Interviews

Steinar Kvale, Svend Brinkmann,

InterViews: Learning the Craft of
Qualitative Research Interviewing.
The Interview
Interviewer Interviewee
Interview
Interviews
Unstructured

Structured

Semi-structured


Interviews
Unstructured Interviews
Researcher has a small set of self-
prompts to help investigate the research
question, but questions are not fixed.
One question can lead to a number of
follow-up questions depending on the
response. They tend to be more like
conversations than interviews.
Useful when exploring a new area.
Interviews
Structured Interviews
The questions are fixed and
predetermined as is the sequence of
questions. No new questions can be
added during interview, and questions
are given to interviewee (generally
several days) before the interview begins.
A lot of senior managers prefer time to
prepare their answers.
Interviews
Semi-Structured Interviews
Some interview questions are fully
decided, whereas others might not be
fixed. The researcher has leeway in
asking follow-up questions.
This is the ideal compromise, it gives a
structure to the interview, but also gives
flexibility.
Kvales Seven Stages
1
Themazing
2
Designing
3
Interviewing
4
Transcribing
5
Analyzing
6
Verifying
7
Reporting
Kvales Seven Stages
1. Themazing

What is the theme of the interview?
Kvales Seven Stages
1. Themazing

What is the theme of the interview?

Its your Research Question
Kvales Seven Stages
2. Designing

How will the intended knowledge be
obtained?
Kvales Seven Stages
2. Designing

How will the intended knowledge be
obtained?

Design your Interview Questions
Interview Questions
Introductory
Questions
Warm up questions
Followup
Questions
Listen for Red Lights
Probing Questions
Unlimited scope
question
Specifying
Questions
Exact information
Direct Questions
Introducing a new topic
Indirect Questions
Projective questions
Structuring
Questions
Transitioning to new
topics
Interpreting
Question
Clarifying questions
Silences

Kvales Seven Stages
3. Interviewing

Conduct the interviews carefully
Interviews
Establish a rapport
Treat interviewees with respect
Think about your appearance
Think about body language
Maintain firm eye contact
Dont Invade their space

Interviews
How are you going to record?
Tape recorder
Pen and paper must be verbatim
Video recorder
But whichever you use, you must do a
verbatim recording of the interview,
both questions and answers.



Kvales Seven Stages
4. Transcribing

Converting interview into written text
Kvales Seven Stages
4. Transcribing

Converting interview into written text

Must include everything said. Can be in
appendix of thesis or on a CD.
Kvales Seven Stages
5. Analyzing

Based on the appropriate type of
investigation
Simple Analysis
Analysing Text
Faced with the lack of organisation of data
and the sheer amount of rambling can be
somewhat overwhelming
With the best will in the world about trying to
avoid bias, when there is multiple
interpretations of data, selecting the one that
best matches your research question
becomes very tempting.
Simple Tabulation
Interviewee Money Fame Power Social
Fulfilment
Other
Person 1 15 6 4 0 1 38
Person 2 5 3 6 5 4 27
Person 3 1 0 3 12 21 46
.....
..
.....
..
.....
..

.....
..

.....
..

.....
..

.....
..

Reasons for Choosing a career
Choosing categories
Use ones from the literature
They will have validated the categories,
and you will have something to compare
with.
Use categories connected with your
research question
Derive categories from data
Deriving Categories
Verbatim Analysis
Compatible with Windows <> Windows-Compatible
Knowledge management <> Knowledge engineering
Gist Analysis
Compatible with Windows == Windows-Compatible
Knowledge management == Knowledge engineering
Superordinate Analysis
Derive superclasses
If one interviewee mentions Windows-Compatible and
another one interviewee mentions Linux-Compatible, you
can derive a category of Compatibility

How to analyse?
Colour Coding





Advanced Analysis
Meaning Analysis
Meaning Coding
Adding tags or keywords to text
segments that represent the main themes
of the interviews
Meaning Condensation
Summarising larger sentences into short,
simple sentences.
Meaning Interpretation
Adding more details, background and
context to specific parts of the interview

Language Analysis
Linguistical Analysis
Looking at the linguistics and grammar
Conversation Analysis
Treating the interview as a conversation
Narrative Analysis
Treating the interview as a story
Discourse Analysis
Try to evaluate the truth of the responses
Deconstruction
Taking the interview apart and putting together again

Eclectic Analysis
Bricolage
Using a collection of techniques as a
collage
Theoretical Reading
Creating your own reading on the text

Kvales Seven Stages
6. Verifying

Checking that validity, reliability, and
generalizibility of the findings
Kvales Seven Stages
Validity
Can you check the truth of the statements? e.g. number of
employees in organisation, number of customers
Reliability
Are there any internal contradictions? Did you include the
same question twice expressed in different ways to check
the truthfulness of the responses?
Generalizibility
How do the answers agree with broader research and
other interview answers?
Kvales Seven Stages
7. Reporting

Communicate findings in a scientific and
ethical manner.
Kvales Seven Stages
7. Reporting

Communicate findings in a scientific and
ethical manner.

In the dissertation document
Interviews FAQ
What books should I read about
interviews?
Anything and everything by Steinar
Kvale
Interpreting Qualitative Data by David
Silverman
Research Design by John Creswell
How do I think of questions for the
interview?
There really should be two sources
All questions need to come from the
research question of the experiment
If you find literature with a sufficiently
similar research topic, you can use or
adapt those questions
How many people should I interview?

12 10 people

is a good rule-of thumb
Are there situations where I shouldnt
use interviews?
Yes, loads of situations, e.g. electoral
voting behaviour, or capturing a
persons attitudes and interactions
with their environments.
When should I do the
interviews?
Typically there are two times to do
interviews;
As part of the requirements gathering
process
As part of the evaluation process
Are there software packages that can
help me ??
Loads
ATLAS.ti
nVIVO
MaxQDA
NUD*IST
HyperRESEARCH
But, do not underestimate the power of
Excel, its a brilliant tool when used well
Further Tips
Decide on an order of questions that easily flows
one to the next
Try to use language that is easy to understand and
relevant to the interviewee
Avoid Leading questions
Try to stop the interviewee using qualifiers
Add a few control questions into the interview for
validation
Avoid smalltalk during the interview
LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN