Analysis of Telephone Interviews

The data analysis started with the downloading of the participants ’ interviews and discussions onto the computer as digital audio files. While listening to the audio data, the interviews were fully transcribed into Microsoft Word files to provide a verbatim account of the exchange. During the transcription, the names of all people involved or being mentioned, colleges or workplaces and locations, were made anonymous. Any information which was considered as possibly leading to the identification of the participant was removed from the text. This was to ensure that the identity of the research participants cannot be revealed.

According to Smith (2008: 66), “the assumption in IPA is that the analyst is interested in learning something about the respondent’s psychological world”. The analysis does not necessarily seek to count the frequency of the topics but to comprehend the story and the meaning of the conversation (Smith, 2008). In other words, meaning is crucial in IPA and not frequency. Thus, it is significant according to Smith (2008: 66):

[…] to learn about their mental and social world, those meanings are not transparently available – they must be obtained through a sustained engagement with the text and a process of interpretation

There is a wide range of approaches within IPA from the descriptive to the interpretive and from the particular to the shared (Smith et al., 2009). The IPA idiographic approach suggests moving from the detailed analysis of the first single case on to the analysis of the next case and so on. Smith et al. (2009) however recommend beginning the analysis of the item which is considered the most engaging, detailed and complex. After listening to the recordings several times, transcribing and reading the transcripts, the analysis of the interview with participant Farah was selected for the first analysis because it was the most engaging, compared to the others.

The interviews were transcribed into Microsoft Word using line numbers in the left margin. Using an A3 size sketchpad booklet, the transcripts were pasted on the left side of each page of the booklet so that there would be a wider space on the right column to write the initial comments (see Figure 4.1). Each transcription was analysed completely before continuing to the second transcription in another booklet. The step-by-step analytical process described by Smith et al. (2009: 82) was adopted in this research because it provides clear stages of analysis and interpretation which is preferable for a novice researcher.

Step 1: Reading and re-reading

This step involved the researcher immersing herself in the data through listening to and transcribing each individual script. Every interview recording was listened to several times before the process of transcribing began. The recording was listened to attentively during the transcribing process in order to check for its accuracy and to get a ‘feel for the data’

(Corbin & Strauss, 2015). This enabled the researcher to imagine the participant’s voice, an aspect that would support a more complete analysis (Smith et al., 2009). The transcripts were then re-read many times. According to Conrad (1987), it is possible to immerse oneself in the original data and gain the crucial ‘insider’s perspective’ by reading and re-reading the transcripts and listening to the recordings. In addition, this approach of reading and re-reading prevents the researcher from summarising the data prematurely and making quick conclusions. Additionally, initial thoughts about the transcripts as a ‘whole’ (Van Manen, 1990) were recorded because part of the process of being transparent and reflexive is about understanding what is brought to the analysis.

This is where Husserl’s ‘essence’ begins and having these initial thoughts about the data also relates to Gadamer’s hermeneutic circle (‘parts’ and ‘whole’). This process, therefore, ensured that first ideas, impressions, and possible connections were not lost and the focus could remain with the data.

Step 2: Initial noting

The second step was initial noting, which was the most time-consuming step. It involved a detailed examination of semantic content and language use on an exploratory level after the researcher was familiar with the ‘whole’ transcript data. A very close line-by-line analysis was conducted which summarised and captured the essence of what was being said by the participant and everything of interest was noted. This process helps to

“identify specific ways by which the participant talks about, understands and thinks about an issue” (Smith et al., 2009: 83) by examining the ‘whole’ via the constituent ‘part’. To accomplish this, initial comments were added on the right-hand margin. This initial coding comprised three stages. Descriptive comments summarized the main issues or what had been said by the participants. Linguistic comments, in the second stage, focused on the specific use of language. During this stage, it is also advisable to pay attention to the meaning and significance of metaphor and imagery. The third level was for conceptual comments which focused on engaging at a more conceptual level. This stage is interpretative in nature and often takes an interrogative form.

Following the suggestion by Smith et al., (2009), three different colours were used to distinguish these three types of comments. Red was used when writing the descriptive comments, black for linguistic and blue for conceptual. In order to maintain the meaning of the discussions, the transcripts were not translated into English. The analysis was conducted and comments were written in English based on the Malay transcripts. The analysis was done using the Malay transcripts because this stage involved analysing the semantic content and language use. Thus, to avoid potential distortion of meaning, it was found more appropriate to analyse directly from the Malay because a lot of words or phrases in Malay do not have direct translation in English. Furthermore, Reiss and Vermeer (as cited in Gutt, 1989; 155) argued that “since text are parts of larger wholes, that is of culture and language, their transfer into other cultures and languages will change the texts themselves”. Hence, to avoid losing the meaning of the data, as the researcher shares the same culture with the participants, she found that interpreting directly from the Malay transcript was the most appropriate approach in order to stay as

close as possible to the rich accounts of the participants. Figure 4.1 shows an example of the extract from one of the participant’s transcripts which was analysed manually.

