office of
National Statistics. Alongside the ONS, we found data and information from
several other Government Departments available on their web sites - some
better than others, but all providing clues and leads to other potential
sources.
The team also made use of a number of other sources. In
particular, we found the OECD an excellent source for a broad range of
international data, and similarly the European Commission. Both offered
fast access to data over the internet, though a slight drawback is that
much of the more detailed data and analysis produced by these
organisations remains limited to subscribers only. Other sources such as
the UK based National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR),
the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund also proved to be good
sources for comparative international data.
Alongside these sources, we found web-based searches
threw up a wide variety of useful data and evidence, particularly recent
academic studies, which in some cases prompted us to contact authors
directly for more. Wading through internet search returns, however, proved
a frustrating and time-consuming exercise at times, highlighting the
importance of thinking carefully about the key words and phrases used.
|
^ top
|
