while interviewing will then be detailed. Next, the advantages and disadvantages of face‐to‐face interviewing and telephone interviews are considered and then, computer‐assisted interviews are described. A discussion on group interviews concludes this chapter. Managerial implications and ethics in interviews and other types of survey research are discussed in Chapter 9 after we have discussed interviews, observation, and administering questionnaires in greater detail.
Unstructured and structured interviews
Unstructured interviews
Unstructured interviews are so labeled because the interviewer does not enter the interview setting with a planned sequence of questions to be asked of the respondent. A possible objective of an unstructured interview is to bring some preliminary issues to the surface so that the researcher can determine what factors need further in‐depth investigation. In Chapter 3, in the discussion of the “broad problem area,” we saw several situations where the manager might entertain a vague idea of certain changes taking place in the situation without knowing what exactly they are. Such situations call for unstructured interviews with the people concerned.
data on its visitors. Based on the observed behavior of these visitors, it is possible to develop a thorough understanding of the website’s customer base. This helps managers to predict likely future behavioral pat- terns but also to anticipate customers’ responses to (future) marketing activities. Like this, clickstream data provide managers with a valuable tool to shape their marketing efforts (cf. Park and Fader, 2004). Scanner data (data on sales of consumer goods obtained by scanning bar codes of products in retail outlets) also provide managers with detailed information about the effects of marketing activities (such as price pro- motions) on sales (cf. Van Heerde, Gupta and Wittink, 2003). Other examples of unobtrusive methods are the wear and tear of books in a library, which offers a good indication of their popularity, frequency of use, or both; the number of different brands of soft drink cans found in trash bags, which offers a measure of their consumption levels; signatures on checks exposed to ultraviolet rays, which can indicate forgery and fraud; and actuarial records, which are good sources for collecting data on the births, marriages, and deaths in a community. These unobtrusive sources of data and their use are important in research aimed at understanding behavior.
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Interviewing.
Suppose that a manager is interested in solving a problem in the work setting. In order to understand the situation in its totality, the researcher may interview employees at several levels. In the initial stages, only broad, open‐ended questions should be asked, and the replies to them should inform the researcher of the perceptions of the individuals.
The type and nature of the questions asked of the individuals might vary according to the job level and type of work done by them. For instance, top and middle‐level managers might be asked more direct questions about their percep- tions of the problem and the situation. Employees at lower levels may have to be approached differently.
Clerical and other employees at lower hierarchical levels may be asked broad, open‐ended questions about their jobs and the work environment during unstructured interviews. Supervisors may be asked broad questions relating to their department, the employees under their supervision, and the organization. The following question, for instance, may be put to them during the unstructured interview stage:
Tell me something about your unit and department, and perhaps even the organization as a whole, in terms of work, employees, and whatever else you think is important.
Such a question might elicit an elaborate response from some people; others may just say that everything is fine. Following the leads from the more vocal persons is easy, especially when the interviewer listens carefully to the important messages that they might convey in a very casual manner while responding to a general, global question. As managers and researchers, we should train ourselves to develop these listening skills and identify the critical topics that are touched on. However, when some respondents give a monosyllabic, crisp, short reply that is not informative, the interviewer will have to ask questions that call for details and cannot be answered in one or two words. Such questions might be phrased like the one below:
I would like to know something about your job. Please describe to me in detail the things you do in your job on a typical day, from eight in the morning to four in the afternoon.
Several questions might then be asked as a follow‐up to the answer. Some examples of such follow‐up questions include:
Compared to other units in this organization, what are the strengths and weaknesses of your unit?
If you could have a problem solved in your unit, or a bottleneck eliminated, or something attended to that blocks your effectiveness, what would that be?
