Foundation Session Taught at Beijing Foreign Studies University in 2011 drawn extensively from Saunders et al

1. Slide 1.1
Collecting primary data using semi-structured, in-
depth and group interviews

2. Slide 1.2
Research interviews
Definition
‘An interview is a purposeful discussion
between two or more people’
Kahn and Cannell (1957)
Types of interview used in research
1. Semi-structured 3. Structured
2. In-depth 4. Group
Saunders et al. (2009)

3. Slide 1.3
Research purpose and strategy (2)
Uses of different types of interview in each of
the main research categories
Saunders et al. (2009)
Table 10.1 Uses of different types of interview in each of the main research
categories

4. Slide 1.4
Research purpose and strategy (1)
Forms of interview
After Saunders et al. (2009)
Figure 10.1 Forms of interview
Structured Semi / Un
Structured

5. Slide 1.5
Semi-structured / Unstructured (qualitative) Interviews
Key aspects
Understanding Meaning
Exploratory Study: what is happening?
Explanatory Study: why?
Managers more likely to agree to an interview
Complex / open ended questions
Time required and completeness of process

6. Slide 1.6
Data quality: Issues to consider
 Reliability (standardisation)
 Does it need to be repeatable?
 Bias
 interviewer & interviewee
 Validity and generalisability
 Strong claim of validity
 Weak claim of generalisability

7. Slide 1.7
The importance of preparation – the 5 Ps
‘prior planning prevents poor performance’

8. Slide 1.8
Interview preparation (1)
Interviewer’s level of knowledge
Topic / Content
Context (e.g. Articles written about / by organisation)
Level of information supplied to interviewees
Themes
Triangulation to literature / corporate sources
Creating an interview guide
Questions & Probing
Appropriateness of location

9. Slide 1.9
Interview preparation (2)
 Researcher’s appearance – dress code
 Shaping the interview - opening comments
 Purpose / Credibility / Confidentiality /
Friendliness / Rapport
 Approach to questioning – clarity and reducing bias
 Place answers in a ‘real life’ experience
 Sensitive questions at the end

10. Slide 1.10
Interview preparation (3)
Appropriate interviewer behaviour- verbal and non-
verbal
Neutral / open posture / tone of voice
Attentive listening skills and testing understanding
Summarising their comments
Approaches to data recording - notes and tape-
recording
Cultural differences and bias

11. Slide 1.11
Interviewing competence
Opening the interview
Appropriate language
Questioning
Listening
Testing / summarising
Recognising and dealing with difficult
participants
Recording data

12. Slide 1.12
Approaches to Questioning: OPEN questions
‘What’, ‘How’, ‘Why’
Why did the organisation introduce its marketing
strategy?
What methods have been used to make
employees motivated?
How has the corporate strategy changed over the
past 5 years?

13. Slide 1.13
Explore further, PROBE
How would you evaluate the success of your
marketing strategy?
What external factors caused the corporate
strategy to change?
Approaches to Questioning: PROBING questions

14. Slide 1.14
Specific information
How many people responded to the customer
survey?
What level of profit did you make?
Approaches to Questioning: CLOSED questions

15. Slide 1.15
Interviewing competence (2)
Advantages and disadvantages of audio-
recording interviews
Saunders et al. (2009)
Table 10.3 Advantages and disadvantages of audio-recording the interview

16. Slide 1.16
Interviewing competence: Dealing with
difficult participants
One word answers
time / confidentiality / open questions?
Long answers / going off the point
subtle reference back to main point
Participant interviews you
stress you are interested in their opinions
Participant gets too emotional
give them time / explain question does not have to be answered

17. Slide 1.17
Interviewing competence (3)
Managing resources – logistics and time
Interviewees expectations / managing the time
in the interview / transcribing the interviews
Obtaining participants’ permission for interview
records (written and taped)

18. Slide 1.18
Additional forms of interviews
Group interviews
Focus groups
Telephone interviews
Internet and intra-net mediated interviews

19. Slide 1.19
Interviewing competence (5)
Forms of electronic interviews
Saunders et al. (2009)
Figure 10.2 Forms of electronic interviews

20. Slide 1.20
Summary:
Use of non-standard (qualitative) interviews
should generate rich and detailed data
Different types of interview are useful for different
research purposes
Qualitative interviews are generally categorised
as in-depth (structured) and semi-structured
Research design may incorporate more than one
type of interview

21. Slide 1.21
Summary:
Using qualitative interviews is related to the
research strategy and data collection questions
Establishing personal contact with subjects and the
length of time required are significant factors
Data quality issues, interviewer competence and
resource management are important considerations
Face-to-face (individual, group and focus group)
and electronic interviews can all be advantageous

22. Slide 1.22
Analysing qualitative data

23. Slide 1.23
Qualitative analysis process
Summarising (condensation) of meanings
Categorising (grouping) of meanings
Structuring (ordering) of meanings using narrative
Saunders et al. (2009)

24. Slide 1.24
Deductive approach
Existing Theory to formulate your research questions
This theory can be used to create a framework to
help organise data analysis
Example; if we use Tuckman’s theory of team
development then we can code the data against
‘Forming’, ‘Storming’ etc.

25. Slide 1.25
Deductive
Interview 1
Interview 2
Interview 7
ConceptA
ConceptB

26. Slide 1.26
Inductive Approach
Collect Data
Explore Data
Identify themes / patterns

27. Slide 1.27
Inductive Approach
Make clear what you already (think) you know
Listen to the interview
Transcribe the interview
Identify the general meaning of the interview
Identify specific units of meaning (create clusters)
Eliminate units of meaning not relevant to the study
Identify themes from clusters of meaning
Writing a summary of the interview
After: Hycner, R. (1985)Some guidelines for the phenomenological analysis
of interview data. Human Studies 8: 279-303.

28. Slide 1.28
Categorising data
Points to consider
Deriving categories
‘Unitising’ data
Recognising relationships and developing categories
Developing testable propositions
Qualifying your qualitative data

29. Slide 1.29
Summary:
Qualitative data result from the collection of non-
standardised data that require classification and
are analysed through use of conceptualisation
Qualitative analysis can involve summarising,
categorising and structuring data
The process of data analysis and collection are
necessarily interactive

30. Slide 1.30
Summary:
Aids to analysis include interim summaries, self-
memos and maintaining a researcher diary
Qualitative analysis procedures can be related to
using either a deductive or inductive approach
Computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software
(CAQDAS) can help with project management and
data organisation

31. Slide 1.31
When will the detailed interview questions be
prepared?
Who will you ask these questions of? Who are your
subjects / interviewees? How many will you ask?
Who will ask the questions?
When will you ask the questions?
How will you handle the data (e.g. transcribe?)
Who will analyse the data?
How will they analyse the data?
How will you report the findings?
How will you know this in ‘new’ knowledge?
Who will control progress?
How will you control progress?