Interviews as a valuable tool in obtaining data in qualitative research

Interviews as a valuable tool in obtaining data in qualitative research

When undertaking qualitative research, three broad categories of data collection are utilized, and they include interviews, participant observation, and personal documents. While all the three instruments can enable a researcher to collect the relevant data from the participants, interviews are preferred in the current study as the most suitable tool. Interviews are a valuable tool in obtaining data in qualitative research because they allow researchers to interact with the participants and to observe non-verbal cues that may provide additional content about the phenomenon being investigated (Kothari 2004). In this study, an unstructured interview technique will be utilized to enable an open-in-depth discussion of the research topic. This approach, hence, allows a researcher to comprehend the complexity of the situation without imposing any prior categorization.

By selecting interviews as a suitable technique for collecting data, the researcher aims to gain a more in-depth understanding of the participants’ constructions through conversations as well as the language they use to advance different discourses. The most critical strength of this instrument is that it enables researchers to seek instant clarifications and probe the interviewees for more information, thus facilitating for more insights into the explored topic (Kothari 2004). Consequently, the reporting and evaluation of the resulting data are reflective of the views of the participants. As a human resource professional, the researcher will be able to effectively integrate with the participants, hence creating a rapport and trust, which will eventually make them share their experiences without any fear or intimidation.

Data Analysis

Data analysis is essential in generating meaning from the collected data. Therefore, the researcher will seek to undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the interview outcomes to comprehend how construction companies in Saudi Arabia pursue the aspect of organizational ingenuity to carry out various tasks in the face of difficulties. The coding of transcripts will be completed based on the order upon which the interviews were undertaken. Notably, they will be executed in batches of four at a time to allow the researcher enough space to reflect and thoroughly edit the interview questions as theories begin to emerge from the data. This approach will be utilized to assist the researcher in comprehending the perspectives of the participants and in evaluating their collective experiences.

Codes will be created during the research process, based on the data to enable effective analysis of data. As observed by Urquhart (2013), codes can be conducted either manually or electronically using a computer-aided qualitative data analysis software. To save time and efficiently handle vast amounts of data, enhance flexibility, and improve validity, the current study will use computer-supported software to code data. This will be critical because managing all the collected data in a manual process will not only be tedious, but it will also consume a lot of time and result in some accuracy errors. There are multiple online data analysis software that researchers can exploit to undertake data analysis. For this study, NVivo will be used to facilitate the process of managing and analysing data. In particular, the software will be utilized to query keywords for comparison with manually coded themes.

Coding will be critical in splitting the transcriptions into meaningful and manageable groups of data in enhancing the whole analysis process. Besides, this process will be required to ensure the study is consistent with the applicable theory. As per the grounded theory, this process will be necessary to focus the interview analysis on the experiences of the participants in a structured manner. Additionally, the process will prevent the interviewer from overemphasizing the significance of anyone aspect early into the study to avoid poor analysis of the entire interview project.

The process of evaluating and re-evaluating new data to the existing one is also essential in coding. This activity, which known as constant comparison, allows researchers to continuously review data to make parallels between the emerging and the previous ones. Consistently, the researcher will continue to review the data in previous phases such that links can be made with the emerging one until saturation is achieved.

A clear procedure will be used to make the coding process effective. The first phase will entail open coding, whereby the transcribed interview text will be coded line by line. As observed by Urquhart (2013), this procedure is an essential component in the grounded theory methods, which focuses on coding each line of the transcribed interviews by utilizing a few words to describe the data. By undertaking this procedure, the researcher will manage to undertake in-depth interviews.

Nonetheless, in case there would be no open codes, the researcher will embark on selective coding. At times, many selective codes may emerge, but at times a single one may become prominent than the rest (Urqhart 2013). During the process of selective coding, the researcher focuses on emerging categories. However, in case several selective codes become evident, the researcher is required to revisiting them to ensure overlap (Urqhart 2013). Consistently, the researcher in this study will thoroughly evaluate each selective code to distinguish between open, selective, and theoretical codes.

Trustworthiness

Ensuring the trustworthiness of a study is critical to making it admissible to other scholars. Most importantly, the aspects of transferability, credibility, confirmability, and dependability are critical components in enhancing the acceptability of qualitative research. Both credibility and transferability are enhanced by ensuring that the participants have the knowledge and expertise to explore the phenomenon that the researcher is seeking to explore (Stewart, Gapp, & Harwood 2017). Consistently, the researcher will inform the participants early about the scope of the assignment to allow them enough time to prepare for participation. On the other hand, confirmability is maintained by avoiding issues of bias (Stewart et al. 2016). In line with this provision, the researcher will interpret the content of the data in an open and unbiased manner.

