Rmit interview questions

BUSM4558 Work in a Global Society

Tutorial 6 (Week 7):

Devising Questions and Group

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Data Collection Methods: When to use which type of interview questions?

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Type of Research When used Objective What type of interviews are used?

Quantitative

Qualitative

Quantitative – numerical

Qualitative – non numerical

Quantitative objective – conversion of qualitative data into numbers ie measurement/predictive

Qualitative - describe

IQ

Qualitative – average

Quantitative – 100 points

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A Roadmap for Qualitative Interviews: Key Principles

Use open-ended questions

Avoid leading questions

Probe issues in depth

Let the informant lead

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Open Ended Questions

Open Questions: Questions that allow the respondent to answer without presented or implied choices

Examples:

“What colour is your hair?”

“What are your interests?”

Open Question Words:

What? Where? Who? When? How?

Why? * * “Why?” Limit the use of “WHY” questions in this type of work because it implies that there is a right answer

They are more usually used for face to face (qualitative) research

These are the types of questions you will use in your assignment

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Close Ended Questions

When to use Closed Questions:

Questions for which the answer choices are either given to the respondent or understood by the respondent

Examples:

“Is your hair black, brown, or red?” [Choices provided]

“Are you interested in research?” [Choice implied: yes/no]

Closed questions limit the breadth of information that a respondent has to offer.

They are more usually used for survey (quantitative) research

(Source: John Hopkins School of Public Health)

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Avoid Leading Questions

Leading questions are those which, inadvertently or not, lead the interviewee in a particular direction that the interviewer

Allow people to answer in their own terms voicing their own views, values and experiences.

Leading questions are phrased to suggest a particular answer or to imply that one answer is expected or more correct:

What fears do you have about globalisation?

What actions do you take to stop globalisation?

Did you know that the wealthy have taken most of the benefits of globalisation?

These questions were phrased to elicit answers related to fears and actions. It makes the assumption that the interviewee fears globalisation and has taken action about stopping globalisation or that the wealthy benefit from globalisation. This may not be the case

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Asking Non Leading Questions

Leading Nonleading

What fears do you have about globalisation?

What action have you taken to stop globalisation?

Did you know that the wealthy have taken most of the benefits of globalisation?

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Get the students to do this exercise individually or in groups

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Your own questions

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Now get them to try and devise some questions they may use in the second assignment

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Probing

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“The key to successful interviewing is learning how to probe effectively ….

That is, to stimulate an informant to produce more information….

Without injecting yourself into the interaction that you only get a reflection of yourself in the data”

(Barnard 1995)

Probing Techniques

“What?” or “What” questions

A stimulus without putting yourself in it

Silent Probe

Just remain quiet and wait for informant to continue

can happen as you are busy writing what the informant has just finished saying

Echo Probe

Repeat the last thing the informant said and ask them to continue

“I see. The company announced their were going to be redundancies. Then what happened?”

The Uh-huh Probe

Encourage participant to continue with the narrative by making affirmative noises

“Uh-huh”, “yes, I see”, “right”, “ok”

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Probing Techniques

Grand or Mini-Tour Type Questions

Used to obtain a verbal description of the respondents cultural life .

Grand Tour (broad, overarching questions)

“Could you describe a typical day in your workplace?”

“Could you describe what happened in your workplace yesterday from the time you started to the time you left?”

Mini Tour (used to explore items of interest that emerge from the grand tour questions)

“Can you describe what happens when you attend those meetings?”

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Letting the Informant Lead

“In unstructured interviewing, you keep the conversation focused on the topic, while giving the informant room to define the content of the discussion”

“The rule is: Get the informant on a topic of interest and get out of the way. Let the informant provide information that he or she thinks is important”

(Bernard, 1995)

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Tips for Interviewing

Do not begin interviewing straight away

Start with a greeting and explain what your project is and why you want to talk to them

Listen and express interest in what the informant tells you

More of a friendly conversation

Not a strict question and answer exchange

Remain neutral: don’t approve or disapprove

Try and encourage informant to expand on their answers and give as many details as possible

Use “describe” and tell me “about”

Do not move to a new topic until you have explored the informant’s knowledge on the question at hand

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Tips for Interviewing

Let the informant’s answers determine the direction the interview takes (though keeping to the topic of interest!)

Learn to rephrase/rethink questions

Try and conduct your interview in a quiet location

Try and conduct your interview in a place where your and the interviewee feel safe and comfortable

Take notes as well as recording – your recorder can fail or there can be lots of background noise

Start the interview with a short outline of your project, what you want to find out and why you have chosen them as an interviewee

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Interviewing Ethics

Always ask the interviewees permission to be recorded!!!

Keep your recorder visible

Anonymise your interviewees in the report e.g. (Manager at bakery, 15 March 2017)

After the project is finished delete your recordings

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How Many Questions and How Should We Order Them?

There is not best number of questions – the number you ask will depend on what you want to find out – the best way of thinking about this is to divide your topic into themes – these can be guided by the literature you have read and/or your ideas

Topic: Deindustrialisation

Theme 1 – Work and Training History

Q1 – What has been your work history?

Q2 – What training have you had for your work?

Q3 – What ……

Theme 2 – Impact on Self

Q4 What has been the impact of losing your job on yourself?

Q5 How has it made you feel?

Q6 How many jobs are there that you feel qualified to do?

Theme 3 – Impact on the Community

Q7 – What has been the impact of Acme Industry’s closure on the local community?

How Many Questions and How Should We Order Them?

Topic – The Gig Economy

Theme – Motivation to Enter the Gig Economy

Q1 – What motivated you to enter the Gig economy

Q2 – How much of a barrier did capital requirements pose?

Q3 - …………..

Theme – Experience of the Gig Economy

Q3 – What have been the positive aspects of the Gig Economy?

Q4 – What have been the negative aspects of the Gig Economy?

Q5 – How have you found …………….

Theme – Future plans

Q6 – How long do you plan to be in the Gig economy?

Q7 What will make you ………….

Tips – Group Working

Avoid stress and angst by starting work early

Decide on your topic and devise your questions

You should all ask the same questions to your interviewees

Aim to complete your interviews over the mid-semester break.

Think about setting up a Google Drive that you can jointly devise questions, post articles and drafts of your assignment

You can write your process in an iterative way – using Track Changes in Word or similar in the Google Drive one person starts and then others add to the draft and rearrange the text – this avoids a disjointed assignment

We will devote at least one full tutorial to working on the assignment (week 8) - this will enable you to seek advice and assistance from your tutor

What Other Sources Can we Use in the Assignment?

As well as the interviews you can use as data:-

Photos

Documents

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Exercise

Form into groups of 3

Each devise a set of questions about work or studying at RMIT (5 minutes)

One interviewer, one respondent , one observer (5 minutes)

Debrief (3 minutes) –observer gives feedback on what they saw, interviewer/interviewee about the process and how the questions worked

Rotate and repeat x2

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