Figure 4.1 Example of participant’s analysis sheet

In addition, the central parts of the interviews which were used as direct quotes in this thesis were then translated into English. According to Gutt (1989: 252), “direct translation cannot be understood in terms of resemblance in actual language properties, for the simple reason that languages differ in their linguistic properties ”. Thus, it is necessary to find the correct English tone when translating the transcripts (Kelly, 1994). However, a lot of words and phrases in Malays do not have a direct translation in English. In order to overcome this situation, the researcher tried to be authentic in the translation process by transferring the meaning in the accounts in a way that made them understandable for English speaking readers.

Table 4.3 gives an example of descriptive comments selected from one section of the interview transcript with the participant Farah. The extract taken from the original sheet

of the analysis was transferred into a table format using Microsoft Excel in order to give a clear presentation of this Stage 2 data analysis. It illustrates how descriptive, linguistic and conceptual comments were employed. Therefore, in this electronic version of data analysis, the key used to differentiate the exploratory coding is:

 Underlined text is used for descriptive comments

 Italic text is used for linguistic comments

 Bold text is used for conceptual comments

However, to ensure the anonymity of the participant, any comments which would enable a direct reference to location were removed. The insertion of ellipsis ([...]) within the comments was used to protect the identity of the participant or organisation. The original document will be made available only if it is required for verification of authenticity or clarification of the context of quotations.

As Table 4.3 shows, Farah was asked to describe her experience when she was having difficulties managing her work-life responsibilities and how the role of the college leader or her colleagues in giving assistance to her during that time shaped or influenced her professional thoughts and behaviour. In her reply, Farah commented on how a leader should understand the staff before implementing any policy. In the descriptive comment, I had summarised what Farah had said as: Leader should understand employees’

problems. From this point, I moved towards processing interpretative understanding by the language use of ‘tapi’ (translated as ‘but’ in English). The use of ‘but’ in this context demonstrates Farah’ disagreement that not all policies should be implemented although stated in the college rules and regulations. This led me to consider further interpretation by engaging at a more conceptual level which often took interrogative form. As such, making a possible link between the descriptive comment and the language use, I came to a question of: Is there a problem with the new leader?

By first emphasizing the leader’s role, the interpretation of Farah’s dissatisfaction with the way policies were implemented, and also the researcher’s understanding about the presence of a new college leader from the interview, contributed to the formation of the

question. Overall, at this particular stage when writing the exploratory comments, the descriptive comments remained close to what the participants said by summarising or paraphrasing the text. The linguistic comments involved not only in looking at the language or metaphor use but also the repetition and words that trigger emotions.

Finally, the conceptual level included more of the reactions and thoughts of the researcher and what she felt was being said by the participants.

127

Original Transcript Exploratory comments (descriptive, linguistic & conceptual)

I: Dari segi bantuan atau pun peranan rakan-rakan atau pun

pihak pengurusan semasa [ ] ada masalah tersebut

bagaimana peranan tersebut mempengaruhi cara pemikiran dan tindak tanduk profesional [ ] di tempat kerja?

R: Pada [ ] sebagai seorang policy maker atau pentadbir, dia

perlu menyesuaikan policy yang dia nak implement dengan Leader should consider employee’s problems keadaan staf dia. Mungkin ada polisi-polisi yang ditentukan Tapi (But): Emphasizing that not all time policies memang arr by book lah. Mengikut seperti di dalam buku. Tapi are relevant, depends on the situation

ada masa- masa polisi tersebut boleh err boleh difleksibelkan, Is there a problem with the new leader?

boleh diubah suai mengikut kesesuaian arr apa ni..masalah kesesuaian staf pada masa tersebut. Sebab kalau sebagai

manusialah, kita kekadang memang kita sukakan ketegasan dan mengongkong’ – no freedom, being controlled juga err apa ni err undang-undang. Kena ada peraturan

semua-semua tu tapi bila peraturan tu sampai mengongkong.. Staff are negatively affected with the new rules ..mengongkong pihak staf, peraturan yang pentadbir nak ‘mengganggu’, ‘menipu’ : use of negative verbs

