essential-guide-to-qualitative-in-organizational-research

18 –––––––––– QUALITATIVE METHODS IN ORGANIZATION STUDIES ––––––––––––––––––interviewee, who may agree out of a wish to please you, or just to be polite. In the examplejust given, it would be better to say: ‘What, if any, impact did the scheme have on interprofessionalcommunication?’ This would not give a cue to the interviewee that you expecta certain reply.You need to beware of assuming that the answer to a question is so obvious that it neednot be asked. For instance, while promotion might well be a significant goal for most middlemanagersin a large corporation, it would be wrong to assume that it would be so for any onemanager. In a qualitative study you would need to ask whether, and to what extent,promotion was important to each individual participant. You should not tell the intervieweewhat his or her answers mean – ‘So what you’re really saying is . . .’; again, your perceptionmay be wrong, but the interviewee may not feel able or willing to challenge themisinterpretation. It is, however, sometimes useful to repeat an answer back to the intervieweein order to seek clarification.ENDING THE INTERVIEWIt is important that you avoid ending the interview on a topic which is difficult, threateningor painful. If possible the concluding questions should steer the interview towards positiveexperiences; in any event the interviewer should not pack up and leave immediately afterprobing the interviewee about some highly negative, distressing or personal experience orfeeling. Sometimes it is useful to finish by giving the interviewee the opportunity to makeany comments about the subject at hand which have not been covered in the rest of theinterview.‘DIFFICULT’ INTERVIEWSNot all interviews will progress smoothly. Occasionally you will come away from an interviewfeeling dissatisfied with your own performance, or irritated, angry or upset by the interviewee.While it is impossible to specify all the ways in which interviews can be difficult, there aresome situations where difficulties are rather more common than usual, and by being awareof these it is possible to have coping strategies to hand if and when they do occur. Some tipsabout how to deal with common types of ‘difficult’ interview are given below.THE UNCOMMUNICATIVE INTERVIEWEEThere are some interviewees who seem unable, or unwilling, to give anything more thanmonosyllabic answers. The reasons for this vary widely: they may be defensive about the topicbeing discussed; they may be trying to get the interview over with as quickly as possible; theymay think that brief answers are what you want ; they may just be habitually laconic. The risksof monosyllabism can be reduced before the interview begins by being quite clear about howmuch time you require – and that the interviewee has the time available – and by stressingthe anonymity of all answers. If the interviewee is unresponsive despite such precautions, thefirst thing to check is that you are phrasing questions in as open a way as possible. If you aresucceeding in framing questions in a very open manner, and still getting brief, shallow answers,a useful tool to use is silence. Instead of moving on to your next question when theinterviewee provides another terse response, pause for a few seconds. Very often this will serveas a cue to the interviewee that you would like to hear more on the subject, and is less likelyto annoy him or her than repeated probes of the ‘Tell me more’ type.