Conducting Research via Interviews

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Conducting Researchvia Interviews

• Collecting analyzing interview data
• Sekaran Saks Texts
• Example of structured interview
• Rudermann et al article

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Why conduct interviews

• To form OR test hypotheses
• To identify samples needed for
  hypothesis-testing research
• To gather more detailed info
• Before vs. after data collection

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Issues to consider

• Interview Participants
• Methods of interviewing
• How to increase interviewee motivation
• Structure of interviews
• Avoiding Bias
• Questioning Techniques

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Interview Participants

• Opportunity vs. Representative samples
• Benefits to generalization
• Benefits to having formal/informal group Leaders
  in org/market research
• Source of rich data
• Adding credibility to study

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Interview Methods

• Face-Face
• Telephone

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Interview Methods

• Face to face
• Direct observation
• Non-verbal body cues, work context, response to
  physical/visual stimuli
• Cost
• Time, geographic constraints, more personnel,
  safety

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Interview Methods

• Telephone
• Response rate issues
• Relatively higher than face-face interview
• Completion rate issues
• Restricts complexity length of interview

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Interviewee motivation

• Interviewees perceptions of the value of research
• Providing information about Sponsor
• Rapport
• Interviewers Listening skills empathy
• Topic format
• Setting
• Work vs. non-work

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Interview Structure

• Unstructured
• Structured

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Interview Structure

• Unstructured
• Uncover preliminary issues to identify variables
  needing further study
• Broad, open questions
• Job-level and work type
• Monosyllabic answers
• Positive vs. negative responses
• Non-cooperative interviewees
• Supervisory vs. non-supervisory employees

Sekaran
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Interview Structure

• Structured Interviews
• Qs focus on relevant factors
• Each P asked same qs
• Sometimes deviate from interview protocol to
  uncover new factors
• Use of Visual aids physical stimuli
• Marketing, children, issues that are hard to
  articulate
• Advantages over questionnaire
• Terminating data collection

Sekaran, Saks
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Avoiding Bias

• Sources of Interviewer bias
• Lack of trust rapport
• Mis-interpretation/distortion responses
• Encouraging or discouraging certain types of
  responses via gestures/facial expressions
• Not Listening attentively
• Not Paraphrasing answers
• Not Repeating/clarifying questions
• Not Being tactful

Sekaran
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Avoiding Bias

• Sources of Interviewee Bias
• Not revealing true opinions/experiences
• Interviewee says what s/he thinks interviewer
  wants to hear
• Not understanding questions
• Not liking interviewer
• Giving socially desirable responses

Sekaran
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Avoiding Bias

• Situational bias
• Reasons for non-participation
• Unwillingness, inability
• Different levels of rapport/trust across
  different participants/interviewers
• Physical setting
• Degree to which it inhibits honesty

Sekaran
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Questioning Techniques

• Funnel technique
• Sequence Level of specificity of questions
• Familiarity w/interviewees understanding
• Contamination of responses
• Perceived spontaneity, decreased
  self-consciousness, rapport
• Probes follow-up qs

Sekaran, Saks
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Questioning Techniques

• Unbiased questioning
• Loaded/leading questions
• Clarifying Issues
• Re-stating/rephrasing
• Helping respondent think through issues
• Rephrase depending on verbalization ability

Sekaran
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Questioning TechniquesNote Taking

• Intrusiveness
• Focus on summarizing
• Focus on behavior
• Effect on self-consciousness
• Effect on rapport
• Permission for taping
• Effects on interviewee inhibition
• Take notes (or tape) after interview

Saks
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Conducting Researchvia Interviews

• Collecting analyzing interview data
• Sekaran Saks Texts
• Example of structured interview
• Rudermann et al article

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Rudermann et al Study

• Benefits of non-job roles for managerial women
• Hypothesis Experiences in personal roles enrich
  managerial skills
• What percentage of women mention this hypothesis
  in their interviews?
• What percentage of all responses to interviews
  support this hypothesis?

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Participants

• 74 of women participating in a women-only
  leadership develt prg
• Avg. Age40 (range26-57)
• 92 White
• Avg. Salary 78K (SD 32k)

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Participants

• Rank
• Middle 49,
• Upper middle 34 Figure?
• Exec17
• 51 had post-graduate education
• 50 had children under 18 yrs
• 71 in committed relationships
• 84 in Fortune 500 corporations

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Procedure

• Faxed qs to participants a few days before
  interview
• Pilot tested interview qs on 28 women managers
• Tape-recorded and transcribed each interview

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Measures

• Open-ended questions on
• Different types of roles managers held
• Challenges faced in roles
• Are there any dimensions/aspects of personal life
  that enhance your professional life?
• Use of follow up qs and probes to obtain details
  on roles

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Data Analysis

• Applied grounded theory (Glaser Strauss, 1967)
• Coding techniques Boyatzis (1998)
• Developed initial hypotheses during interviews
  with pilot and study 1 participants

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Interview Coding

• 2 raters read 30 interviews many times
• Developed excerpts of each Ps answer
• Summarized excerpts
• Organized summaries sample quotes
• Compared contrasted quotes and summaries for
  each case to id 13 patterns themes
• Examined remaining interviews for addl themes

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Interview Coding

• 13 themes reduced to 6 categories
• Reviewed all excerpts to confirm categorization
• Developed codebook explaining 6 themes
• 66.7 to 90.9 inter-rater agreement on coding of
  themes
• Not good according to Boyatzis, 1998

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Results
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Discussion

• Tentative support for hypothesis
• Alternative ways of presenting data to support
  hypothesis

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