This paper aims to provide the best practice to implement effectively one of the most common methods of data collection: the in depth interview. Having already discussed the diversity of research methods to collect data, given the nature and insights of the in depth interview in the previous part (In depth interview: An important method of qualitative data collection), this guideline focuses on evolving a practical consideration in preparing, implementing and applying the in depth interview method.
APPROACHING THE IN DEPTH INTERVIEW
• Necessary Actions to Have a Good Preparation for the Interview Process
Take into consideration the number of interview subjects with regard to the purpose of the research.
Contemplate the available and logistical resources: time and money, quality versus quantity
Determine the expertise to conduct the interview or train the interviewers
Consider the role and criteria of a good interviewer.
Establish the personal contact
Regard the ethical issues through the seven-stage of interviewing
Deliberate the interview quality, the level of competence
The choices of questions (open ended questions, probing questions are preferred)
Determine the form of interviews: one-to-one interviews, focus group interviews, telephone interviews, electronic interviews.
Guarantee a suitable location to interview (quite, private)
Check the electronic device (microphone and the audio recorder)
Prepare yourself prior engaging in the interview
Be conscious of the differences in culture and bias
Notice the interviewees about the study and principles of ethic (confidentiality, anonymity)
Utilise the technical tools: The Ethnograph, Atlas.ti, Folio Views, NVivo
• A Practical Process of the Interv...
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...of the validity, reliability, generalisability and the improvement of the data quality are always necessary when interviewing. It is suggested to make a good preparation to overcome the issues affecting the data quality. (For more details, see Section: Necessary Actions to Have a Good Preparation for the Interview Process).
• Time consuming: It can take a lot of time to go through the process of interviewing. See the Section of “A Consideration of the Time Frames” to manage a good time line of conducting the data collection by the in depth interview.
• Participants versus Interviewers: Participants can cause difficulty in the interview (such as giving a long answer, changing their emotions, interviewing the interviewer, having memory problems). The interviewer must be trained adequately to be able to use the interview techniques in dealing with intricate situations.
...sis, which could make all results invalid. With any research projects, limitations will be present. It is important to attempt to eliminate some of these causes in order to complete a thorough, accurate study. In future projects, this study could go about researching the issue in different ways. Perhaps using a larger sample size would be conducive for accurate results. A larger sample size helps reduce and even out any possible errors caused by those who do not answer truthfully. Also, keeping the surveys mainly anonymous would help to receive more truthful and accurate responses from participants. Participants may be fearful of judgments on open interviews or phone interviews, which could affect responses. In order to obtain as accurate results as possible, a future study would need to find ways to survey participants in a confidential way that feels comfortable.
Finally, the interview is an important source of information about the candidate. It can be unstructured, wherein the interviewer is free to pursue whatever approach and sequence of topics that might seem appropriate or structured where each candidate receives the same set of questions, which have pre-established answers. NG seems to favor a mix of both approaches. This gives the Human Resource manager the most relevant information for making a knowledgeable decision about which candidate will fulfill the needs of the organization.
Interviewing is a procedure which recounts to a controlled situation in which one person asks a chain of questions to another person, relating to a specific field (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 18). Interviewing skills are pivotal in making an interview more effective, as it is an overall judgement of candidate’s capabilities (Interviewing skills, 2002, p. 8). The process of Interviewing is divided into five phases i.e. Introduction, opening, body, closing, and termination (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 144). According to Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan (2008, p. 145-154), introduction also named “initiation”, is the initial phase in which the interviewer explains his role, confidentiality policy, rules and regulations, and the purpose of the meeting. Also a person is put at ease and a short informal talk, develops a therapeutical relationship. Then the opening commences with the first question which is more about the person’s current concern (Sommers-Flanagan and Sommers-Flanagan, 2008, p. 154-160). The body or “exploration” phase is the main section of interview as major information regarding the ...
Trevithick, (2005, p144-145) argue that interview preparation is essential in order to identify the needs and / or expectations of all parties involved. Prior to the interview I was given a scenario which described in detail the background of a service user, Michelle, and the issues that needed to be addressed. Michele’s girlfriend, Charlie had suffered a stroke and was recovering ...
Limitations to this study could be seen in the size of the group of participants. Another limitation would be that only participants from one facility were interviewed.