If the respondent answers that everything is fine and she has no problems, the interviewer could say: “That is great! Tell me what contributes to this effectiveness of your unit, because most other organizations usually experi- ence several difficulties.” Such a questioning technique usually brings the respondent’s defenses down and makes him or her more amenable to sharing information. Typical of the revised responses to the original question would be something like, “Well, it is not that we never have a problem; sometimes there is delay in getting the jobs done, crash jobs have some defective items, . . .” Encouraging the respondent to talk about both the good things and those not‐so‐good in the unit can elicit a lot of information. Whereas some respondents do not need much encouragement to speak, others do, and they have to be questioned broadly. Some respondents may show reluc- tance to be interviewed, and subtly or overtly refuse to cooperate. The wishes of such people must be respected and the interviewer should pleasantly terminate such interviews.
Employees at the shop‐floor level, and other nonmanagerial and nonsupervisory employees, might be asked very broad questions relating to their jobs, work environment, satisfactions and dissatisfactions at the workplace, and the like – for example:
What do you like about working here?
If you were to tell me which aspects of your job you like and which you do not, what would they be?
Tell me something about the reward systems in this place.
If you were offered a similar job elsewhere, how willing would you be to take it and why?
If I were to seek employment here and request you to describe your unit to me as a newcomer, what would you say?
After conducting a sufficient number of such unstructured interviews with employees at several levels and studying the data obtained, the researcher would know the variables that needed greater focus and called for more in‐depth information.
This sets the stage for the interviewer to conduct further structured interviews, for which the variables will have been identified.
Structured interviews
Structured interviews are those conducted when it is known at the outset what information is needed.
The content of a structured interview can be prepared in advance, and usually consists of:
● an introduction: the interviewer introduces him‐ or herself, the purpose of the interview, assures confidential- ity, asks permission to record the interview;
● a set of topics (usually questions) in a logical order: first “warm‐up” questions (which are easy to answer and non‐threatening) and then the main questions covering the purpose of the interview;
● suggestions for probing questions (Box 7.2 ): follow‐up questions that are used when the first answer is unclear or incomplete, the interviewer does not fully understand the answer, or in any other case where the interviewer requires more specific or in‐depth information.
BOX 7.2
PROBING TACTICS
● Silence.
● Repeating the answer.
● “So what I hear you saying is . . .”
● “I ’ m not quite sure I understood . . . Could you . . .”
● “Could you please tell me more about . . .”
● “Could you give an example?”
● “Could you go over that again?”
● “Anything else?”
BOX 7 2
As the respondents express their views, the researcher notes them down. The same questions will be asked of everybody in the same manner. Sometimes, however, based on the exigencies of the situation, the experienced researcher might take a lead from a respondent’s answer and ask other relevant questions not on the interview protocol. Through this process, new factors might be identified, resulting in a deeper understanding. However, to be able to recognize a probable response, the interviewer must comprehend the purpose and goal of each question. This is particularly important when a team of trained interviewers conducts the survey.
Visual aids such as pictures, line drawings, cards, and other materials are also sometimes used in conducting interviews. The appropriate visuals are shown to the interviewees, who then indicate their responses to the questions posed. Marketing research, for example, benefits from such techniques in order to capture the likes and dislikes of customers with regard to different types of packaging, forms of advertising, and so on. Visual aids, including painting and drawing, are particularly useful when children are the focus of marketing research. Visual aids also come in handy while endeavoring to elicit certain thoughts and ideas that are difficult to express or awkward to articulate.
When a sufficient number of structured interviews has been conducted and adequate information obtained to understand and describe the important factors operating in the situation, the researcher stops the interviews.
The information is then tabulated and the data analyzed. This helps the researcher to accomplish the task he set out to achieve, such as describing the phenomena, or quantifying them, or identifying the specific problem and evolving a theory of the factors that influence the problem, or finding answers to the research question. Much qualitative research is done in this manner.
Review of unstructured and structured interviews
The main purpose of the unstructured interview is to explore and probe into the several factors in the situation that might be central to the broad problem area. During this process it might become evident that the problem, as identified by the client, is but a symptom of a more serious and deep‐rooted problem. Conducting unstruc- tured interviews with many people could result in the identification of several critical factors in the situation.
These would then be pursued further during structured interviews for eliciting more in‐depth information on them. This helps identify the critical problem as well as ways of solving it. In applied research, a tentative theory of the factors contributing to the problem is often conceptualized on the basis of the information obtained from unstructured and structured interviews.