Research Design and Dissertation

Table of Content

1. Introduction

2. Method

3. Interpretation:

4. Reflection:

5. Appendix 1 – Interview schedule

6. Appendix 2 – Sample transcript

7. Bibliography

1. Introduction:

According to Taylor and Bogdan (1984), in-depth interviews are continual face-to-face encounters between the researcher and the informants’ perceptions on their lives, situations or experiences as expressed in their personal words. Therefore, in-depth interviews are a face to face conversation between the interviewer and interviewee which is normally the expression of their own words. This paper is going to discuss an in-depth interview which is rooted in an analysis of qualitative data. The interview is about the International work experience of a person Alex (fictional name) who has 36 years of work experiences in different foreign countries (Nigeria, Benin, Congo, Angola, Germany, Holland, France, Austria, Italy, South Africa, Russia etc). The reason for choosing this topic is the author’s own interest in the working experience of foreign countries. International work experience is very fascinating topic now-a-days. A lot of people after completing their graduation wanted to have an international work experience. Therefore, it is interesting to share the international work experiences of others with those who are interested.

The first section of this essay will discuss the methods used by the author to conduct a successful interview. This section will discuss a brief biography sketch to whom the author decided to interview and how, why the author contacted with the interviewee and arranged the interview. Later, the second section will discuss the interpretation of the most related elements of the interview. The author scrutinizes the interview by using background literature in this section. The final section will deal with the troubles faced during the interview and the strengths and weakness of the method based upon an evidence of the author’s experience. In appendix 1, an interview schedule with the pre-planned, pre-planned but not asked questions and spontaneous questions asked in this interview are included. Finally, appendix 2 represents a sample transcript with the most significant parts of the interview with the application of transcription techniques.

2. Method:

According to Minichiello et al (1991, p.160), “researchers may use pragmatic or logic criteria in choosing an informant, such as, whether the person has the ability, desire and time to give a detailed account of their lives and experiences.” Therefore, it is essential to decide about to whom the author will conduct an interview and how the author will gain access to them to make the interview successful. Therefore, the author selected the interviewee based on some important criteria. The criteria are to communicate with someone who is not known to the author, who has good knowledge about the topic, who can speak English well, and who is a confident speaker. The first criterion is necessary to make the interview non-biased, the second criterion is particularly important to conduct a successful in-depth interview, the third criterion is essential for successful and reliable conversation. The author chose Alex as an interviewee because he fulfilled all the criteria which were crucial to conduct a successful interview. The interviewee is a neighbour of the author, and the author determined to ask the interviewee personally for the interview. Author explained about the interview process to the interviewee and the interviewee agreed. Then, the author arranged the interview on the agreed date and time to carry out an interview about the interviewee’s international work experience. The interview was arranged in the home of the interviewee so that the interviewee feels comfortable. The place was quite and private for an undisturbed and successful chitchat and recording. The interviewee was not invited by the author to his home as the interviewee might not feel comfortable and that could prevent the interviewee to talk in detail about his international work experiences. According to Morse ( 1994, p.245), “In comparison to participant observer, who has access to all verbal and non verbal behaviours that participants demonstrate but cant simultaneously monitor all relevant cues or remember most when the moment has passed, VTR( Videotaped Recording) offer a unique advantage.” Therefore, the density of data collection using VTR is greater than with other kinds of recordings and digital video camera is used in this interview so that body language can be recorded. Confidentiality is an important ethical issue in case of using VTR. According to Erickson (1992), strategies to maintain confidentiality (e.g. by protecting identities, restricting access to VTR) are critical to reducing the risk of harm related embarrassment, and administrative or legal punishment to those studied. In this interview, the interviewee was informed about the confidentiality and the Videotaped recording before the interview.

However, the author also uses the note taking method in case the digital camera fails to work and to demonstrate that the informants’ responses are vital to him. The author used a schedule with a list of pre-planned questions (e.g. See Appendix 1). Few questions dealt with the interviewee’s perspective on his international work experience in different foreign countries as following: “Why did you choose to work in foreign countries?”, “Which countries did you work?”, “Which country you liked most during your work?” etc. However, all the pre-planned questions throughout the interview could not be asked as the discussion turned in a different way and the author came up with spontaneous questions to go well with interviewee.

3. Interpretation:

The most important and appropriate parts of the interview transcription (e.g. See Appendix 2) which consists of the interviewees’ international work experience in different foreign countries, and how his international work experience increases his career capital is included in this section. The author will scrutinize this material by means of his personal interpretation and will relate it to the previous studies of the literacy sources.

Several studies draw on relevant literature on boundary less careers, expatriation and international leaders. A new type of career improvement has created plentiful interest in academic circles (Arthur, Inkson and Pringle,1999; Peiperl, Arthur, Goffee and Morris, 2000; Eby, Butts and Lockwood,2003; Banai and Harry, 2004; Bossard and Peterson, 2005; Cappellen and Janssens,2005). The global leader perception is related since there we can find talks about more permanent global careers (Suutari, 2003), and about the personal development that happens during international work experiences (McCalland, Hollenbeck,2002; Osland, Bird, Mendenhall and Osland,2006). In that context, the international assignments are observed to be ‘mind-stretching’ experiences and development prospects, which influence one’s identity (Kohonen, 2005), and future career opportunities and intentions ( Suutari and Brewster, 2003). This study aims to evaluate the development of career capital from international work experience.

