Primary data – interviews Introduction

The interview process started with pilot questions being formulated with the assistance of the senior operations management at the owners of enclosed shopping centres. The questions were deemed to be part of internal risk management processes. The interview process is described in the figure 5.5 below. However before conducting any interview the questions were tested on various stakeholders. This was undertaken by sending the questions to third parties to ascertain whether the questions were reverent and to the point. It is important that before any interview is undertaken the questions are fully researched as this can influence the outcome of the interview.

Process of interviews

The process used to gain the research interviews was to contact the various stakeholders by telephone, website and email. The communications depended on the stakeholder and the person who was to be interviewed. The organisation‟s website is an excellent place to start as they are now more than ever full of detail. They normally provide some contact points. However, they do not normally have specific names of persons. When contact has been made an email detailing the study and the expected outcome – in this case the model – is advised. The most important aspect of the interview is for the person being interviewed to have the correct knowledge so that answers are accurate and credible. This is of prime importance in the interview process.

99 Interviews

The interview process was completed in a formal manner with a number of set questions. The targets were senior managers in the various organisations who had a deep understanding of the issues and how the systems operate.

The process of the interview is as follows:

Figure 5.2 Interview process

Interviews with training providers

The enclosed shopping centre owners/managers engage service providers to organise all aspects of the emergency evacuation training. This includes the training of the fire wardens in the area of evacuation control. The service providers organise trial evacuations in conjunction with the managers and tenants. They are responsible to the management of the centre to provide such training to the required standard. The research involved information from providers of fire evacuation training. The service is highly competitive and the organisations have requested that the research is kept confidential. The target companies did not have any indication of the other service providers being involved in the research. It is not mandatory for commercial building managers and owners to use such services. It does give an independent review of the training. It allows management to concentrate on

Formulation of interview questions

Engage responsible person to answer the questions

Review the answers to the questions and responses

Incorporate information into the model

100

the management aspects of the building. Currently, there are no independent reviews of the training service providers. They rely upon the reactions from the owners and managers to know how well they are doing the job.

Major retailers/tenants

Enclosed shopping centres in Australia have a small number of major tenants. They are concentrated in two major groups – Coles Group (part of Wesfarmers) and Woolworths Limited. There are other major tenants, these being David Jones and the Myer Group. However, they are restricted to the super regional and regional centres. The major retailers/tenants have an important role to play in the area of fire risk. This was highlighted at Lakeside Shopping Centre UK, Littlewoods department store discussed in section 1.1.2 Rogers (2003), when flammable material was being stored incorrectly and resulted in large fines to the retailer Littlewoods. The tenants may have their own fire risk processes that are not integrated with those of the centre management. The tenants may have their own direct entry/exit points that bypass the other tenants. Thus, the general evacuation risks are likely to be less. However, there are also entry/exit points directly into the shopping centre, in which case they are part of the general evacuation strategy. There may be movement of customers through the tenancy, even if the customers were not directly involved in the tenancy at the time of the incident. Tenants may be reluctant to divulge information due to commercial considerations. However, they constitute an important area of the research due to their influence in enclosed shopping centres. The major retailers are themselves major public companies and are required to implement strong fire risk controls according to corporate governance requirements of the Australian Stock Exchange (www.asx.com.au).

Interview completion

When the interviews were completed, they were summarised and analysed. The interviews were of a general nature due to commercial confidentiality.There was consensus from the interviews on what are the fire risks in enclosed shopping centres. Where possible, the interviews were conducted with a minimum of two in each part of the research, including two training providers. Other external parties including the fire services and insurance was conducted with one interview each. The interview process included following up with the participants if there was need of clarification.

101

Service providers – cleaners, security, and maintenance contractors

As discussed in the conceptual framework section 4.2, the cleaners, security and maintenance contractors are engaged to undertake specific functions. Cleaners, security and maintenance contractors do not have direct fire risk management responsibilities. They do have a duty of care and they are required to advise the centre management of any fire risk problems. This is an important concept in the theory of moral hazard discussed in section 2.4.7. No interviews were requested from cleaners, security and maintenance personnel due to privacy issues. The service providers relating to cleaners, security and maintenance are discussed in section 6.3.3.