Slide 10.
Lecture 10
Collecting primary data using semi-structured,
in-depth and group interviews
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.2
Research interviews
Definition
‘An interview is a purposeful discussion
between two or more people’
Kahn and Cannell (1957)
Types of interview used in research
Semi-structured Structured
In-depth Group
Saunders et al. (2009)
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.3
Research purpose and strategy (1)
Forms of interview
Saunders et al. (2009)
Figure 10.1 Forms of interview
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.4
Types of interview
• Structured interviews: use questionnaire based on a
predetermined and ‘standardized’ or identical set of
questions and we refer to them as interviewer administered
questionnaires.
• Semi-structure interviews: the researcher will have a list of
themes and questions to be covered, although these may
vary from interview to interview. This means that you may
omit some questions in particular interviews, given a specific
organizational context that is encountered in relation to the
research topic. The order of questions also be varied
depending on the flow of conversation.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.5
Continued
• On the other hand, additional questions may be required to
explore your research question and objectives given the
nature of events within particular organizations.
• Unstructured interviews: are informal. You would use these
to explore in-depth a general area in which you are
interested . We therefore, refer to these as in-depth
interviews. There is no predetermined list of questions to
work through in this situation, although you need to have a
clear idea about the aspect or aspects that you want to
explore. The interviewee is given the opportunity to talk
freely about events behavior and beliefs in relation to topic
area.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.6
Continued
• So that this type of interaction is sometimes called
‘nondirective’. It has been labeled as informant interview
since it is the interviewees perceptions that guide the
conduct of the interview. In comparison, a participant (or
respondent) interview is one where the interviewer directs
the interview and the interviewee responds to the questions
of the researcher.
• We can also differentiate between types of interview
related to the nature of interaction between the researcher
and those who participate in this process. Interview may be
conducted one to one basis, between you and single
participant(face to face)(telephone)(internet) (intranet)
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.7
Continued
• There may be other situation where you conduct a number of
participants to explore an aspect of your research through a group of
discussion that you facilitate.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.8
Interview and type of research
• In an exploratory research study, in-depth interviews can be
very helpful to find out what is happening and to seek new
insight. Semi stretchered interviews may be used in relation
to an exploratory study.
• In descriptive studies structured interviews can be used as a
means to identify general patterns.
• In an explanatory study, semi structured interviews can be
used in order to understand the relationships between
variables, such as those revealed from a descriptive study,
structured interview may also be used in relation to an
explanatory study, in statistical sense.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.9
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
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.10
Non-standardised (qualitative) interviews
Four key aspects
• Purpose of the research
• Significance of establishing personal contact
• Nature of the data collection questions
• Time required and completeness of process
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.11
Data quality (1)
Issues to consider
• Reliability
• Forms of bias
• Validity and generalisability
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.12
Data quality (2)
The importance of preparation – the 5 Ps
‘prior planning prevents poor performance’
Saunders et al. (2009)
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.13
Interview preparation (1)
Associated issues
• Interviewer’s level of knowledge
• Level of information supplied to interviewees
• Creating an interview guide
• Appropriateness of location
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.14
Interview preparation (2)
Associated issues
• Researcher’s appearance – dress code
• Shaping the interview - opening comments
• Approach to questioning – clarity and reducing bias
• Use of critical incident technique
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.15
Interview preparation (3)
Associated issues
• Appropriate interviewer behaviour- verbal and non-
verbal
• Attentive listening skills and testing understanding
• Approaches to data recording - notes and tape-
recording
• Cultural differences and bias
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.16
Interviewing competence
• There are several areas where you need to develop and demonstrate
competence in relation to conduct of semi structured and in-depth
research interview . These areas are:
• Opening the interview;
• Using appropriate language;
• Questioning;
• Listening;
• Testing and summarizing understanding;
• Recording and dealing with difficult participants;
• recording data.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.17
CHECKLIST - To help you decide
whether to use semi-structured or
in-depth interviews
• Does the purpose of your research suggest using semi-structured
and/or in-depth interviews?
• Will it help to seek personal contact in terms of gaining access to
participants and their data?
• Are your data collection questions large in number, complex or open-
ended?
• Will there be a need to vary the order and logic of questioning?
• Will it help to be able to probe interviewees’ responses to build on or
seek explanation of their answers?
• Will the data collection process with each individual involve a
relatively lengthy period?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.18
Interviewing competence (1)
Approaches to questioning
Open questions Probing questions
Specific and closed questions
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.19
Open questions
• The use of open question will allow participants to
define and describe the situation or event. An open
is designed to encourage the interviewee to provide
an extensive and developmental answer and may
be used to reveal attitudes or obtain facts. It
encourage s the interviewee to reply as they wish.
