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Introduction Of International Business Research Skills
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Qualitative interviews are in-depth interviews in which the questions are open-ended. The respondent and the interviewer are fully engaged in a good qualitative interview. Qualitative research is based wholly upon observation.
This report will be comprised of three qualitative research tasks in which interviews will be analyzed. Two interview videos will be reviewed and analyzed by the researcher. From the first video, the key mistakes made by the interviewer will be outlined. In the second task, the good points of the interviewer will be highlighted in the report. The interviews which will be reviewed in both the tasks will be of the same interviewer. In task 3 of the report, the participant observation will be discussed. The whole analysis and comments of the report will be based on sayings of different authors about interviews.
Task 1- Interview A
Introduction of the Interview
According to McGrath, Palmgren, and Liljedahl, (2019), the interviewer should build a rapport with the respondent before and while conducting the interview. As a tip for qualitative interviews, these authors state that building rapport with the respondent is very important and it needs to be done on priority especially prior to conducting the interview. But in Interview A, the interviewer has done a mistake here. She has not built a rapport with the interviewee- the respondent. She just told the respondent that it is a qualitative interview and then she directly started asking the questions. This was a huge mistake.
Rapport can be built with the interviewee by providing them a summary of what the interviewer is going to ask, what it is about, etc. basically, the rapport is built to clearly state the purpose of the interview which the interviewer in interview A has not done at all. She shifted on asking questions without letting the respondent know about the basic purpose of the interview. This has left the interviewee in a little bit blank state.
Behavior of Interviewer
According to Bano et al, (2018), there are some common behavioral interview mistakes that the interviewers do while conducting interviews. These mistakes show the poor behavior of the interviewer. Some of the common mistake categories of the interviewers include poor communication skills, poor interaction with the respondent, etc. The general behavior of the interviewer was not good. She was moving a lot, she seemed disinterested which shows poor listening skills, and her body language was not confident. Throughout the interview, she was using grand hand gestures which is not a sign of good behavior, and also, she has not maintained firm eye contact with the respondent which indicated poor interaction. Also, she was speaking in a fast manner which means at a high speed. This shows the poor communication skills of the interviewer.
For conducting qualitative interviews, the listening skills of an interviewer should be good (McGrath Palmgren, and Liljedahl, 2019). As per the interview, the listening skills of the interviewer are not good. It is because the interviewer got distracted in between and asked the interviewee to repeat her answer. This has made the situation a little bit awkward and it also definitely had a negative impression of the interviewer on the interviewee. This is because not listening to the interviewee and saying that you have got distracted states that the interviewer in interview A was lost in her thoughts and not interested in listening to the answers. She was also checking her phone in between which is a very bad kind of behaving while taking an interview.
Asking Questions
In the views of Brewer et al, (2018), the coarse-gain response from the interviewee- the respondent is not ethical and can be termed as a crime. Whether it is a face-to-face interview or a telephonic one, the interviewer ethically should not force the respondent to answer a question. Criticizing the interviewer for their answers and blaming them for making the interviewer confused also fall under unethical behavior of the interviewer.
The interviewer in interview A has done the mistake of asking a question to the interviewee again and again which shows that she has forcing the interviewee to answer the question that if she has done something differently. The interviewer has also criticized the responses of the respondent by saying that she has been giving contradictory responses.
End of the Interview
The interviewer has not ended the interview well. It is because she had been continuously looking at the time before ending the interview. Also, she suddenly said that it is time to wrap up and immediately end the interview (Chrzanowska 2014). She was behaving like conducting this interview was just a formality for her and actually, she was not interested at all.
Task 2- Interview B
Introduction of the Interview
According to Tews, Stafford and Michael, (2018), having interview etiquettes matter a lot. It means that while conducting interviews, showing the etiquettes matter more than the question-answers. Behaving well while conducting interviews, especially starting the interview with etiquettes can be used for creating a positive impression on the interviewee. Good etiquette to start an interview includes greeting the respondent first with a firm handshake and then introduce themself before starting the interview. The interviewer in interview B has also said thank you very firmly to the interviewee for her co-operating behavior. She has started the interview very patiently and maintained eye contact from the start which is a sign of good interview etiquette.
Also, before jumping to the questions, she has preferably given a brief to the interviewee that what will she going to ask and what the interview will be about. She has also maintained the pace of speaking which was moderate. She was neither speaking too fast nor too slow from the start. Maintaining the pace of speaking is also considered etiquette.
Behavior of Interviewer
According to Kühne, (2018), maintaining the continuity by the interviewer is a sign of good behavior. The authors have argued that maintain consistency and continuity of something can help the interviewer to achieve trust and emotional closeness with the interviewee. It also allows the interviewer to build up and maintain good rapport by having the correct attitude. The authors have argued that the continuity of the interviewer allows familiarity to blossom between the interviewer and the respondent. The behavior of the interviewer in interview B was good as she has patiently listened to the interviewee and paid attention to everything she said. She has maintained the pace and continuity of question. She has build-up the questions with rationality and consistency.
Mneimneh et al, (2020), think that the attitude of interviewers attitudes directly affects the behavior and answers of the interviewee. The interviewers have to maintain the right attitude to collect the data by the respondent in a friendly manner. The interviewer has maintained this and hence she got satisfying answers from the respondent. The interviewer has kept thanking the interviewee for her answers which has demonstrated her polite attitude.
Asking Question
According to Adriaensen, Bijsmans and Groen, (2019), the interviewer should know that at what point they should raise the question, and how they should ask it. To have non-biased answers to the questions, the interviewer needs to keep the questions open and should ask in a friendly manner. Firstly, the interviewer should make the interviewee comfortable to make them answer the question properly.
In the interview, She has shown that she values the answers by patiently listening to the interviews. Also, she has kept the questions open for the interviewee to make her comfortable and create a sense of connectivity. The interviewer has asked leading questions from the respondent and has not criticized her answers at any point. She has not forced her to answer anything, just asked every question with politeness.
End of the Interview
The interviewer has ended the interview well. It is because before taking it to the end, she thanked the interviewee very politely for answering all of her questions, and then she has politely asked if she wanted to add anything (Chrazanowska, 2014). After that, she has greeted the respondent with a firm smile and ended the interview very patiently. Unlike interview A, in interview B, the interviewer has no hurry to end the session. Instead, it was very patient and she has given it the closure very well.
Task-C
Participant observation
In the views of Kinney, (2017), the walking interviews are qualitative interviews that emphasize a lot on participant observation. The authors define walking interviews as a form of the interview when the interviewer walk-in to the interviewee on a specific location and talks to the participant. The walking interviews are driven by participants and it allows them to recollect their old experiences to share the same with the interviewer. The walking interviews can be called the mixture of an interview and the observation of the participant. During the interview, the interviewer asks the question, listens to the participant/respondent carefully, and then observes the participant understand their behavior.
In the interview A discussed above in the report, the interviewer has not observed the participant because she was distracted and lost somewhere, in the hurry to end the interview. Whereas, in interview B, it was a completely different approach. The interviewer has observed the participant by listening to her carefully and actively, and by giving enough time to the interview process.
Overt and Covert Participant Observation
According to Fraser et al, (2019), Overt and Covert participant observation are two strategies to conduct the interviews. The authors have said that both of these are interview approaches with having different assumptions and these are used for different purposes. Overt observation refers to when a group of people is being studied by the researcher when the participants know that they are under observation. On the other hand, Covert observation is when the researcher observes the participants without them having any idea that they are getting observed by someone (Thompson 2016). The researcher goes undercover for observing the participants with a covert approach.
The researcher/interviewer needs to first identify the advantages and disadvantages of Overt and Covert observation methods. The advantages of Overt observation are more as compared to Covert because, in the first one, the interviewer can ask probing questions and also combine them with other methods. One of the biggest disadvantages of the covert method is that it involves a high level of risk. One of the major advantages of the overt method is that it is easier for the interviewer to conduct follow-up interviews because the participant knows everything.
Examples of the use of Participant Observation
Lora, (2021), has observed the people in China regarding the effects of pollution on their health. Lora has conducted an overt observation where she has studied about and observed people of three different villages in China. The participants of her study responded very well when they got to know that they have a risk of having cancer which is a negative effect of pollution on their health.
A person called Pearson has conducted covert participation in 2009 where he observed the players of Blackpool football club. He has said that conducting covert observation has reduced the research opportunities for him and he had to commit some minor offenses to complete the observation for his research (Thompson 2017).
Conclusion
This report is comprised of three tasks and it concludes that qualitative interviews require a lot of effort. Task one of this report has identified that the interviewer has done a lot of mistakes while conducting the interview. One of the biggest mistakes which have been identified was that the interviewer was so distracted at the time of talking to the participant which has made it a poor interview. On the other hand, in task two, it has been identified that interview was conducted well. The interviewer has behaved very well and asked open-ended questions from the participant and also ended the interview with patience and politeness. In task three, overt and covert participation have been discussed with which the report has identified that overt participation has a lot more advantages than covert participation.
References
Adriaensen, J., Bijsmans, P. and Groen, A., 2019. Monitoring generic skills development in a bachelor European studies. Journal of Contemporary European Research, 15(1), pp.110-127.
Bano, M., Zowghi, D., Ferrari, A., Spoletini, P. and Donati, B., 2018. Learning from mistakes: An empirical study of elicitation interviews performed by novices. In 2018 IEEE 26th International Requirements Engineering Conference (RE) (pp. 182-193). IEEE.
Brewer, N., Vagadia, A.N., Hope, L. and Gabbert, F., 2018. Interviewing witnesses: Eliciting coarse-grain information. Law and Human Behavior, 42(5), p.458.
Chrazanowska, J. 2014. Demonstration Qualitative Interview- how it should be done. (Online) Youtube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNMTJTnrTQQ [Retrieved on: 5-08-2021].
Fraser, C.J., Duignan, G., Stewart, D. and Rodrigues, A., 2019. Overt and covert: Strategies for building employability skills of vocational education graduates. Journal of Teaching and Learning for Graduate Employability.
Kinney, P., 2017. Walking interviews. Social Research Update, 67, pp.1-4.
Kühne, S., 2018. From strangers to acquaintances? Interviewer continuity and socially desirable responses in panel surveys. In Survey Research Methods (Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 121-146).
Lora-Wainwright, A., 2021. Resigned Activism, Revised Edition: Living with Pollution in Rural China. MIT Press.
McGrath, C., Palmgren, P.J. and Liljedahl, M., 2019. Twelve tips for conducting qualitative research interviews. Medical teacher, 41(9), pp.1002-1006.
Mneimneh, Z.N., De Jong, J., Cibelli Hibben, K. and Moaddel, M., 2020. Do I look and sound religious? Interviewer religious appearance and attitude effects on respondents’ answers. Journal of Survey Statistics and Methodology, 8(2), pp.285-303.
Tews, M.J., Stafford, K. and Michel, J.W., 2018. Interview etiquette and hiring outcomes. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 26(2-4), pp.164-175.
Thompson, K. 2016. Participant Observation in Social research. (Online) Revise Sociology. Available at: https://revisesociology.com/2016/03/31/participant-observation-strengths-limitations/ [Retrieved on: 5-08-2021].
Thompson, K. 2017. Some (Relatively) Recent Examples of Participant Observation Studies. (Online) Revise Sociology. Available at: https://revisesociology.com/2017/06/30/participant-observation-sociology-recent-examples-research-studies/ [Retrieved on: 5-08-2021].
