The Writing of Business

Chapter 11: Beyond the Library: Information Resources and Research Strategies in the Contemporary Organization

Interviews

Don't abuse your people resources: do your easy, file-based research first, and be generous in acknowledging personal help you get.

Consider as potential interview subjects colleagues, supervisors, clients, and others who are steeped in information about the issue you're investigating.

Because interviews can be risky for interview subjects, answer their probable questions

about your qualifications
your ethical treatment of what they say (including accurate representation and respect for the limits of proprietary or confidential information)
and appropriate use of the information shared

Honor the commitments you make to interviewees (e.g., about how long the interview will take).

Interview Questions

Think about whether interview questions should be open or closed.

Design both primary and follow-up questions.

Avoided leading questions.

Decide how direct or indirect each question should be.

Determine how simple or complex each question should be.

Decide whether each question should be a "just the facts" question or an interpretation/evaluation question.

Interview Openings and Closings

Prepare for the informal rituals of greeting and leave taking.

Use these times
to lay out the plan of the interview
to recap the interview
to assure your interviewee of your goodwill and competence

Focus Groups

You will typically manage the data you collect in three stages:
identifying and coding the responses
summarizing the significant responses and themes
interpreting the themes

Plan for size ranges from 4 to 12 (most commonly 7 to 10).

Choose group participants that are homogeneous.

Don't choose participants from the same organization; preferably, they should not know each other or the moderator of the group.

Select a setting that is comfortable but professional.

To start, issue name tags, set ground rules, introduce participants, and provide an "ice-breaker" question.

Plan ten questions at most; five or six are generally ideal for a 90-minute session.

Ask open-ended questions.

For more specific responses, narrow and specify the focus of your question while keeping it open-ended.

Avoid questions that start with "why."

Get multiple perspectives in developing your questions; brainstorm and pilot-test to prepare.

Memorize your questions and their order, but be prepared to improvise if necessity demands or opportunity arises during the session.

Don't bias participants' responses or dominate the interview; instead, probe with follow-up requests for clarification or amplification when appropriate.

Facilitate the focus-group interview, pausing to let people respond to questions and to each other, and, if necessary, redirecting the discussion.

In closing, thank the participants, summarize the main themes and points, and invite final observations.

Throughout the interview, pay careful attention to nonverbal cues as well as to what participants say.

Immediately after the session, write detailed initial notes on the focus-group interview.

Surveys

If you need a scientifically valid survey and are not an experienced survey researcher and statistician, enlist people with this expertise to help you.

If you want to conduct a relatively informal survey, you still need to design your survey instrument carefully--testing, revising, and rewriting the questions themselves, the instructions and cover letter, and other introductory material.

The introductory material stands in the place of the greeting rituals and introductions that set up interviews, so it needs to establish your credibility, professionalism, and good intentions.

The introductory material also needs to explain the survey's purpose and tell the readers how to complete it.

Design your questions to gather the kind of information you need.

Keep in mind that surveys can discover information about people's attributes, beliefs, and behaviors.

Remember, also, the two contrasts in question design:
open-ended vs. closed questions
difficult, technical language vs. excessive explanation

Avoid excessive vagueness in your questions.

Make sure that questions don't ask for overly specific answers.

Check for questions that are biased because they suggest behavioral expectations.

Avoid questions that are biased because they provide unbalanced answer categories.

Revise complex questions that are biased or confusing.

Make sure that answer categories don't exclude the middle.

Check for questions that assume too much knowledge.

For questions and suggestions, please e-mail us at kilbornj@stcloudstate.edu or rinkster@stcloudstate.edu.

The print version of the Instructor's Manual for The Writing of Business
was written by Robert P. Inkster and Judith M. Kilborn for Allyn and Bacon.
This web version of the manual was coded by Judith M. Kilborn.