In-depth Interviews and Focus Group Discussions 55

Qualitative researchers rely on good interviewing skills in order to conduct successful interviews and interactions with research participants. Even though very few researchers focus on this aspect of the research, it is a necessary skill that adds value to gather accurate data in the least amount of time. The following guidelines, suggested by Dilley (2000), were used in preparation for the interviews:

Studying Background Information  Gather background information of the topic and interviewee. This will aid in understanding the cultural and professional context, enhance analysis and also put the interviewee at ease.

Analysing Interviews  Observe and analyse the ow of interviews, to look for patterns in the conversation and identify potential areas for improve-ment.

Creating and Revising Protocols  Memorise the structure and order of protocol, questions to guide the interviewee on a journey and develop a frame of mind. This will help them to comprehend the more complicated questions.

Practicing Self-Reexive Interviewing

A focus group discussion is an interactive discussion between a pre-selected group of participants, to focus on specic issues in an interactive discussion to surface and address a range of issues. The environment created by a group dis-cussion oers the opportunity for participants to identify issues, which could be challenged by other participants. Moreover, a group discussion probes par-ticipants to justify the issue or provide examples to explain and validate the issue. The most important reasons why focus group discussions are used for this thesis are: larger amounts of data about an issue that is unclear could be gathered in a short period, information is gathered from a group of people rather than from an individual, typical behaviour and socio-cultural norms could be explored to highlight extreme, uncommon behaviour and the partic-ipants are witnesses to each other's opinions and experiences (Hennink , 2011).

A focus group discussion is not adequate for collecting individual-level in-formation and the inin-formation gathered by this method is the product of the interaction between the participants in a group setting. Therefore, in-depth interviews are held as well.

In Hennink (2011), an interview is referred to as a meaning-making partner-ship, whereas S. Hesse-Biber (2006) describe an in-depth interview as `a special kind of knowledge-producing conversation.' The meaning of the relationship between the interviewer, in most cases the researcher, and the interviewee is thus to co-create knowledge, specically the reality that is being investigated.

3.2.2 Model Construction

The analytic cycle of the qualitative research cycle is the theoretical founda-tion of the model construcfounda-tion cycle in this thesis. The analytic cycle is an inductive process that incorporates scientic literature from the design cycle and data collected from the ethnographic cycle, to develop new theories and concepts based on the existing theory. The analytic cycle is therefore inter-linked with the other cycles.

This cycle comprises of the following core activities of qualitative data analysis:

developing codes to describe and compare, to categorise and conceptualise and to develop a theory. Activities such as code development and data preparation, see sections 5.1.1 and 5.1.2, are performed by using the Atlas.ti qualitative data analysis and research software.

Identifying the root causes of communication deciencies

The code development step in the analytic cycle is the theoretical foundation of this section, identifying the root causes of communication deciencies. Once the data that has been gathered is transcribed in the nal step of the Data Collection cycle and inferences have been drawn, the code development can commence. Codes are topics or issues that are evident in the data, essentially identied by the researcher and participants through discussions, interviews and literature reviews. The purpose of identifying codes is to identify the range of issues evident in the data and to comprehend what these issues rep-resent to the participants. The codes are also used as markers, to ensure the focus of the study remains on the paramount issues that should be addressed.

The generation of codes will cease upon saturation of new issues surfacing during interviews and group discussions (Hennink , 2011). These codes could be adapted during the study, as this is when issues become more distinct.

There are two types of codes, deductive and inductive. Each code type is developed from dierent approaches. Deductive and inductive codes are both important and illustrate how the design cycle integrates with the analytic cy-cle. Deductive codes are developed prior to inductive codes, which sequentially follow after the data is collected. The ideal approach is to develop both de-ductive and inde-ductive codes. Brief descriptions of each code follows. More research about deductive and inductive codes will be reected upon in Chap-ter 4.

Deductive codes are developed from the researcher, for example concepts from research literature or the topics derived from the literature study that the re-searcher uses as topics in the interviews. These topics are used as a guide to prompt specic information from the research participant. Deductive codes are merely developed from theory that is gathered in the design cycle, not from any information gathered from research participants in the ethnographic cycle.

Inductive codes are developed from reading and analysing data and identify-ing important issues that are shared by participants duridentify-ing the data gatheridentify-ing phase. The inductive codes are very important as they enable the data to

`speak for itself' and reect issues that are of highest importance to the partic-ipants, which could be dierent from the issues anticipated by the researcher (Hennink , 2011).

Strategies for developing deductive codes include (Hennink , 2011):

ˆ Topics from interview guide;

ˆ Concepts from research literature; and

ˆ Professional and personal experience.

Strategies for developing inductive codes include (Hennink , 2011):

ˆ Read for overall content of data gathered;

ˆ Annotate data;

ˆ Notice repetition;

ˆ Identify topic changes;

ˆ In vivo codes;

ˆ Analytic reading; and

ˆ Explore underlying concepts.