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BM6040 Managerial Decision

Analysis

Sampling Techniques, Data Processing

and Data Collection Methods

By
Prof. Ruwan Jayathilaka
B.A, MEcon (Colombo), MSc (NUS), PhD (Griffith)

SLIIT : https://www.sliit.lk/faculty-of-business/staff/ruwan.j/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OggscHUAAAAJ&hl=en
Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ruwan_Jayathilaka
Email : ruwan.j@sliit.ilk
30th June 2023

Outline
• Sampling techniques
• Why sampling?
• Types of sampling
• Probability samples
• Non-probability samples
• How to select the sample size ?
• Data Processing
• Why Data Preprocessing
• Data Quality and Important Steps
• Data collection methods

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Overview of research process

Problem Formulate research

Literature review
identification questions

Research
Data collection Research
philosophy and
(Sampling, design
approach
secondary data,
observation, Data processing and analysis
interviews, (Quantitative and qualitative methods)
questionnaire)

Conclusion and
Where are you now ? reports
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Important statistical terms

Population:
a set which includes all
measurements of interest
to the researcher
(The collection of all
responses, measurements, or
counts that are of interest)

Sample:
A subset of the population

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Why sampling?

Get information about large populations

• Less costs
• Less field time
• More accuracy i.e. Can Do A Better Job of Data
Collection
• When it’s impossible to study the whole
population

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Target Population:
The population to be studied/ to which the investigator
wants to generalize his results
Sampling Unit:
smallest unit from which sample can be selected
Sampling frame
List of all the sampling units from which sample is drawn
Sampling scheme
Method of selecting sampling units from sampling frame

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POPULATIONS AND RESEARCH SAMPLES

Types of sampling

• Probability samples
• Non-probability samples

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SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

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PROBABILITY SAMPLING

• Any method of drawing a portion of a population

(of size N) such that all possible samples
(combinations of subjects) of fixed size n have the
same probability of being selected (Working
definition)

• Sampling error: The unavoidable differences

between sample and population

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AN EXAMPLE/1
• A study on job satisfaction on a company of 9,000
employees. Research funds allow you to interview
450 employees – (450/9000 = 1/20)

• How would you select your sample?

• Simple random – select 450 employees (e.g.

numbering them and then randomly selecting them)

• Stratified random sampling – split employees by

department and then select 1/20 for each
department
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STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING

• Starting point is to categorise population into strata
(relevant divisions, or departments of companies for
example)

• So the sample can be proportionately representative of

each stratum

• Then, randomly select within each category as for a

simple random sample

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The advantages of stratified

sampling – an example

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AN EXAMPLE/2
⚫ Supposing a UK national study on job satisfaction in
the largest UK firms needs to be carried out (5,000
interviews required), but limited funds for travel are
available...
⚫ How would you select your sample?
⚫ Cluster sampling: first stage of sampling is not a unit
(e.g. the employee) but a group of units. For
example, randomly selecting 10 firms from the UK
top 100 FTSE index, then 500 employees randomly
selected in each company.

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Cluster sampling
• Useful , for example, for widely dispersed
populations

• First, divide population into groups (clusters) of

units, like geographic areas, or industries, for
example
• Now randomly select units from each (sub)cluster

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Types of probability sampling:

Summary
• Simple random: Random sample from whole population

• Stratified random: Random sample from defined groups or strata

• Cluster: Random sample of whole groups or units

• Multi-stage: Random sample of clusters in strata or levels,

then random sample of individuals is selected

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QUALITIES OF A PROBABILITY SAMPLE

• Representative: it allows for generalization from

sample to population

• Inferential statistical tests

• Sample means can be used to estimate
population means
• And more…

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SAMPLING TECHNIQUES

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TYPES OF NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING: 1

Convenience sampling
• the most easily accessible individuals
• useful when piloting a research instrument
• may be a chance to collect data that is too good to
miss

