Data collection

To obtain an in-depth understanding of a specific situation, a wide range of data collection techniques is potentially suitable for a case study. An overview of the data collection process is shown in figure 8.

Figure 8: Data collection overview

3.5.1 Interviews as a data collection technique

As Tharenou et al. (2007) suggest, case studies can for example be based on observations, interviews, questionnaires, public records of information and attendance at meetings. In this case, interviews have been chosen as a method for

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data collection, with a literature review as a basis (compare figure 7). Interviews are a suitable method for qualitative research to obtain a deep understanding of the specific situation. An advantage over other methods of data collection is the possibility to further ask why interviewees have come to his or her particular view, as well as clarification and discussion of responses. The interview not only helps to substantiate the interviewee’s perspective on the topic, but also helps to find issues for the researcher. Also the possibility to probe or deepen a response helps uncovering unobserved feelings or sentiments. Furthermore, as Stadtwerke Bielefeld is a local knowledge case (see 3.4.1), I was able to use my personal access to potential interview partners. I believe that interviews, especially when conducted face to face, will emphasise a mutual trust and confidentiality and therefore willingness to participate will be higher. For reasons of validity interviews were conducted in a semi-structured way, including questions that were clearly formulated and easy to answer, in addition to open questions, in order to obtain unguided answers (see 3.5.2). To assess the scope and depth of the interviews beforehand, the interview structure was communicated to interviewees in advance. This enabled interviewees to become acquainted with the topics to be covered and the approximate duration of the interview, as well as answering some critical questions about the nature of the interview.

3.5.2 Preparation of an interview guideline

For the interviews, it was important to ensure a general understanding of the interviewees of the meaning of change readiness. This was an insight from the exploratory interviews (see the following discussion in this paragraph) to facilitate answering the interview questions, as the term was not commonly understood by the interviewees. Therefore the definition given by Weiner (2009 p. 2): “organisational readiness refers to organisational members’ change commitment and change efficacy to implement organisational change”, was included in the supplementary sheet to the interview guideline (see annex 1). The interview guideline started with general information about the respondent, such as gender

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and age, etc. (see annex 1; general information). The general questions were rounded up by an open question about the respondent’s personal change experience to lead the interviewee to the topic of change bit by bit. Following that, questions about Stadtwerke Bielefeld were asked. These questions (see annex 1; section I., question 1 to 3) were derived from the research questions and objectives shown in figure 8 (see 1.4, p. 12):

Figure 9: Research questions and objectives

In the following section II of the interview guideline, respondents were asked questions about organisational change (see annex 1; section II). First, respondents were asked to rank the most critical aspects for successful change implementation (see annex 1; section II, question 4). For that question a list of possible success factors in change, which was developed on the basis of the literature review (see 2.4.1), was provided. Due to the fact that the gathering of data about the specific influencing factors and the assessment of their importance was to be undertaken in one interview, for the importance assessment, possible factors were provided in the interview question.

The following questions 5-9 (see annex 1; section II) were designed to develop a deep understanding of the respondents’ opinions about change readiness and the level of change readiness of Stadtwerke Bielefeld. To assess the level of change readiness (see annex 1; section II questions 5, 6 and 9), the model of Armenakis et

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al. (2007, 1999, 1993; see 2.3.4) was applied as a basic concept. The message components identified by these authors as important to the creation of organisational readiness (discrepancy, appropriateness, valence, efficacy and principal support) were employed and reformulated as statements to be rated on an ordinal scale. Due to my knowledge of the importance of “fairness” for employees at Stadtwerke Bielefeld, which was supported by a high ranking of “fairness” in an employee survey (Stadtwerke Bielefeld GmbH, 2010), an additional statement concerning fairness was formulated and added to the original message components. From the perspective of a constructivist, I was in a position to function as a facilitator of reconstruction of understanding and therefore added that attribute to the original Armenakis et al. model (2007, 1999, 1993; see 2.3.4). With that the original model of change readiness by Armenakis et al. was developed further (see figure 6). My development from the model to the applied research instrument is shown in figure 9:

Figure 10: Research instrument derived from the Armenakis et al. (1999) model

The ordinal scale of the readiness assessment answer options allows for a rank order, by which data can be sorted, but does not allow for a relative degree of

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difference between them. In order to obtain a graduated measure of respondents’ attitudes to each readiness assessment statement, it was decided to use a Likert scale (Likert, 1932). As shown in Figure 10, respondents were asked to evaluate the statements (Likert items) by indicating their level of agreement or disagreement with each. A symmetric distribution of positive and negative positions is given, as well as a neutral middle point. The respondents were asked to assess the statements concerning change readiness on a scale from one to five according to their agreement with the statement. Due to the symmetric wording with clearly defined linguistic qualifiers of the categories around a midpoint, items may approximate an interval-level measurement. The gradation of each successive item category is inferred to be equidistant. Assuming or approximating an interval scale, logical or mathematical operations may be applied. With that assumption, simple mathematical operations such as simple average and median as the numerical value separating the higher half of answers from the lower half were applied.

However, this methodology is subject to central tendency bias, acquiescence bias and social desirability bias. In gathering, the interviewees need to take a stance, as to their opinion about readiness for change. I argue that acquiescence bias and social desirability bias would still be an issue, if the question seeking the interviewees’ opinions were formulated differently. Central tendency bias might rather be an issue, if alternatives are suggested to the interviewee, especially if a middle option is provided. Therefore a forced choice could have been applied. In the opinion of the author, even a “neither agree nor disagree”-answer is an opinion in regard to the assessment of the degree of change readiness. If a statement is worded positively, e.g. “employees are convinced that...” and the state aimed at is a positive manifestation of the characteristic given, the undecided answer may be a clue for a need for action. Therefore the forced choice method was not applied.

With the questions 5 to 9, interviewees were asked for their understanding and assessment of the level of change readiness at Stadtwerke Bielefeld. To enrich understanding of organisational change and its implementation at Stadtwerke Bielefeld, three more open questions were asked (see annex 1; section II, question 10 to 12). These questions helped to develop an understanding about change

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implementation and the specific issues for municipal companies. The picture of Stadtwerke Bielefeld then could be compared to the insights from the literature review and especially literature regarding municipal companies (see figure 7, p. 68). After the initial development of the interview questions, these were tested with two exploratory interviews with volunteers conducted outside of Stadtwerke Bielefeld. These volunteers were persons with sufficient work experience of more than ten years in marketing and sales respectively within medium sized companies. They had also experienced organisational change during their professional life. These exploratory interviews were conducted to test whether questions are understandable, not too complex and the order of questions does allow for a fluent course of the interviews. One important insight from these exploratory interviews was that it would facilitate answering questions about change readiness, if a general understanding of the term was established beforehand. With further insights from the exploratory interview questions were reworded and smaller adjustments made. As a result the initial interview guideline was developed. The first interview of the management sample was designed as a pilot interview. After the first interview took place, the initial interview guideline was revised and slightly adjusted. This adjustment was undertaken to make the interview guideline easy to follow and a small addition was made (for slightly revised interview structure see annex 1). After throwing a light on aspects of data collection, the applied sampling is discussed in the following paragraph.