Logistics, timetable and data collection

The initial criteria for selecting potential interviewees were defined from the literature.

Those stakeholders that usually play a role in the goal setting business process were chosen and also the researcher asked for guidance within the organisation (to the general manager) to identify the different roles that potentially were related to the goal setting business process. For each of the interviewees, feedback as to who were the

different stakeholders was requested until reaching saturation. The main ones (those impacted by or having a role in the sales quotas development process) were interviewed and some of them were left aside as their value as participants was deemed limited to the study. For those roles for which there were many people in the organisation like for example sales representatives or district managers, the number of interviews was contingent on reaching saturation. The case study served for exploratory purposes, so the need to consider small increments of knowledge derived from the potential extra interviews was deemed inefficient. This researcher felt, after doing all the interviews, that most perspectives were strongly represented.

All the interviews were set up and coordinated by Alpha’s business intelligence director who ensured access to people and to a proper environment where to conduct the interviews. It was specifically requested to run the interviews in conference rooms with controlled temperature and also to have refreshments available for the comfort of both interviewees and researcher.

This researcher identified and performed 14 interviews to the following people and roles. All environmental elements were controlled and managed in advance to the interviews. Table 3-2 provides details regarding dates, place and environmental comments for each of the interviews.

Table 3-2: Interviews' schedule and details

The business intelligence director interrupted almost at the end of the interview as we were running late for the following interview according to schedule. The disruption had no significant impact on the line of enquiry.

He came across as very marketing-oriented instead of the blend of sales and marketing that the definition of the role implies. The subject's attitude across the interview was of openness.

Business unit first BUM interviewed. The subject's attitude across the interview was of subject's attitude across the interview was of openness. subject's attitude across the interview was of openness and honesty. they were not taken. This did not have a significant impact on the interview. The subject's attitude across the interview was of openness. He was keen on subject's attitude across the interview was of openness. The subject had an inclination to get off the line of enquiry and talk about himself and his experience on diverse areas. This researcher had to keep on re-directing

Sales operations 2 March motivated individual with fresh ideas and keen on changing elements in the trying to send a message to the general manager using the researcher as a channel. This was triangulated with other participants later on the project and was verified as an honest view.

District manager 2 March call. Also, somebody got in the room by mistake and immediately left. These disruptions did not have a significant impact on the interview and were taken with humour by both parts. The subject's attitude across the interview was of openness. subject's attitude across the interview was of openness. He had strong subject's attitude across the interview was of suspicion at the beginning of the interview and then when the subject realized that the researcher was not going to tell anybody about his opinions he became more open though defensive. The subject showed a high level of frustration and de-motivation, which was considered by the researcher as an element to take into account when analyzing the first order constructs.

Sales

The researcher interacted with the general manager and commercial director to gather their input although those interactions were not tape-recorded on their request.

However, notes have been taken after those interactions. The first transcript was carried out by the researcher and the rest were sent to Argentina for a professional/paid transcription. The transcripts were sent back to the researcher who carried out a quality control for each one of the transcripts. Summaries of the transcripts were developed and sent to the participants on the first week of May 2005. The interviews were carried out in the native language of both the subjects and the researcher (Spanish). This was deemed appropriate as conducting the interviews in English would have prevented the participants from providing the level of richness required due to language limitations.

The interviews generated 200 pages of transcripts in Spanish from where first order constructs were taken and second order constructs developed. This was carried out with the help of “NVivo”. Translating the transcripts into English was again considered to be inappropriate. After the analysis, both first order constructs and second order constructs that were deemed relevant were translated into English by the researcher. The main aim of the translation was to facilitate the understanding of the analysis and create a trail of evidence that could be followed by any English-speaking reader. Otherwise, it would have been almost impossible for a non-Spanish speaker to follow the analysis. A third party was tasked with auditing the quality of the translation. She audited the process from the interviews in Spanish to the development of the second order sets of constructs.