Snowball sampling
• researcher makes initial contact with a small group
• these respondents introduce others in their
network
e.g. Bryman’s(1999) sample of British visitors to
Disney theme parks
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TYPES OF NON-PROBABILITY SAMPLING: 2

Quota sampling
• often used in market research and opinion polls
• relatively cheap, quick and easy to manage
• proportionately representative of a population’s
social categories (strata)
• but non-random sampling of each stratum’s units

• interviewers select people to fit their quota for

each category, so the sample may be biased
towards those who appear friendly and accessible
(e.g. in the street), leading to under-
representation of less accessible groups

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Types of non-probability
sampling: Summary
• Quota: Select enough subjects as they come

• Snowball: Obtain names of further subjects from those

already contacted

• Convenience: Request volunteers, choose available groups,

or not all selected participate

• Purposive: Hand pick subjects on basis of traits

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SAMPLING BIAS
• Biased sample does not represent
population
• some groups in the population are
over-represented; others are under-
represented
• Sources of bias
• non-probability sampling
• inadequate sample frame
• non-response

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SAMPLING: LIMITS TO
GENERALISATION
• In all cases findings can only be generalised to the
population from which the sample was selected
• Time, historical events and cohort effects also
limit generalisation

• Non-random samples do not allow any

generalisation to populations

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Sample size

Quantitative Qualitative

Z 2σ 2 Z2 π(1 − π)
n= n=
D2 D2

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Problem 1
A study is to be performed to determine a certain
parameter in a community. From a previous study a
SD of 46 was obtained.
If a sample error of up to 4 is to be accepted. How
many subjects should be included in this study at 99%
level of confidence?

Answer

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Problem 2
It was desired to estimate proportion of anaemic
children in a certain preparatory school. In a similar
study at another school a proportion of 30 % was
detected.
Compute the minimal sample size required at a
confidence limit of 95% and accepting a difference of
up to 4% of the true population.

Answer

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Precision
Cost

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Data Processing
• Why Data Preprocessing
• Data Quality
• Important Steps

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Introduction
• The data, after collection, has to be prepared for
analysis.
• Collected data is raw and it must be converted to
the form that is suitable for the required analysis.
• The result of the analysis are affected a lot by the
form of the data.
• So, proper data preparation is must to get reliable
result.

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Data & Data Set:

The information that you collect from an experiment,
survey, or archival source is referred to as your data. Most
generally, data can be defined as a list of numbers
possessing meaningful relations. A data set is a
representation of data, defining a set of variables" that
are measured on a set of cases."

Variable: A variable is any characteristic of an object that

can be represented as a number. The values that the
variable takes will vary when measurements are made on
different objects or at different times.

Case: Recorded information about an object we observe a

case. Slide 30 of 103

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Every column is a variable

Every row
is a single
case

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Data Processing

Data Processing: Data processing most often refers to

processes that convert data into information or
knowledge.

Information: Information is defined as either a

meaningful answer to a query or a meaningful stimulus
that can consider into further queries.

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Why Data Preprocessing?

• Data in the real world is dirty
• Incomplete: lacking attribute values, lacking certain
attributes of interest, or containing only aggregate data
• e.g., occupation=“ ”
• Noisy: containing errors or outliers
• e.g., Salary=“-10”
• Inconsistent: containing discrepancies in codes or
names
• e.g., Age=“42” Birthday=“03/07/1997”
• e.g., Was rating “1,2,3”, now rating “A, B, C”
• e.g., discrepancy between duplicate records

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Types of Data
There are different types of data
• Nominal
• Examples: ID numbers, eye color, zip codes
• Ordinal
• Examples: rankings (e.g., taste of potato chips on a
scale from 1-10), grades, height in {tall, medium,
short}
• Interval
• Examples: calendar dates, temperatures in Celsius or
• Ratio
• Examples: temperature, length, time, counts
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Broad classification of the different types of data

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Data Quality
• What kinds of data quality problems?
• How can we detect problems with the data?
• What can we do about these problems?

