I observed the verbal & non-verbal behavior of the respondents and was able to obtain personal information of the respondent. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BOTH METHODS- Interviews are very different from questionnaires. Unstructured approach involves more interaction whereas questionnaire involves
3.3.7 Semi – structured interviews This interview method of research is used to gather focused, qualitative textual data. A semi structured interview is open-ended, allowing new ideas to be freely exercised by the researcher during the interview process as a result of what the interviewee says. The interviewer in a semi-structured interview generally has a framework of themes to be explored. (Wikipedia, n.d) A semi- structured interview is a meeting in which the interviewer does not strictly follow a formalized list of questions. They will ask more open ended questions, allowing for a discussion with the interviewee rather than a straightforward question and answer format.
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 researcher believes that more interviews can be conducted in this field with more people; however, there are certain aspect that needs to be improved in this area. These improved areas can be including more questions about the interviewee, such as at what level they play, what is their usual income, so far how they have taken golf as a sport, and so on. A key change that can be made in making the interview stronger is to allow the interviewee to reveal his own experiences. This would allow the interviewee to have space around him to relax and reveal more about himself regarding his field of
3.5.2. Semi-structured Interview Semi-structured interviewing is the most widely used method of data collection in qualitative research in social sciences. This is partly because interview data can be analyzed in a variety of ways, which means that semi-structured interviewing is a method of data collection that is compatible with several methods of data analysis (Willig, 2008). To this end, semi structured interviews will be conducted in this study in order to get rich data from different sources. The researcher will use semi structured interview in order to allow rich narrative from open ended questions.
Dornyei (2007) stated that a semi-structured interview is apt when the researcher has sufficient knowledge of the phenomenon to develop questions in advance. Semi-structured in-depth interviews also allowed the researchers to have a more direct contact with the participants and it is through this interaction between interviewer and interviewee that knowledge is produced (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2009, p.
On the contrary, this method is more time consuming and hence the sample size is also small. For example, interviews (whether structured or unstructured) can be exhausting and can be conducted only over a closed group of people. Also, personal interviews can sometimes give biased results owing to interviewers influence, perception or misinterpretation. The type of interview also matters in the accuracy of the results, because a telephonic interview may not insight the similar sort of response as equally as a personal interview owing to various factors ranging from motivation to lack of honesty. Subjective responses cannot be generalised or used for comparison.
The questions are not decided in advance, hence different questions are asked from each respondent. The conversation between the interviewee and the interviewer is free- flowing and flexible in nature. Interviewees are encouraged to express themselves more as compared to structures interviews. However if the interviewer is not efficient then the discussion might lose its focus and take another direction which might not lead to any conclusion. (iii) Semi-Structured Interview is a blend of structured and unstructured, where the interviewer will ask a small list of similar questions to all respondents.
Several methods also can be used for the individual or group such as; (1) Interviews: “A way to collect a variety of data and information from the incumbent by asking the employee to describe the tasks and duties performed. However, this method curry out an advantage; the employee is allowed to describe tasks and duties that cannot be observed. At other hand the disadvantage that the employee may overstate or skip tasks and duties.” (Methods Of: Interview.
It is defined as an interview with the purpose of obtaining descriptions of the life world of the interviewee with respect to interpreting the meaning of the described phenomena (Kvale 2007 p.8). A semi – structured interview is aiming to capture the life experiences of the individuals. In addition, the interviews of this approach, gathers the descriptions of the interviewees’ individual worlds with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena. According to Kvale, semi-structured interviews are neither open conversations nor closed questionnaires. Structured interviews contain the accurate set of pre-written questions that has also to be posed in the agreed, exact order.