Semi-Structured Interviews

Amaratunga & Baldry (2002 p.18) define an interview as that “whose purpose is to collate descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee following an interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena”. In a similar fashion, Collis & Hussey (2013) describe interviews as a method of collecting data from selected interviewees to enable

98

the researcher to determine what the interviewees do, think or feel towards any given topic. This method provides rich data, which is relevant to the research purposes. As result of its ability to explore and gain in-depth information, the qualitative interview has been widely accepted by social science researchers as a form of inquiry (Merriam, 2014). Bryman (2015) argues that interviews are accepted as one of the most important methods of primary research. The primary goal of the interview is that it allows the opportunity for the researcher to gain access to in-depth information while allowing the respondents to stay at ease as they express themselves freely. The interview can be structured, semi-structured or unstructured (Lyon et al., 2015). A structured interview utilises a questionnaire and is commonly used in a quantitative study where the questions are all predetermined and identical. Semi-structured interview uses non- standardised questions, though the researcher would normally have a set of topics and questions to be asked. It allows the researcher to maintain the focus and the structure of the interview while asking for further details and clarifications where necessary (Merriam, 2014). Semi-structured interviews can be done face-to-face, by email or by telephone (Rowley, 2015). This is also referred to as a qualitative research interview. Meanwhile the unstructured interview is not formal and it has no predetermined list of questions to adhere to (Collis & Hussey, 2013; Lyon et al., 2015).

The interviewee is allowed to share any thoughts, belief, and behaviour about a situation; the downside of this technique is that it is time consuming. Bryman (2012) suggests semi-structured interviews are the most commonly used technique in qualitative research due to their flexible and fluid structure, which are usually organised around an aide memoire or interview guide with selected topics, themes, or areas to be covered during the course of the interview. Within this in mind, the researcher attended several comprehensive training sessions on how to carry out in-depth interview, which enhanced his ability to collect quality data. While carrying out a face-to-face semi structured interview, the researcher had a list of topics which he wanted to cover (Bryman, 2015; Lyon et al., 2015).

The researcher employed the same approach by formulating an interview protocol and by identifying relevant themes that in order to address the research objectives before going to the field. This approach helped the interviewer to get an in-depth understanding of the impact of consumer misbehaviours on the brand image of Higher Education

99

Institutions in Jordan. Seidman (2006) reinforces the significance of semi-structured interviews in research by proclaiming that it guides the conversation, but allows the participants to provide information that is important to them but not necessarily reflected in the interview questions, and as a result serves as an avenue in understanding details of people’s experience from their perspective and point of view”. Maxwell (2012) reiterates that the use of semi-structured interviews can help demonstrate how individual experience interacts with powerful social forces that pervade the context in which they live and work, which can help in discovering the interconnections among people who live in a shared context. Merriam (2014) and Murphy et al. (2015) buttress this argument by stating that semi-structured interviews provide an opportunity to understand the participants’ point of views and allow their voices to be heard. This was reflected in this study, for example, when the interviewer asked the interviewees to narrate their experiences of incidences of consumer misbehaviours in JHEIs, they talked about their individual experiences and emphasised the drivers/causes of consumer misbehaviours in JHEIs.

Each of the individual interviews took approximately one hour and were primarily tailored around the following questions: What are the incidences of consumer misbehaviours in JHEIs? What are the drivers/causes of consumer misbehaviours in JHEIs? How do JHEIs deal with the difficulties of consumer misbehaviours? Why do consumer misbehaviours affect the brand image of JHEIs? In addition, what are the solutions for addressing consumer misbehaviours in JHEIs? Once the data was collected through individual interviews, audiotapes were transcribed and transferred from spoken to written word to facilitate analysis.

100

Table 4.4: Advantages of Semi-Structured Interviews

Flexibility Generally, an interviewer strives to acquire data by modifying and adjusting questions to suit the situation. Any question can be altered, omitted or added as required (Minichiello, 1990; Robson, 2002; Lyon et al., 2015).

Certainty Establishing a relationship between the interviewee and interviewer enhances the degree of interview certainty, as the interviewee is typically given a description of the study’s aim, and asked to express any doubts or misunderstandings with reference to the interview questions and concepts (Fowler, 2013).

Control The interviewer has more control over the number and the order of the questions, enabling “probing” if necessary (Saunders & Lewis, 2012).

Complexity It is not always the case that shorter and easier questions are better, although simple questions do tend to be. Under certain circumstances, an interviewer may have to ask complex questions. Non-verbal communication, such as the facial expression of the interviewee should be taken into account by the interviewer. This may provide a higher level of confidence than questionnaire responses (Collis & Hussey, 2013).

Higher response rate

- The higher response rate results from greater co-operation between interviewer and interviewees (Lyon et al., 2015).

- Providing an opportunity for feedback to the respondent and ensuring the anonymity of the information provided by the respondent (Dinev et al., 2013).

Other advantages

- They help to gain more detailed information into underpinning motivations, knowledge and beliefs; they also usually result in a higher percentage of completed answers, since the interviewer is there to explain exactly what is required; they facilitate the use of visual aids to demonstrate concepts, and are easier to arrange than focus groups (Fowler, 2013).

- Can assist researchers to identify with the context of people’s activities, which allows them to explain the purpose of the study, clarify any uncertainty and prevent misunderstanding (Creswell, 2012).

- Interview methods are a powerful data collection technique when used within the context of a research strategy (Jankowicz, 2005). - Easterby-Smith et al. (2015) point out that the authenticity of semi-structured interviews depends on the extent to which the researcher has achieved a full understanding of the knowledge and meanings of participants. Lyon et al. (2015) state that the validity of in-depth semi-structured interviews is high.

101

interviews are used in qualitative research not only to reveal and understand the ‘why’, ‘how’, and ‘what’ but also to emphasise the explanation of the ‘why’. This thesis is focused on words rather than numbers, on interactions and perceived behaviour, culture change and on people’s experiences, attitudes and sequences of events. However, there are some drawbacks identified with semi-structured interviews. Amongst these drawbacks is the amount of time it takes to conduct each interview, which usually takes a long time as result of having to ask a large number of questions in a way the respondent will understand. In this study, the researcher had to mitigate this drawback by ensuring that questions asked were clear and concise to help the respondents gain understanding, hence helping time management (Thomas et al., 2014). Another drawback of semi-structured interviews is the possibility of asking sensitive questions during the interview process, which respondents might not feel comfortable answering, and as a result become biased while providing answers. In mitigating this, the researcher had to provide consent forms to the respondents where it was clearly stated that they have the right to stop the interview or decide on which questions to answer so as to put them at ease with the interview process (see consent form Appendix 10). The researcher did consider using structured interview as a technique to collect data. However, this was not adopted for several reasons, which include: structured interviews inevitably limit responses; the data obtained may not be reliable if there are faults in the way questions are asked or understood by the respondent; structured interviews can be very limiting in terms of allowing any real exploration or understanding of the responses given. Considering the advantages of semi-structured interviews and the weaknesses of structured interviews highlighted above, this study had to adopt the semi- structured interview method, which allows in-depth understanding and the use of prompts to bring clarity to the respondent when answering a question; this is in line with the qualitative approach of trying to gain in-depth understanding of the phenomenon.

As part of mitigating the drawbacks of semi-structured interviews, the researcher worked assiduously to build a warm and friendly relationship with the interviewees to eliminate any bias that would affect the outcome of the interview or the results obtained. Despite the aforementioned drawbacks of the semi-structured interviews, the in-depth semi-structured interview method proved useful and appropriate for the research.

102