• Examples of data quality problems:

• Noise and outliers
• missing values
• duplicate data

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Noise
• Noise refers to modification of original values
• Examples: distortion of a person’s voice when talking on a
poor phone and “snow” on television screen

Two Sine Waves Two Sine Waves + Noise

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Outliers
• Outliers are data objects with characteristics that
are considerably different than most of the other
data objects in the data set

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Missing Values
• Reasons for missing values
• Information is not collected
(e.g., people decline to give their age, weight and
income)
• Attributes may not be applicable to all cases
(e.g., annual income is not applicable to children)
• Handling missing values
• Eliminate Data Objects
• Estimate Missing Values
• Ignore the Missing Value During Analysis
• Replace with all possible values (weighted by their
probabilities)
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Duplicate Data
• Data set may include data objects that are duplicates,
or almost duplicates of one another
• Major issue when merging data from heterogeous
sources

• Examples:
• Same person with multiple email addresses

• Data cleaning
• Process of dealing with duplicate data issues

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Important Steps

QUESTIONNAIRE
EDITING CODING
CHECKING

GRAPHICAL
TABULATION CLASSIFICATION
REPRESENTATION

DATA CLEANING DATA ADJUSTING

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Questionnaire Checking
When the data is collected through questionnaires, the
first steps of data preparation process is to check the
questionnaires if they are accepted or not.

• Not accepted if:

• Incomplete partially or fully.
• Answered by a person who has inadequate
knowledge.
• which gives the impression that the impression
that the respondent could not understand the
questions.

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Questionnaire Checking
• A questionnaire returned from the field may be
unacceptable for several reasons.
• Parts of the questionnaire may be incomplete.
Inadequate answers. No responses to specific questions
• The pattern of responses may indicate that the
respondent did not understand or follow the
instructions.
• The responses show little variance.
• One or more pages are missing.
• The questionnaire is answered by someone who does
not qualify for participation.
• Fictitious interviews, Inconsistencies, Illegible responses,
Yea- or nay-saying patterns, Middle-of-the-road patterns
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Editing
• Editing of data is a process of examining the collected
raw data (specially in surveys) to detect errors and
omissions and to correct these when possible.
• Data must be inspected for completeness and
consistency.
• E.g. a respondent may not answer the question
on marriage, age, income…..
• But in other questions, respondent answers that
he/she had been married for 10 years and has 3
children
• Age ? Income ?

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Editing (contd.)
• Three basic approaches for editing:
- Go back to the respondents for clarification
- Infer from other responses
- Discard the response altogether

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Editing (contd.)
Treatment of Unsatisfactory Responses

Treatment of
Unsatisfactory
Responses

Return to the Assign Missing Discard

Unsatisfactory
Field Values Respondents

Substitute a Casewise Pairwise

Neutral Value Deletion Deletion
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Editing (contd.)
• Returning to the Field – The questionnaires with
unsatisfactory responses may be returned to the
field, where the interviewers recontact the
respondents.
• Assigning Missing Values – If returning the
questionnaires to the field is not feasible, the editor
may assign missing values to unsatisfactory
responses.
• Discarding Unsatisfactory Respondents – In this
approach, the respondents with unsatisfactory
responses are simply discarded
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Coding
• Coding refers to the process of assigning numerals or
other symbols to answers so that responses can be put
into limited number of categories or classes.
• It’s a process of translating information gathered from
questionnaires or other sources into something that can
be analyzed
• Involves assigning a value to the information given—
often value is given a label
• Coding can make data more consistent:
• Example: Question = Sex
• Answers = Male, Female, M, or F
• Coding will avoid such inconsistencies
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Coding : Systems
• Common coding systems (code and label) for
dichotomous variables:
• 0=No 1=Yes
(1 = value assigned, Yes= label of value)
• OR: 1=No 2=Yes
• When you assign a value you must also make it clear what
that value means