The qualitative interview offers researcher an opportunity to convey a conversational situation to discover the participants’ personal experience from the interviewer’s perspective and expressed in their own words. According to Seidman (2006), the interviewing conversations conducted in a qualitative research are based on the interaction between the interviewers and interviewees thereby generating/collecting effective research data. Kvale (1996) also states that interview just reflects another form of social interaction that relies on interviewee’s personal status and characteristics. He suggests such personal elements are potentially to affect the generated data and data analysis. Hence, it is essential for the interviewers to structure purposive conversations that are able to guide the interviewees to answer the questions in depth from the expected perspectives.
The employment interview has been the key element used for determining a candidates’ worthiness in filling an open position. Organizations rely on employment interviews as a way to predict the future job performance and work-related personality traits of interviewees. Over the years validity of the employment interview has been under scrutiny, so it is no wonder that is has been the topic of many research papers. The definition of the employment interview is “a personally interactive process of one or more people asking questions orally to another person and evaluating the answers for the purpose of determining the qualifications of that person in order to make employment decisions” (Levashina, Hartwell, Morgeson, and Campion 2013, p. 243).
The reason interview is the main source of data collection, is because that is the best method to obtain the information that is needed to conduct this study. After data information is collected from interviews, exercise intervention can be implemented in the study. Participants can then be interviewed again post study and results can be analyzed.
Unstructured interviews ask questions in an informal and open fashion. The positive of this interview style allows for unassumed answers and a gain in understanding of the variable. Field notes are used as a record for the researchers observations. Group interviews allow a researcher to interview more than one person at a time. The positive of this interview style includes allowing a person’s answer to reflect responses based on the interactions of others. The negatives related to the interviewing method include trustworthiness, confirmability, transferability, and credibility. Trustworthiness is a negative because participants may feel that they cannot be honest and open unless the researchers interests are genuine. Confirmability is a negative because not every person always has consistence and repeatable decision-making processes. Transferability is a negative because the study can be applicable to another group or another setting. Credibility is a negative because researchers might not have confidence behind the results of the study (Rebar & Gersch,
The downfall that may occur with the interview process is not only can it be costly but it creates the inability of an anonymous response, which can affect a subject’s reply and make it a less honest and thought out response. Interviews tend to be time consuming which can result in a smaller sample size. If not prepared properly, bias may become...
There are many aspects that make up a successful interview or interrogation. An investigator does not become a skilled interviewer or interrogator over night. Training and experience are vital to becoming skilled at interviewing and interrogation. Experience is the best teacher, conducting interviews and interrogations is the only way to become more skilled. In this paper I will explain all the aspects that make up a successful interview. I will also explain the difference between an interview and an interrogation.
The interviewer does not do the research to test an explicit hypothesis (David, & Sutton, 2004, p. 87). The researcher has a list of key themes, issues, and questions to be taken care of. In this type of interview, the sequence of the questions can be changed subject to the direction of the interview. An interview guide is also used, but additional questions can be asked. Corbetta (2003 p. 270) explains semi-structured interviews as follows: The order in which the several topics are dealt with and the wording of the questions are left to the interviewer’s preference. Within each theme, the interviewer is free to conduct the conversation as he thinks fit, to ask the questions he deems appropriate in the words he thinks best, to give explanation and ask for clarification if the answer is not clear, to prompt the respondent to explain further if essential, and to establish his own style of conversation. Additional questions can be asked and some may be questions that have not been predicted in the beginning of the interview. Taking notes or recording of documents during the interview. This type of interview gives the researcher opportunities to review for views and opinions of the interviewee. Investigative is a way for the interview to explore new paths which were not initially considered (Gray, 2004, p.
When doing research, reseacher has face some of limitation for this study which is its been challanging to find data. Other than that, researcher also face difficulties when doing interview. It is because researcher needs to interview proffesional worker. Researcher need to wait for a long period before doing interview session . Besides that, researcher need to go to other place and wait for quite a long time
Qualitative Research Methods: A Data Collector’s Field Guide (Mack et al 2005) present practical information on qualitative data collection methods. I found this guide very informative, easy to understand, plain and easy to use for collecting data in qualitative research in the field. This guide provides step by step instructions to conduct qualitative research by choosing the most suitable method for that particular situation. This guide enabled me to successfully conduct my interview assignment for qualitative research course.
...n process is very important for an organization to hire new members, as employees need to select the right person to do the right job. Therefore, employees need to read through applicant’s document and qualifications, hence organize an interview to be more close with the applicant, to know more about the applicants, see if they are suitable for the job position. Selection process can help the employees not to make wrong decisions, this is a good opportunities to assess skills, aptitude and abilities. (John, 2007)