An open question is likely to start with or include,
one of the following words: ‘what’, or ‘how’, or
‘why’,.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.20
Propping questions
• Can be used to explore responses that are of significance to the
research topic. They may be worded like open questions but request
a particular focus or direction.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.21
Specific and closed questions
• These types of questions are simpler to those used in structured
interviews. They can be used to obtain specific information or to
confirm a fact or opinion.
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.22
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
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.23
Interviewing competence (3)
Other issues to consider
• Dealing with difficult participants
• Managing resources – logistics and time
• Obtaining participants’ permission for interview
records (written and taped)
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.24
Interviewing competence (4)
Additional forms of interviews:
• Group interviews
• Focus groups
• Telephone interviews
• Internet and intra-net mediated interviews
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.25
Interviewing competence (5)
Forms of electronic interviews
Saunders et al. (2009)
Figure 10.2 Forms of electronic interviews
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.26
CHECKLIST - To help you prepare for
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• How might your level of preparation and knowledge (in relation to
the research context and your research question) affect the
willingness of the interviewee to share data?
• What will be the broad focus of your in-depth interview, or what are
the themes that you wish to explore or seek explanations for during
a semi-structured interview?
• What type of information, if any, will it be useful to send to your
interviewee prior to the interview?
• What did you agree to supply to your interviewee when you
arranged the interview? Has this been supplied?
• How will your appearance during the interview affect the willingness
of the interviewee to share data?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.27
CHECKLIST - To help you prepare for
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• Have you considered the impact that your interview location may
have on participants’ responses and on your own personal safety?
• How will you prepare yourself to be able to commence the interview
with confidence and purpose?
• What will you tell your interviewee about yourself, the purpose of
your research, its funding and your progress?
• What concerns, or need for clarification, may your interviewee have?
• How will you seek to overcome these concerns or provide this
clarification?
• In particular, how do you intend to use the data to which you are
given access, ensuring, where appropriate, its confidentiality and
your interviewee’s anonymity?
• What will you tell your interviewee about their right not to answer
particular questions and to end the interview should they wish?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.28
CHECKLIST - To help you prepare for
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• How would you like to record the data that are revealed to you
during the interview? Where this involves using a tape recorder,
have you raised this as a request and provided a reason why it would
help you to use this technique?
• How will you seek to overcome potential issues related to the
reliability of the data you collect, including forms of interviewer bias
(related to your role and conduct), interviewee bias (the level of
access that you gain to the data of those whom you interview) and
sampling bias?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.29
CHECKLIST - To help you think about
the questions you are going to ask in
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• How long will you have to conduct the interview?
• How do you wish to conduct (or structure) the interview?
• How will you use appropriate language and tone of voice, and avoid
jargon when asking questions or discussing themes?
• How will you word open questions appropriately to obtain relevant
data?
• How will you ask appropriately worded probing questions to build
on, clarify or explain your interviewee’s responses?
• How will you avoid asking leading questions that may introduce
forms of bias?
• Have you devised an appropriate order for your questions, where the
early introduction of sensitive issues may introduce interviewee bias?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.30
CHECKLIST - To help you think about
the questions you are going to ask in
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• How will you avoid over-zealously asking questions and pressing your
interviewee for a response where it should be clear that they do not
wish to provide one?
• How will you listen attentively and demonstrate this to your
interviewee?
• How will you summarise and test your understanding of the data
that are shared with you in order to ensure accuracy in your
interpretation?
• How will you allow your interviewee to maintain control over the use
of a tape recorder, where used, where they may wish to exercise
this?
• Have you practised to ensure you can carry out a number of tasks at
the same time, including listening, note taking and the identifying
where you need to probe further?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.31
CHECKLIST - To help you think about
the questions you are going to ask in
your semi-structured or in-depth
interview
• How might you identify actions and comments made by your
interviewee that indicate an aspect of the discussion that should be
explored in order to reveal the reason for the response?
• How will you avoid projecting your own views or feelings through
your actions or comments?
• How will you maintain a check on the interview that you intend to
cover and to steer the discussion where appropriate to raise and
explore these aspects?
• How do you plan to draw the interview to a close within the agreed
time limit and to thank the interviewee for their time and the data
they have shared with you?
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
Slide 10.32
Difficult interview participants and
suggestions on how to address
them
Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, Research Methods for Business Students, 5th Edition, © Mark Saunders, Philip Lewis and Adrian Thornhill 2009