In first example above, 1=Yes but in second example 1=No

As long as it is clear how the data are coded, either is fine

• You can make it clear by creating a data dictionary to

accompany the dataset
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Coding: Dummy Variables

• A “dummy” variable is any variable that is coded to
have 2 levels (yes/no, male/female, etc.)
• Dummy variables may be used to represent more
complicated variables
• Example: Number of cigarettes smoked per week--
answers total 75 different responses ranging from 0
cigarettes to 3 packs per week
• Can be recoded as a dummy variable:
1=smokes (at all) 0=non-smoker
• This type of coding is useful in later stages of analysis

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Coding: Attaching Labels to Values

• Many analysis software packages allow you to attach a
label to the variable values
Example: Label 0’s as male and 1’s as female
• Makes reading data output easier:
Without label: Variable SEX Frequency Percent
0 21 60%
1 14 40%

With label: Variable SEX Frequency Percent

Male 21 60%
Female 14 40%
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Coding: Ordinal Variables

• Coding process is similar with other categorical variables
• Example: variable EDUCATION, possible coding:
0 = No schooling
1 = Primary
2 = Secondary
3 = Tertiary/ Higher
• Could be coded in reverse order (0= Secondary, 3= No
schooling)
• For this ordinal categorical variable we want to be
consistent with numbering because the value of the code
assigned has significance

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Coding : Ordinal Variables (cont.)

• Example of bad coding:
0 = No schooling
1 = Secondary
2 = Primary
3 = Tertiary/ Higher
• Data has an inherent order but coding does not
follow that order—NOT appropriate coding for an
ordinal categorical variable

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Coding: Nominal Variables

• For coding nominal variables, order makes no difference
• Example: variable Province
1 = Western
2 = Central
3 = Southern
4 = North Western
5 = North Central
6 = Uva
7 = Sabaragamuwa
8 = Northern
9 = Eastern
• Order does not matter, no ordered value associated with
each response
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Coding: Continuous Variables

• Creating categories from a continuous variable (ex.
age) is common
• May break down a continuous variable into chosen
categories by creating an ordinal categorical variable
• Example: variable = AGECAT
1 = 0–9 years old
2 = 10–19 years old
3 = 20–39 years old
4 = 40–59 years old
5 = 60 years or older

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Coding: Continuous Variables (cont.)

• May need to code responses from fill-in-the-blank and open-
ended questions
• Example: “Why did you choose not to see a doctor about
this illness?”
• One approach is to group together responses with similar
themes
• Example: “didn’t feel sick enough to see a doctor”,
“symptoms stopped,” and “illness didn’t last very long”
• Could all be grouped together as “illness was not severe”
• Also need to code for “don’t know” responses”
• Typically, “don’t know” is coded as 9

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Coding: Tip

• Though you do not code until the data is gathered,

you should think about how you are going to code
while designing your questionnaire, before you
gather any data. This will help you to collect the data
in a format you can use.

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Classification
• Classification of data which happens to be the
process of arranging data in group or classes on the
basis of common characteristics.

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Classification (cont.)
• Attributes : only their presence
and absence in an individual
items can be noticed.

• Class-intervals : size of each class

into which a range of a variable
is divided

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Tabulation

• Tabulation is the process of summarizing raw data

and displaying the same in compact form( i.e., in
the form of statistical tables ) for further analysis.
• Tabulation is an orderly arrangement of data in
columns and rows.

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Graphical Representation

• Graphs help to understand the data easily.

• Most common graphs are bar charts and pie charts.

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Data Cleaning
• Checking the data for consistency and treatment for
missing value.
• One of the first steps in analyzing data is to “clean” it
of any obvious data entry errors:
• Outliers? (really high or low numbers)
Example: Age = 110 (really 10 or 11?)
• Value entered that doesn’t exist for variable?
Example: 2 entered where 1=male, 0=female
• Missing values?
Did the person not give an answer? Was answer
accidentally not entered into the database?

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Data Cleaning (cont.)