The most important reason for which the interviewee decide to work in foreign countries that is actually good salary than his home country and he expressed it in short words: “Money..Money.” (ll. 3) Then the interviewee elaborate the reason by expressing: “..It becomes a trap when you are working internationally.I do a job in Lagos...and that may be end after 3 or 4 months..Then when you finish it you need more works.. in my case its Africa from other parts of Africa I got job offers and its difficult to say NO to them because its about good amount of Money... So, the opportunity becomes easy and easier when you are working internationally.” Then, he added another reason of choosing foreign countries to work is that he did not need to pay taxes to the government of other countries by expressing: “.and another reason is that you don’t need to pay tax in those countries to the government as you are not the citizen of those countries...and It could not be based on in one place like any other people who can work in one organization for 30 years.” (ll. 4-30)

However, there are some problems with the international work experience and the interviewee thinks that health & safety standard and language are problems during working in the foreign countries. The interviewee expresses his feelings: “Yeah, it might be language problem ... language is the main thing… another problem I got is that the same health and safety standard does not apply in other countries.. Another thing is staying healthy..need to be aware of malaria, yellow fever for some jobs very western facilities, but for some construction types jobs there are some local facilities and that’s very cultural shock.” (ll. 72-76).

Finally, the author focuses on the development of career capital due to international work experience. In case of the resource based perspective, career capital consists of three ways of knowing. Knowing-how career capabilities take account of expertise, skills, and tacit and work related knowledge that are necessary for performance (DeFillippi and Arthur, 1994; Lnkson and Arthur, 2001). According to the interviewee’s statement, he learned how people from different countries work in different situations even in poverty situations: “It is giving me the depth of awareness of other people have to live that you don’t get..I know you don’t get of setting in front of Television...”. (II. 43-46). The Interviewee elaborates it by expressing: “...I know how different people from different cultures act differently. If you work in a construction environment like involving building equipments and this is very basic sort of work and you are running a local people and you have to be able to lead them and they are from very different back ground..if you are an European..Running a team of locals..it’s shocking but I get paid more for 1 day’s work than one of those can’t make in a year. Its amazing the poverty.” (II. 45-56). Furthermore, the interviewee also added that he learned from people of other country about the know-how knowledge of career capital, and he expressed: “bottling machines are bottling machines...it doesn’t matter whether it is in Lincoln or any other places. But I learned from other people from foreign countries in the work place.”(II. 59-61).

Moreover, knowing-why career capabilities give a person with motivation, sense of purpose, energy and identification with the world of work. Therefore, it involves motivation, confidence, and self-assurance to pursue assured career path (Inkson and Arthur, 2001). The interviewee believes that his own resources earned from the international work experience gives him motivation and self-confidence and he expressed: “yeah, own resources earned from the international work experience gave the motivation.” (II. 64-65).

Additionally, Knowing- whom contributes to the improvement of knowing-how career capital (Nahapiet and Ghoshal1998; Luthans andYoussef, 2004). Therefore, networking activities increase with the scope of boundary less careers (Sturges, Guest and Mackenzie Davey, 2000). The interviewee thinks that his international social network helps him and he expressed: “I still have their phone number..Sometimes communicate with them and it helps to build a social network internationally...sometimes I got information about different jobs” (II. 38-40).

In summary, it can be said that the interviewee’s main reason for working in the international country is good salary. Moreover, other reasons for choosing foreign country to work are he did not need to pay tax, and the opportunities of getting another job in other foreign countries increased. Therefore, the interviewee believes that international work experience increased his career capital.

4. Reflection:

There are some strengths and weaknesses of this interview. It was helpful to prepare questions before the interview because it helped the author to get more details from the interviewee and diminish anxieties. However, the author understood that the pre-planned question did not pursue the construction as outlined in the interview schedule. Some question’s answers were short, and it was required to ask some follow up questions to get more details. In this interview, Kvale(1996)’s suggested nine types of questions are used to get details of the interviewee’s international work experience. For example, sometimes indirect questions like “Most of the people in your organization were satisfied with their job? And were you satisfied in the same way like them?” were asked in order to get at the individual’s own view. Similarly, interpreting questions like “Do you mean that you learned how people from different cultures act differently?” and probing questions like “So, you don’t need to pay taxes in the foreign countries where you worked?” asked in this interview. According to to Minichiello et al (1991, p.131), “clearing house questions enable the researcher to focus on areas which may not have been adequately covered up to that point.” In this interview, the author asked clearing house question like “Is there anything else we should discuss before I leave? I think that we have covered everything that is necessary. Can you think of anything that I have missed?” The author introduced himself with the interviewee, explained confidentiality, and interview process to the interviewee. Moreover, the author also ensured that the interviewee is comfortable with the length of interview time.

[...]