Data Collection Methods and Instruments

In this section the details of the data collection methods and instruments and the details of the contact of the data collection within the case study are provided.

3.10.1

Design of the Data Collection Methods and

Instruments

The detailed design of the data collection methods and instruments includes the documentation the archival records needed and the interviews in

each case study. The details of these data collection methods and Instruments have already been discussed earlier in this chapter (section 3.6) and the documents used in order to employ these instruments are presented in Appendix 12, Appendix 13, Appendix 14 and Appendix 16. Since the relevant documentation and the background information to be collected in the cases studies are already presented in sections 3.6.1 and 3.6.2 respectively the following sub-section presents the design of the semi-structured interview questionnaire.

3.10.1.1 Interview Design

In the process of designing the interview questionnaire the author had in mind the following aspects:

• The content of the interview (what the interviewees should be asked about)

• The procedure of the interview (how to conduct the interviews)

• The selection of the interviewees (who to ask)

• The time and location of the interviews (when and where to contact the interviews)

The above issues are discussed following on.

3.10.1.1.1 Content of the Interview

The content of the interview is determined by the theoretical framework described in chapter 2 of this report, and the propositions needed to get covered, described in section 3.7.1.1 of this chapter. This ensured that all the key issues regarding the implementation of CAF were fully covered.

The interview consists of ten parts. The nine parts cover the propositions of this study which in turn cover the key issues regarding the implementation of CAF and the last (10th_{) part covers some general issues about the CAF’s}

implementation process. Each part consists of some sub-parts in order to cover all the issues regarding the CAF’s implementation process as was determined by the literature review of this study. The details of the links between the interview questions and the elements of the theoretical framework are given in Appendix 17.

3.10.1.1.2 Choice of Interviewees for the Interviews

As it was discussed earlier in this chapter (section 3.7.1.1), in each case only a handful of people had sufficient knowledge of the implementation process and were able to provide an insight into either the whole of the implementation process or significant portions of it. Additionally, as the interviews were to be detailed and in depth and supporting documents of the interviewees answers were to be accessed, the author was confident that this practical limitation of having a few interviewees in each case would not affect the validity of the research. After all there would be sufficient sources of evidence for triangulation purposes as it was thoroughly discussed in section 3.6.4.1 of this chapter and presented in figure 3.2. Additionally, as Yin (1994, cited at Davies 2004) points out, having interviewed people with a few knowledge about CAF’s implementation process, might have risked the validity of this study by risking facing the problem of reflexivity in which interviewees “invent” answers to please the interviewer.

Hence in each case study the Mayor or General Secretary indicated the project leader of each implementation process and each project leader indicated the interviewees in each case. So in each case the interviewees were the project leader and a handful of people that had sufficient knowledge of CAF’s implementation process. The details of the interviewees, position and role in the CAF implementation process are given in Appendix 19.

3.10.1.1.3 Interview Procedure

After the selections of the interviewees a certain form was sent to them prior to the interview in order to inform them about the content of the questionnaire and gain their concurrence for their participation (Appendix 13). In this form all the necessary details were given, about the project, about their participation, about the confidentiality, about the intention to keep digital record of the interview and about the entire interview process.

Analytically:

1. The interviews were recorded, with the interviewee's permission, using a digital recorder. The digital recordings were used in order to verify that the original source data could be referred to, at any stage in the process of data analysis.

2. Notes were kept during each interview and the digital recordings were used to check the accuracy of the transcribed interview notes. There was no need to produce a word-for-word transcript of the interview as the intention was to capture and confirm the mentioned key points, and the data analysis technique selected did not require a word-for-word representation (see section 3.10 of this chapter).

3. The notes of each interview were sent to the interviewees to verify the content, and any corrections were sent back to each interviewee until the final report reached the interviewee’s agreement

4. The interviews were done in Greek. In order to address any translation issues a translation method was used. Analytical the author followed the next steps:

a. The interview questions were written in English

b. A translation of the interview questionnaire was made from English to Greek

c. The Greek interview questionnaire was sent to the individuals in order for them to get prepared.

d. The notes of the interviews were written in Greek.

e. The notes of each interview were sent to the interviewees to verify the content, and any corrections were sent back to each interviewee until the final report reached the interviewee’s agreement.

f. Each final interview report was in Greek.

g. A translation of each final interview report was made from Greek to English.

h. Both English and Greek final interview reports are kept in the case study data base

3.10.1.1.4 Time and Location of the Interviews

The interviews were conducted from summer 2015 until autumn 2017 on the site of each case study organization, so that the author can access all the relevant documents as planned. What time the interviews took place was arranged in order to be convenient for the interviewees. Each interview was

conducted into a room, allocated by the case study organization, which was free of interruptions from other colleagues or telephone calls.

3.10.2

Contact of the Data Collection within the Case

Studies

The contacts with the case study organizations were made using the documents presented in Appendix 12 and Appendix 13. The one was for the Mayor or General Secretary of each organization and the other was for the interviewees.

First of all, the document named “Information Sheet for Mayor or General Secretary” was sent to the case study organization in order to get permission of the LAs’ participation and in order to get informed about the data collection procedures.

This document explained the:

• The project’s aim and objectives

• The benefit for the LA for its participation (a free study for the process of implementing CAF)

• The measures for having confidentiality and anonymity during the entire process

• Details of the methodology that is going to be used (site visit, the need to search for documents and archival records, the plan for the interviews, the time needed, so on)

At the end of this document there was a questionnaire named “Municipality’s Profile regarding CAF”, which was used by the author in order to get a first view of CAF’s implementation process and decide whether the LA will be part of this study or not. Additionally, at the end of this document there was a consent form which was required to be signed only if the LA was selected to be a case study for this research.

Secondly the document named “Information Sheet for Interviewees” was sent to each interviewee of each case study respectively in order to get their agreement for participating in this study and to inform them for:

• The project’s aim and objectives

• The measures for having confidentiality and anonymity in the entire process

• Details of the methodology that is going to be used (site visit, the need to search for documents and archival records, the plan for the interviews, the time needed, so on)

• The process of the interviews (the digital recording, the procedure for keeping notes and for sending the entire interview report in order to get their agreement, the time needed for the interview, the place for the interview (quite, avoid interruptions), the documents needed (for example agendas), and so on).

With this document the interviewees were asked to have with them during the interview their personal diaries from the implementation period in order to be able to confirm important dates and actions in the implementation process and any other document that would help them answer the interview questions. At the end of this document the interviewee questionnaire was attached in order for the interviewees to get prepared for the interview.

All communication with the Mayor and/or General Secretary and with the interviewees was conducted in Greek. In order to address any translation issues a translation method was used. Analytically the author followed the next steps:

1. The forms were written in English

2. A translation of the forms was made from English to Greek

3. The forms were sent to the individuals to get their answers. The answers were in Greek

4. A translation of the forms was made from Greek to English

5. Both English and Greek Forms are kept in the case study data base