• May be able to set defined limits when entering data
• Prevents entering a 2 when only 1, 0, or missing are
acceptable values
• Limits can be set for continuous and nominal variables
• Examples: Only allowing 3 digits for age, limiting
words that can be entered, assigning field types (e.g.
formatting dates as mm/dd/yyyy or specifying
numeric values or text)
• Many data entry systems allow “double-entry” – ie.,
entering the data twice and then comparing both entries
for discrepancies
• Univariate data analysis is a useful way to check the
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Data Adjusting
Data adjusting is not always necessary but it may improve
the quality of analysis sometimes.

Statistically Adjusting the Data : E.g.: Weighting

• In weighting, each case or respondent in the database is
assigned a weight to reflect its importance relative to
other cases or respondents.
• Weighting is most widely used to make the sample data
more representative of a target population on specific
characteristics.
• Yet another use of weighting is to adjust the sample so
that greater importance is attached to respondents with
certain characteristics. Slide 64 of 103

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Data Adjusting: Statistically Adjusting the Data

Years of Sample Population
Education Percentage Percentage Weight
Elementary School
0 to 7 years 2.49 4.23 1.70
8 years 1.26 2.19 1.74
High School
1 to 3 years 6.39 8.65 1.35
4 years 25.39 29.24 1.15
College
1 to 3 years 22.33 29.42 1.32
4 years 15.02 12.01 0.80
5 to 6 years 14.94 7.36 0.49
7 years or more 12.18 6.90 0.57

Totals 100.00 100.00 Slide 65 of 103

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Data Adjusting
Data adjusting is not always necessary but it may improve
the quality of analysis sometimes.

Variable Respecification
• Variable respecification involves the transformation of
data to create new variables or modify existing
variables.
• E.G., the researcher may create new variables that are
composites of several other variables.
• Dummy variables are used for respecifying categorical
variables. The general rule is that to respecify a
categorical variable with K categories, K-1 dummy
variables are needed
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Data Adjusting : Statistically Adjusting the Data

Product Usage Original Dummy Variable Code

Category Variable
Code X1 X2 X3

Nonusers 1 1 0 0
Light users 2 0 1 0
Medium users 3 0 0 1
Heavy users 4 0 0 0

Note that X1 = 1 for nonusers and 0 for all others. Likewise, X2 = 1

for light users and 0 for all others, and X3 = 1 for medium users and
0 for all others. In analyzing the data, X1, X2, and X3 are used to
represent all user/nonuser groups

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Data Adjusting : Statistically Adjusting the Data

Scale Transformation and Standardization:

Scale transformation involves a manipulation of scale
values to ensure comparability with other scales or
otherwise make the data suitable for analysis.

A more common transformation procedure is

standardization. Standardized scores, Zi, may be
obtained as:

Zi = (Xi - X )/sx

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Data collection methods

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Qualitative Vs Quantitative : Basic differences

Qualitative Quantitative
To describe a situation, gain
To measure magnitude-How
Purpose insight to particular
widespread is a practice...
practice...
No pre-determined Pre-determined response
Format
response categories categories, standard measures
In-depth explanatory data Wide breadth of data from large
Data
from a small sample statistically representative sample
Draws out patterns from Tests hypotheses, uses data to
Analysis
concepts and insights support conclusion
Numerical aggregation in
Illustrative explanation &
Result summaries, responses are
individual responses
clustered
Sampling Theoretical Statistical
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Qualitative Vs Quantitative : Analytic Approaches

Qualitative Quantitative
Broader, contextual,
Research question Fixed/Focused
flexible
Usually not predefined,
Expected outcome emergent research Identified in advance
question
Hierarchy of
Circular Linearity
phases
Confounding Controlled during
Searched in the field
factors design & analysis
Time dimension Rapid to slower Slower

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Qualitative Vs Quantitative : Data collection Method

Qualitative Quantitative
Open ended and less
Sampling structured protocols Random sampling
(Flexible)
Depend on interactive Structured data collection
Tools
interviews instruments
Produce results that give Produce results that
Results meaning, experience and generalize, compare and
views summarize

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Main Data Collection Techniques

1) Document Review
2) Observation
3) Interview (face-to-face)
4) Focus Group Discussion

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Qualitative Data Collection Techniques (cont.)