The issue of accuracy will also be given priority during the analysis process. The researcher will utilize constant comparative analysis to make systematic comparisons and draw links between evaluation and the resulting theories. According to Stewart et al. (2016), continuous comparative assessment is essential in fostering credibility to the emerging theories by highlighting codes and categories. Besides, accuracy is enhanced by ensuring there is saturation during the coding process. Saturation is essential in ensuring that the gathered data is sufficient to allow extensive exploration of the phenomenon being studied (Stewart et al. 2016). Therefore, the researcher will thoroughly code all the data until this state is achieved.

To further aid the principle of trustworthiness, the research ought to be easily accessible. Trustworthy studies are those whose content is made available for the public or other people to benefit (Stewart et al. 2016). For this reason, the content of the present work will be published and posted online for others to access it for their academic purposes. Effectively, this approach will persuade the audience that this study is trustworthy and credible.

While the above-outlined procedures will ensure that the study is highly trustworthy, there will be, nonetheless, a few unavoidable limitations. The small sample that will be used to provide the data required to comprehend the issue of organizational ingenuity among the construction industry in Saudi Arabia will probably dent the study. It is, therefore, no doubt that a more significant sample will enhance the reliability of the research. It is also believed that some participants may be less willing to provide sufficient information about their company. Like in many other industries, competition among key players is an order of the day in the Saudi construction sector companies. Against this background, it is anticipated that the participants may withhold some strategies that they believe can expose their entity to rivals. To avoid this scenario, the researcher will inform the participants that their views will be treated with the utmost confidentiality. Furthermore, the busy schedule of managers will imply that the researcher will spend the least possible amount of time interviewing each of them, thus making the outcome less extensive. Subsequently, this limitation will result in credibility concerns as the researcher will be forced to make personal interpretations. For this reason, an effort will be made to ensure that the questions are easy to comprehend to allow the participants to quickly respond to them without spending a lot of time digesting what they imply.

Ethical Considerations

Throughout the study process, the researcher will ensure that ethics remains a top priority. Because the outcomes of a study are expected to be accessed by others for academic or policy-making purposes, ensuring validity and reliability is critical (Akaranga & Makau 2016). For this fact, the researcher will put in place appropriate measures to ensure that all the critical steps are undertaken appropriately to avert issues of bias and interpretation errors.

At the same time, participation in the study will be purely based on informed consent. The researcher will develop a consent form and distribute it to every participant for reading and agreeing with the terms. An array of critical issues will be included in this document to allow each individual to know the exact issues that will be entailed in the exercise, hence having a concrete background before agreeing to participate. In this case, the form will entail an explanation of the procedures, possible risks, benefits, duration, procedure, and an explanation indicating the freedom of withdrawing from the process. Similarly, the participants will be informed about the commitment of the researcher to maintain their privacy and confidentiality.

Accordingly, the informed consent will demonstrate the commitment of the researcher to make their identities secret, both during the interviewing process and the final product. It is highly believed that this observation will motivate the participants to willingly share their experiences about the ingenuity strategies they usually employ when undertaking tasks that seem impossible due to the existence of certain constraints. On the issue of confidentiality, it will be made clear to the participants that their views will be used for academic purposes only. Since competition is a real issue in any industry, people would want to keep their strategies confidential. The researcher will be committed to treating every data confidentially to ensure there is no bleach on this condition.

Furthermore, the study will be sensitive to the aspect of age by ensuring that only adults participate in the process. However, this is not anticipated to be a significant ethical concern since most probably all individuals who work at managerial positions are adults. In spite of this assumption, it will be highlighted in the informed consent that only individuals aged above 18 years are eligible to participate in the research. Besides, the study will be confined to obtaining data from individuals of normal mental capacity. Consistently, the participants will be required to indicate that they have never been diagnosed with psychological disorders. This provision will help the researcher to avert issues related to the validity of the responses that will be collected. Indeed, there are higher chances that mentally unsound individuals will provide inaccurate information concerning the phenomenon under study. Nonetheless, it is expected that none of the targeted individuals will demonstrate such impairment because it is difficult for one entrusted with a managerial position at a big company to have a mental disorder and yet continue serving in the same capacity.