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Principles of Good Interviewing PDF

This document outlines principles of good interviewing for business research purposes. It discusses the basics of interviewing including having integrity, patience, paying attention to accuracy and detail, exhibiting interest but keeping opinions to yourself, being a good listener, and keeping responses confidential. It also outlines required practices for research inquiries such as completing the specified number of interviews, following directions, keeping to schedules, controlling the pace of interviews, completing questionnaires meticulously, checking over completed questionnaires, and clearing up any questions with the research agency.

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Siva Venkata Ramana
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675 views

Principles of Good Interviewing PDF

This document outlines principles of good interviewing for business research purposes. It discusses the basics of interviewing including having integrity, patience, paying attention to accuracy and detail, exhibiting interest but keeping opinions to yourself, being a good listener, and keeping responses confidential. It also outlines required practices for research inquiries such as completing the specified number of interviews, following directions, keeping to schedules, controlling the pace of interviews, completing questionnaires meticulously, checking over completed questionnaires, and clearing up any questions with the research agency.

Uploaded by

Siva Venkata Ramana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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PRINCIPLES OF GOOD INTERVIEWING:

These principles apply no matter what the nature of the specific assignment; they are universal and
represent the essence of sound data collection for business research purposes. For clarity, they have been
divided into two categories: the basics (the interviewing point of view) and required practices (standard
inquiry premises and procedures).

A) The Basics
Interviewing is a skilled occupation so not everyone can do it, and even fewer can do it extremely well.
A good interviewer observes the following basic principles:

1. Have integrity, and be honest

2. Have patience and tact. Interviewers ask for information from people they do not know. Thus, all the
rules of human relations that apply to inquiry situations—patience, tact, and courtesy— apply even more
to interviewing. You should at all times follow the standard business conventions that control
communications and contact.

3. Pay attention to accuracy and detail. Among the greatest interviewing “sins” are inaccuracy and
superficiality, for the professional analyst can misunderstand, and in turn mislead, a client. A good rule
to follow is not to record a response unless you fully understand it yourself. Probe for clarification and
rich, full answers. Record responses verbatim: Never assume you know what a respondent is thinking
or jump to conclusions as to what he or she might have said but did not.

4. Exhibit a real interest in the inquiry at hand, but keep your own opinions to yourself. Impartiality
is imperative—if your opinions were wanted, you would be asked, not your respondent. You are an
asker and a recorder of other people’s opinions, not a contributor to the study data.

5. Be a good listener. Too many interviewers talk too much, wasting time when respondents could be
supplying more pertinent facts or opinions on the study topic.

6. Keep the inquiry and respondents’ responses confidential. Do not discuss the studies you are doing
with relatives, friends, or associates; it is unacceptable to both the research agency and its clients. Above
all, never quote one respondent’s opinion to another—that is the greatest violation of privacy.

7. Respect others’ rights. Business research depends on people’s willingness to provide information. In
obtaining this information, you must follow a happy medium path. Between the undesirable extremes
of failure to get it all and unnecessary coercion, this middle road is one of clear explanation, friendliness,
and courtesy, offered in an interested and persuasive tone. Impress upon prospective respondents that
their cooperation is important and valuable.

B). Required Practices


Here are practical rules of research inquiry that should be followed and used without exception:

1. Complete the number of interviews according to the sampling plan assigned to you. Both are
calculated with the utmost precision so that when assignments are returned, the study will benefit
from having available the amount and type of information originally specified.
2. Follow the directions provided. Remember that many other interviewers are working on the same
study in other places. Lack of uniformity in procedure can only spell disaster for later analysis. Each
direction has a purpose, even though it may not be completely evident to you.

3. Make every effort to keep schedules. Schedules range from “hurry up” to “there should be plenty
of time,” but there is always a good reason, and you should be as responsive as possible. If you
foresee problems, call and explain.

4. Keep control of each interview you do. It is up to you to determine the pace of a particular
interview, keeping several points in mind:
a. There is an established average length of an interview from the time you start to talk to the
respondent to the time you finish. It represents a guideline, but some interviews will be shorter and
some longer.
b. Always get the whole story from a respondent, and write it all down in the respondent’s own
words. Also, remember to keep the interview focused on the subject at hand and prevent it from
wandering off into unnecessary small talk.
c. Avoid offending the respondent by being too talkative yourself.

5. Complete the questionnaires meticulously.


a. Follow exactly all instructions that appear directly on the questionnaire. Before you start
interviewing, learn what these instructions direct you to do.
b. Ask the questions from the first to the last in the exact numerical order (unless directed to do
otherwise in some particular instances). Much thought and effort go into determining the order of
the questioning to avoid bias or to set the stage for subsequent questions.
c. Ask each question exactly as it is written. The cost of doing so is lack of uniformity; the research
agency would never know whether all respondents were replying to the same question or replying
to 50 different interviewers’ interpretations of the question.
d. Never leave a question blank. It will be difficult to tell whether you failed to ask it, whether the
respondent could not answer it because of lack of knowledge or certainty, or whether the respondent
refused to answer it for personal reasons. If none of the answer categories provided prove suitable,
write in what the respondent said, in his or her own words.
e. Use all the props provided to aid both interviewers and respondents: show cards, pictures,
descriptions, sheets of questions for the respondents to answer themselves, and so on.
All have a specific interview purpose. Keys to when and how to use them appear on the questionnaire
at the point at which they are to be used.

6. Check over each questionnaire you have completed. This is best done directly after it has been
completed. If you find something you did wrong or omitted, correct it. Often you can call a
respondent back, admit you missed something (or are unclear about a particular response), and then
straighten out the difficulty.

7. Compare your sample execution and assigned quota with the total number of questionnaires you
have completed. Do not consider your assignment finished until you have done this.

8. Clear up any questions with the research agency. At the start of an assignment or after you have
begun, if you have questions for which you can find no explanatory instructions, call the agency to
get the matter clarified.

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