• Data collection techniques allow us to systematically

collect information about our objects of study
(people, objects, phenomena) and about the settings
in which they occur.

• In the collection of data we have to be systematic. If

data are collected haphazardly, it will be difficult to
answer our research questions in a conclusive way.

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Document Review
• A qualitative research project may require review of
documents such as:
• Course syllabi
• Faculty journals
• Meeting minutes
• Strategic plans
• Newspapers

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Document Review (cont.)

• Depending on the research question, the researcher
might utilize:
• Rating scale - a rating scale is a method that requires the rater
to assign a value, sometimes numeric, to the rated object, as a
measure of some rated attribute

• Checklist - a type of informational job aid used to reduce

failure by compensating for potential limits of human memory
and attention

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Document Review (cont.)

• Content analysis - Content analysis is the procedure for the
categorization of verbal or behavioural data for the
purpose of classification, summarization and tabulation.
The content can be analyzed on two levels
• Descriptive: What is the data?
• Interpretative: What was meant by the data?
• Matrix analysis - An outline of generalized causation, logical
reasoning process, based on the categorisation and
organisation of qualitative data.

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Observation
• Observation is a technique that involves systematically
selecting, watching and recording behaviour and
characteristics of living beings, objects or phenomena.
• Without training, our observations will heavily reflect our
personal choices of what to focus on and what to
remember.
• You need to heighten your sensitivity to details that you
would normally ignore and at the same time to be able to
focus on phenomena of true interest to your study.

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Observation: Type of Observation

Observation of human behaviour

• Participant observation: The observer takes part in
the situation he or she observes ( For Example: a
doctor hospitalised with a broken hip, who now
observes hospital procedures ‘from within’.)

• Non-participant observation: The observer watches

the situation, openly or concealed, but does not
participate (Eg: Process mapping: OPD services…)

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Observation : Preparation
1) Determine the purpose of the observation activity as
related to the overall research objectives
2) Determine the population(s) to be observed
3) Consider the accessibility of the population(s) and
the venues in which you would like to observe them
4) Investigate possible sites for participant observation
5) Select the site(s), time(s) of day, and date(s), and
anticipate how long you will collect participant
observation data on each occasion
6) Decide how field staff will divide up or pair off to
cover all sites most effectively

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Observation: Preparation (cont.)

7) Consider how you will present yourself, both in terms of
appearance and how you will explain your purpose to
others if necessary
8) Plan how and if you will take notes during the
participant observation activity
9) Remember to take your field notebook and a pen

After Participant Observation

1) Schedule time soon after participant observation to
expand your notes
2) Type your notes into computer files using the standard
format set for the study

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Interview
• An Interview is a data-collection (generation)
technique that involves oral questioning of
respondents.
• Answers to the questions posed during an interview
can be recorded by writing them down or by tape-
recording the responses, or by a combination of
both.
• Can take ½ hour and may extend over several hours;
repeat interviews possible
• Organising the interview (structure)
• Relationship with respondents

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Interview :Recognising Limitations

• Can be time consuming, expensive, inefficient, biased,

unpredictable, hard to pre-test, difficult to standardise
and replicate and then difficult to analyse.
• We must devise strategies to minimise these problems
and maximise the gain from their ability to offer a greater
understanding of the complexities of social reality.
• Interviewing is not as easy as it looks. It requires thought
and careful planning.

