Individual interviews in practice

Concerning the present research, due to the large number of questions that were to be asked, the researcher decided to use structured interviews so as to accommodate these questions without taking too much of the participants’ time. Structured interviews were chosen also in order to reduce the time needed by interviewees to answer all 36 questions and to keep the volume of data to be transcribed within manageable limits. Thus, structured interviews with thirty employees from nine credit unions were carried out, as shown in Table 5.1 below:

Table 5.1: Number of interviewees per credit union per Town:

Town 1 Town 2 Town 3 Total

Credit union #1 10 0 1 11 #2 5 5 #3 1 1 #4 1 1 #5 3 1 4 #6 1 1 #7 5 5 #8 1 1 #9 1 1 Total 14 12 4 30

Initially, a formal letter was sent to ten General Managers, whom the researcher already knew, due to his employment at a credit union, and with whom he had at least one telephone conversation prior to sending the letter. This letter informed the General Managers about the purpose of the present research, asking them for their permission to interview some of their credit unions’ employees and asking them to encourage their employees to participate in the interviews. Following the initial one, several other follow-up phone calls took place trying to understand the reasons for not replying and for convincing the General Managers to assist the present study. To the researcher’s pleasant surprise, a member of the top

management of one of these credit unions called the researcher informing him that a relevant email was sent to all of their personnel but only four (including him) expressed interest in taking part in the research. Apart from this incident, and the two General Managers that agreed to be interviewed, the specific tactic did not bring the desired results most probably because of the uncertain and stressful conditions that the financial crisis of March 2013 had caused (with all managers, employees and members fearing of what the next day would bring). To rectify things, the researcher recruited ex-colleagues and acquaintances, asking them to introduce some of their own acquaintances (snowball approach) that were willing to spend about one hour, in total, to take part in an academic research project. Apart from the “convenience” of the sample approach, the aim was not to have a representative sample, but rather to include people that could contribute to a wider range of opinions and perceptions. The criteria for the sample were based on the participants being current employees of any credit union in Cyprus trying to maintain a balance between men and women, levels of hierarchy, different levels of experience and age groups (as shown in Table 5.2 below).

Table 5.2: Interviewees demographics:

25-39 years old ≥40 years old Total

5- 9 years’ experience ≥10 years’ experience 5- 9 years’ experience ≥10 years’ experience Top management: Men 4 4 Women Line manager Men 2 2 Women 4 4 Other employees Men 8 1 1 10 Women 7 2 1 10 Total Men 8 1 7 16 Women 7 2 5 14

The interviews lasted between 18 and 68 minutes as shown in Table 5.3 below:

Table 5.3: Duration of interviews:

18-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-59 60-68 Total

No. of interviewees 1 5 14 5 4 1 30

Once a potential participant was identified, the researcher called him/her and explained the purpose of the research; his/her expected contribution as well as the approximate duration of the interview. The time and place of the interview was arranged at the convenience of the participant. Usually known cafeterias at off- peak hours were selected, but, in some cases, the office of the individual participants was used. In one particular case, a participant had arranged for some of her colleagues to come for the interview at her house arranging with them convenient timeslots. In this case, a specific room in the house was allocated for the interviews so that people coming in and out did not disturb the interview in progress.

The researcher used a question guide that he had developed based on his examination of the literature. This question guide consisted of thirty six (36) questions in total (22 questions for the 1st _{and 14 questions for the 2}nd _research question - see Appendix 1). Through these questions the researcher aimed at understanding the perceptions of the employees of various credit unions. Moreover, the questions aimed at evaluating the adherence to each of the seven co-operative principles and consequently at collecting data to answer the two research questions. This question guide was pilot tested with a group of potential participants, who were subsequently disqualified from the actual interviews. The sequence, the wording and the phrasing of some of the questions needed to be adjusted in order to be comprehensible, clear and in a logical order. Before each interview, the participants read the Plain Language Statement and signed the Consent Form as required by the College of Social Sciences Research Ethics Committee, University of Glasgow. During each of the interviews only the researcher and the participant were present and at the end, each participant was given a pack of two local wines to thank them for their effort, time and for

contributing to this research. All interviews were voice recorded, after securing each interviewee’s consent.

The interviews provided rich data regarding the perceptions of the thirty employees of various credit unions in Cyprus on whether the co-operative principles are applied in practice and whether members are participating in their credit union. In order to ensure that the views of members were taken into consideration and in order to triangulate the results of the employees of credit unions, three focus groups with a total of thirty members of a specific credit union were also carried out.