Three Types Of Unstructured Interviews

3.4.1 Interviews

An interview is defined by Kahn and Cannell, as a purposeful discussion between two or more people (1957). Interviews can help researchers to gather valid and reliable data that are relevant to their research questions and objectives. In fact, the research interview is a general term for several types of interview. This fact is significant since the nature of any interview should be consistent with the research questions and objectives, the purpose of the research and the research strategy that researcher has adopted (Saunders, Lewis, Thornhill, 2009, p.318).

There are three main types of interviews: (1) structured, (2) semi-structured and (3) unstructured. The differences between these three types lie in the structure behind the interviews; structured interviews follow a strategic structure whereas in unstructured interviews, the interviewee is given the freedom to answer the questions as he wishes (Ghauri, Grønhaug and Kristianslund, 1995). Following are the definitions of the different types

The reason behind this choice is that semi-structured interviews follow a strategically planned set of questions to be answered, however the interviewer gives the interviewee the freedom to freely express himself and his thoughts during the process. One general problem when conducting qualitative interviews, with open-ended questions, is that the interview is affected by the interest and opinions of the interviewer. Semi-structured interviews are rather organized in terms of what issue will be discussed during the interview but the follow-up questions will be depending on the opinions of the interviewer. Another problem that can occur is misunderstandings and misinterpretations of words. This could in particular be a problem within this research since interviews have been conducted in English language, which is not the mother tongue, for neither the respondents nor the