Invitation to Grounded Theory, chapter 3: Crafting and Conducting Intensive Interviews

Text Exploration

In this chapter, the author describes intensive interviews—interviews that, building on grounded theory, attempt to elicit meaningful, emotional stories and depth of conversation.

Intensive interviewing is a “gently-guided, one-sided conversation that explores research participants’ perspectives on their personal experience with the research topic.” The participant talks; the interviewer encourages, listens, learns, and probes to elicit more and deeper thoughts.

Other forms of interviewing include standardized interviewing (attempting to ask the same question in the same way to all participants), informational interviewing (hoping to gather facts), and investigative interviewing (looking for detail and accuracy, and hoping to uncover hidden policies or practices).

The author describes tactics to prepare for and conduct the interview. First, researchers should learn enough about the situation as to be conversational in it. Grounded theory encourages avoiding background literature about a topic, but the author feels that it’s important to be conversant with a participant. It’s recommended to run a practice interview.

Different qualities may impact the interview. Physical appearance matters, as it indicates to a participant why a specific interviewer is doing a specific interview; some recommend that a researcher should look “compatible with the world of the people” they are interviewing. A disarming demeanor is valuable.

An interview guide can help ensure that an interview follows some coherence. It is controversial as to how much goes in the guide; a detailed guide may force an interviewer to revert to an information interview, just reading the questions which are preconceived and avoiding grounded theory.

During research, researchers should ask open-ended, broad questions that encourage further discussion and stories to emerge. The goal is to explore, not interrogate. However, the author notes that a fuzzy interview guide may be rejected by an IRB. Improvision is part of intensive interviewing, and often requires asking for follow-up questions to things that emerge and seem particularly interesting. An interview is contextual and negotiated, and should encourage a participant to look at things from the vantage point of their own experiences.

Interviews, by their nature, include and establish a power differential, and that will impact the way a participant responds to an interviewer. “Elites” may be particularly aware of who is in charge and how much of their time is being used or wasted.

Some theorists have warned that we live in an “interview society,” and that forces respondents to feel anxious that their narratives may be positioned in public; raw feelings that emerge in the interviews may feel embarrassing, particularly if a respondent feels that they will be shared. The author warns that an interviewer should be aware of that undertone in culture.