Focus Groups

Focus groups are a method of interview which involves a group of interviewees. They often emphasise a specific theme which is explored in great depth (Punch, 1998; Kitzinger, 2004).

They allow the interviewer to see how individuals respond to other responses from the group, follow up areas of interest and allow the group to discuss interviews amongst themselves. This gives focus groups certain advantages over normal interviewing as respondents can be queried or supported by other group members and views may change throughout the course of the session as topics are discussed by the participants. Focus groups allow the interviewer to see how individuals collectively make sense of a phenomenon (Bryman, 2001). They also allow large amounts of data to be collected from numerous respondents quickly and they are very flexible in their ability to cover a range of topics with a variety of individuals (Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990).

Focus groups should have some structure, but be more like a steered conversation. The interviewers skill as an initiator, facilitator and moderator is important when conducting discussions. The task of the group moderator is not to conduct interviews simultaneously, but to facilitate a comprehensive exchange of views in which all participants are able to speak their minds and respond to the ideas of others. It should be remembered however that social pressures may affect the responses given and some participants may not be comfortable (Easterby-Smith et al, 1991; Punch, 1998). Prior to the focus group being undertaken an opportunity was taken up to observe “travel to work” focus groups being conducted at Heathrow Airport.

Focus groups are not without their disadvantages however. They give the researcher less control than in an individual interview situation and there can be problems with extracting the views of reticent speakers, particularly when compared to those who are more dominant.

Focus groups also produce a large amount of data which can be difficult to firstly transcribe and secondly analyse. They can also be difficult and time consuming to organise and there is no guarantee that participants will turn up (Bryman, 2001). The generalisability of results can also be restricted by the focus group method, firstly because having a small number of respondents limits the applicability to a larger population and secondly because the responses of different individuals are not independent of one another and the group can be biased by some members (Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990).

The aim of the focus groups was to investigate staff opinions on the current car parking situation at Heathrow, whether they were aware of the pressures facing the airport and to explore their opinions on some potential new strategies to help resolve car parking problems.

Focus Group Timetable and Arrangements

Easterby-Smith et al (1991) state that care should be taken when choosing a venue and that it should be relaxing for participants so that they are fully able to air their views. As stated in section 5.4.2, conducting qualitative research in the natural setting allows for the researcher to develop a greater level of detail (Creswell, 2003). The “Airport Commuter” bus, a refitted double decked bus, was made available for a period of two days by BAA for use when conducting the focus groups. The bus allowed for up to 12 people to be seated and for refreshments to be served. It also added a “novelty” value to the focus groups which was thought to help a little when recruiting and was especially useful when explaining to participants where the groups would take place. Using the bus also meant that focus groups could easily be conducted in different areas of the airport, thus helping to attract more people at times and locations when it was convenient for them. The bus, it’s timetabling and locations were all organised by BAA.

Over two days, seven focus groups were arranged, which was felt to be suitable to gain a wide appreciation of the main issues, while at the same time being a manageable number.

There is also a view about focus groups that once it is possible to predict what the next group is likely to say then enough focus groups have been conducted (Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990; Bryman, 2001). Six of these took place on the bus and a further focus group was conducted at Heathrow Point West with only BAA office staff. This group was conducted in a comfortable and relaxing medium sized meeting room. Each group lasted between 60 and 75 minutes.

Selection of Focus Group Participants

Participants for the focus groups conducted on the bus were selected from a list of names provided by BAA which they collected while carrying out ongoing survey work for other purposes shortly before the focus groups were conducted. In the survey, respondents were asked if they would be willing to participate in focus group discussions in the future. It was considered that these people would be a good population from which to draw participants because they had shown interest in taking part and because they had already answered initial questions in the survey on similar topic areas.

Those who expressed an interest in participating were contacted by telephone three weeks before the focus groups were conducted. Each person was contacted up to three times over the space of a week until a response was obtained. A reminder telephone call was made two

days before the focus group was scheduled. Incentives were offered to those who attended in the form of £10 vouchers provided by BAA to be used in the shops at the airport as a method of increasing participation.

It is stated that the typical focus group size should range from six to twelve participants (Stewart and Shamdasani, 1990; Morgan 1997; Bryman 2001). It was the aim over the seven groups to attract an average of eight participants to each group. To allow for those who could not make it or forgot to attend, the aim was to enrol 16 participants for each group in the belief that approximately half would attend. In total 98 people were signed up to attend the groups, of which 48 attended, an average of 7 per group. The smallest group comprised four people and the largest group ten.

The members of each group are shown in Table 5.8 and the codes assigned to each group are to allow for the attribution of quotes in Chapter Seven. Focus group members represented a range of organisations and professions across the whole airport site including BAA staff, both office based and front line, security companies, airlines, retail outlets, police, traffic wardens, passenger services and cargo. The six focus groups conducted on the bus consisted of five groups for car users and one group specifically comprising public transport users.

The groups were split in this way so that different opinions could be explored in greater depth. Having one group dedicated to public transport users reflected the modal split of those who responded to the questionnaires. The focus group with BAA office staff at Heathrow Point West were recruited using internal email.

IT (x2) Finance (x2) Planning Property (x2)

Airport Commuter One person did not state role or company Human Resources

The discussion questions used in the focus groups are shown in Figure 5.5. A small number of questions were used in order to stimulate discussion and to allow the participants to fully explore each issue. When necessary there was additional input from the facilitators to either move the discussion forward or to further investigate certain opinions and statements.

Figure 5.5: Focus Group Discussion Areas for Heathrow Airport

1a) Are you aware of BAA’s efforts to reduce car use?

1b) For what reasons do you think Heathrow are trying to reduce car use?

2a) What are your views on the current employee car parking situation at Heathrow?

2b) Who pays for staff car parking provision at Heathrow?

3) What is your perception of the following options that have been successful at other organisations in reducing employee car use?

i) Financial incentives for leaving your car at home?

ii) Car parking charges for employees?

iii) Reallocation of parking permits based on employee need?

It was decided not to conduct focus groups at the non-airport organisations because they had already gone through the process of introducing a new parking strategy while the main aim of the focus groups was to investigate the likely reaction to new parking schemes. The opportunity to conduct focus groups also presented itself at Heathrow as BAA were looking to do research with employees in this area at the same time and so there was financial and administrative support from BAA. At the non-airport organisations similar support was not available and the short staff travel interviews with individual employees were felt to complement the Heathrow focus groups.