128

jalankan tu mengganggu staf, jadi dia akan jadi satu yang errr reflecting how academics are negatively affected tidak memotivasikan pekerja even pekerja mungkin akan lebih Poor leadership?

stress. Dan dia menggalakkan arrr staf untuk menipu. Menipu Who is ‘dia’? New leader? New policies?

maksudnya arr macam contohnya (...) dia pun dah berkorban (...). menggalakkan (encourage): encouraging in a Tapi ada staf yang berbeza-beza. Dia punya situasi dia. (...). negative way

Jadi benda tu tak..tak puas hati. Dan sampai boleh menyebabkan Work-life situation among people varies

staf ni jadi kreatif tu kata nak menipu tu (...).Haa jadi tak.. berkorban (sacrifice): The staff has given the best in suasana tu jadi tak sihat. Daripada dia seorang pekerja lah yang order to be considered by the leader

jujur membentuk dia untuk menipu. Jadi, tu lah, polisi tu tidak Does this mean the management is ignorant digunakan dengan sesuai. Kita perlu bertolak ansur di about staff personal problems?

beberapa keadaan sebab staf tu pun dah arr ada beberapa staf kreatif: being creative for negative purpose yang betul-betul dah bertungkus-lumus (...),jadi why not arr Does this mean leader’s decision influence / bagilah macam reward walau pun reward tu bukan dalam bentuk shape the academics’ behaviour?

duit ke apa kan (...).Jadi benda-benda macam tu, polisi-polisi Does leader’s decision-making matter?

yang macam tulah yang menyebabkan staf-staf bawahan Academics’ efforts are not being appreciated ni jadi ..dia rasa demotivate sebab tindakan tu agak drastic. Does reward / appreciation matter?

Kalau dulu, mungkin pihak kitorang sendiri arr selama ni dah

129

terlalu rehat. Rehat in a way in the sense that macam… macam Too long being flexible

apa..manjakan. Bukanlah manja tapi dah terlalu fleksibel sangat terlalu rehat: comfortable with previous leadership dengan pentadbiran yang lama, jadi bila pentadbiran baru yang Difference of leadership style between two leaders secara drastic macam ni, dia jadi semua terkejut. Jadi.. ibarat use of metaphor “macam..100 meter sprint” reflects macam orang dah lama tak bersukan tetiba suruh lari 100 meter difficulty in managing change/ leaving the comfort sprint tu. Jadi dia terkejut. Jadi dia lagi serik. Serik untuk zone

bekerjalah sebab dia dah … dia dah terluka hati dia sebab “terkejut”, “serik”: the academics’ negative dengan apa arrr kesungguhan dia buat itu buat ini, end up dia experience

dapat macam tu. Jadi benda tu mungkin kena dekat beberapa “terluka hati”, “kesan yang mendalam”: emotionally orang tapi bila.. ye lah nature manusia bila dia tak puas hati, nak hurt and will leave deep impact towards the staff tak nak ermm dan memberi kesan yang mendalam kepada dia, Should the policy be revised or have the

academics been too long in their comfort zone?

Or does this reflect an ineffective leadership?

Table 4.3 Examples of exploratory comments presented in an electronic version

130 Step 3: Developing emergent themes

This step involved a higher level of abstraction. The notes which were previously written on the right-hand margin now formed the starting point for the interpretation which was about creating the emergent themes. At this stage, the amount of data and the volume of details were reduced, while complexity was maintained. Smith et al. (2009: 92) suggested mapping interrelationships, patterns and connections between exploratory comments in which, “the main task in turning notes into themes involves an attempt to produce a concise and pithy statement of what was important in the various comments attached to a piece of transcript”. Thus, if comprehensive exploratory commenting had been conducted systematically, the link between the participant’s original comments, the researcher’s exploratory notes, and the emergent themes would be maintained.

This process of re-organization of data, however, breaks up the narrative flow of the interview into discrete chunks or parts and so may cause discomfort to the researcher.

The researcher might feel that the participant’s experiences have become fragmented.

Smith et al. (2009: 91) stated that, during this level of interpretation, “the original whole of the interview becomes a set of parts as you conduct your analysis, but these then come together in another new whole at the end of the analysis in the write-up”. At this stage, the theme labels do not have to be definitive as these may well change later. The main task was to transform the notes into specific themes and phrases, capturing what was crucial at that particular point in the text.

The emergent themes were documented in the left-hand column. During this stage, short phrases were created which the researcher considered captured the essence of the notes that had been produced. Table 4.4 presents the emergent themes from Farah’s transcript.

The first emergent theme, ‘Dissatisfaction with leadership style’, illustrates the initial exploratory notes concerning Farah’s comment about leader and policy implementation.

