ABSTRACT
Language is more than just a means of conveying information, however; it is also used to assign meaning to subjects, persons or events. Language plays a role at various levels, which has special implications for doing research. In a deductive design, the data gathered are used to test hypotheses that have been formulated beforehand. Meta-analysis has recently become more popular in public administration and public management, in particular the systematic literature reviews. Primary data reflect or reveal behaviour in real-life situations, which makes such sources less susceptible to negative influences such as social desirability or other answering tendencies. Meta-analysis can be applied both deductively and inductively. Desk research can be applied for different purposes: description, explanation, testing, diagnosis and so forth. Finally, meta-analysis can also result in the identification of a new knowledge problem: the analysis will show on which subjects or aspects knowledge is still incomplete, and whether perhaps conclusions from previously conducted studies are contradictory.