At this stage, however, the emergent themes were tentative rather than firm labels.

Analysing in this way, is an iterative process with increasingly deeper levels of interpretation at the work progresses (Smith et al., 2009).

131

Emergent Themes Original Transcript Exploratory comments (descriptive, linguistic &

conceptual)

I: Dari segi bantuan atau pun peranan rakan-rakan atau pun

pihak pengurusan semasa [ ] ada masalah tersebut

bagaimana peranan tersebut mempengaruhi cara pemikiran

Dissatisfaction with leadership style

dan tindak tanduk profesional [ ] di tempat kerja?

R: Pada [ ] sebagai seorang policy maker atau pentadbir, dia

perlu menyesuaikan policy yang dia nak implement dengan Leader should consider employee’s problems keadaan staf dia. Mungkin ada polisi-polisi yang ditentukan Tapi (But): Emphasizing that not all time policies memang arr by book lah. Mengikut seperti di dalam buku. Tapi are relevant, depends on the situation

ada masa- masa polisi tersebut boleh err boleh difleksibelkan, Is there a problem with the new leader?

boleh diubah suai mengikut kesesuaian arr apa ni..masalah kesesuaian staf pada masa tersebut. Sebab kalau sebagai

manusialah, kita kekadang memang kita sukakan ketegasan dan mengongkong’ – no freedom, being controlled juga err apa ni err undang-undang. Kena ada peraturan

semua-semua tu tapi bila peraturan tu sampai mengongkong.. Staff are negatively affected with the new rules

132

..mengongkong pihak staf, peraturan yang pentadbir nak ‘mengganggu’, ‘menipu’ : use of negative verbs jalankan tu mengganggu staf, jadi dia akan jadi satu yang errr reflecting how academics are negatively affected tidak memotivasikan pekerja even pekerja mungkin akan lebih Poor leadership?

stress. Dan dia menggalakkan arrr staf untuk menipu. Menipu Who is ‘dia’? New leader? New policies?

maksudnya arr macam contohnya (...) dia pun dah berkorban (...). menggalakkan (encourage): encouraging in a Tapi ada staf yang berbeza-beza. Dia punya situasi dia. (...). negative way

Jadi benda tu tak..tak puas hati. Dan sampai boleh menyebabkan Work-life situation among people varies

staf ni jadi kreatif tu kata nak menipu tu (...).Haa jadi tak.. berkorban (sacrifice): The staff has given the best in suasana tu jadi tak sihat. Daripada dia seorang pekerja lah yang order to be considered by the leader

jujur membentuk dia untuk menipu. Jadi, tu lah, polisi tu tidak Does this mean the management is

digunakan dengan sesuai. Kita perlu bertolak ansur di ignorant about the staff personal problems?

beberapa keadaan sebab staf tu pun dah arr ada beberapa staf kreatif: being creative for negative purpose yang betul-betul dah bertungkus-lumus (...),jadi why not arr Does this mean leader’s decisions influence / bagilah macam reward walau pun reward tu bukan dalam bentuk shape the academics’ behaviour?

duit ke apa kan (...).Jadi benda-benda macam tu, polisi-polisi Does leader’s decision-making matter?

yang macam tulah yang menyebabkan staf-staf bawahan Academics’ efforts are not being appreciated ni jadi ..dia rasa demotivate sebab tindakan tu agak drastic. Does reward / appreciation matter?

133 Feeling demotivated

with leader’s decision

Kalau dulu, mungkin pihak kitorang sendiri arr selama ni dah

terlalu rehat. Rehat in a way in the sense that macam… macam Too long being flexible

apa..manjakan. Bukanlah manja tapi dah terlalu fleksibel sangat terlalu rehat: comfortable with previous leadership dengan pentadbiran yang lama, jadi bila pentadbiran baru yang Difference of leadership style between two leaders secara drastic macam ni, dia jadi semua terkejut. Jadi.. ibarat use of metaphor “macam..100 meter sprint” reflects macam orang dah lama tak bersukan tetiba suruh lari 100 meter difficulty in managing change/ leaving the comfort

apa..manjakan. Bukanlah manja tapi dah terlalu fleksibel sangat terlalu rehat: comfortable with previous leadership dengan pentadbiran yang lama, jadi bila pentadbiran baru yang Difference of leadership style between two leaders secara drastic macam ni, dia jadi semua terkejut. Jadi.. ibarat use of metaphor “macam..100 meter sprint” reflects macam orang dah lama tak bersukan tetiba suruh lari 100 meter difficulty in managing change/ leaving the comfort