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Interview: Process to plan an interview

• Identify the objectives
• Decide whether to undertake individual or group
interviews
• Determine the most appropriate structure - fully
structured, semi-structured or unstructured (informal).
Think about the implications of your choice
• Prepare an interview schedule (if appropriate)
• Pilot and refine the research instrument (if appropriate)
• Keep a full record of the interview
• Note the relevance to interviewees - sell the idea
• The ethical implications of your study

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Interview: Comparing Types of Interviews

Type of
Advantage Disadvantage
Interview
Answers to the same
Little flexibility. Pre-determined
questions increase
Structured questions might not be relevant.
comparability.
Standardized wording might inhibit.
Data easily analysed
Bias may increases as interviewer
Combines flexibility with
Semi- Structured selects questions to probe and
comparability
might inhabit comparability
Interviewer can adapt, Comparability reduced, data
interviewee is allowed to analysis more difficult. Data quality
Unstructured
express in own words. depends on listening and
Interviewer's role minimal communicating skills of interviewer.

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Interview: Type of question

Type of Question Purpose

Opening questions To identify the characteristics that the participants
have in common. Participants should be given an
opportunity to introduce themselves.
Introductory To introduce the general topic of the discussion, and
questions to stimulate the conversation and improve
interaction in the group.
Transition To move the participants into the focus of the
questions discussion.
Key questions Concern about the focus of the interview.
Ending questions Give the participants an opportunity to make
final statement.
Final questions Ask the participants to add things they think have
not been considered during the discussion.
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Example Questions for Qualitative

Interviews
Types of
Examples
questions
If you get the chance to be an HIV scientist, do you think
Hypothetical
you can discover a vaccine for HIV?
I have heard people saying most evaluations are
Provocative
subjective-what do you think?
In your opinion, what would be the best solution for
Ideal
eliminating gender-based violence?
Interpretative What do you mean by good?
Leading Do you think prevention is better than cure?
Do you watch that culturally degrading TV show on
Loading
condom use?
Tell me your three favourite authors, the book you like
Multiple
best by each author, and why you like those books?
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Interview: When recording, think of analysis…

• Do it, but think… and make sure you’re

competent
• Recording should allow transcription.
• Transcription should allow for coding
• Coding should lead to synthesis
• Synthesis should allow for analysis

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Interview - Important Characteristics

1) Know your schedule
2) Establish rapport
3) Listen to respondent
4) Read between the lines
5) Accept the value of respondent’s views
6) Pick up on issues raised by respondent
7) Probe, explore, follow-up
8) Recall & relate to what has been said
9) Allow space to answer - don’t fear silence
10) Avoid irrelevant rambling

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Interview - Skills
• Think about the motivations of interviewees and their
implications
• Listen more than you speak
• Build trust - know about the company/organisation,
Telephone and then send a letter, use appropriate
language (student/researcher, interview/discussion),
show interest and enthusiasm
• Ask straightforward questions
• Consider the location of the interview
• Begin with the general (things people know - build
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Interview: Prepare for the Interview

• Recruit participants according to the recruitment strategy
outlined in the work plan.
• Set up recording equipment and the physical space where
interviews will take place.
• Become knowledgeable about the research topic, including
anticipating and being prepared to answer any questions
participants may have about it.
• Be reliable. To get participants to take the interview seriously,
you need to demonstrate your own commitment. Arrive on
time, equipped with the recording equipment, interview
guide, and notebooks. Be both mentally and psychologically
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Interview: Prepare for the Interview (cont.)

• Obtain informed consent from each participant before

the interview.
• Address all questions or topics listed in the interview
guide.
• Ask follow-up questions (some of which may be scripted
in the interview guide) in order to elicit participants’
complete knowledge and experience related to the
research topic.
• Probe participants for elaboration of their responses,
with the aim of learning all they can share about the
research topic.

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Interview: Document the Interview

• Record the interview using an audio (and sometimes

video) recorder
• Take backup notes
• Observe and document participants’ behaviors and
contextual aspects of the interview as part of your field
notes
• Expand your notes as soon as possible after each
interview, preferably within 24 hours, while your
memory is still fresh

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Focus Group Discussion

• A focused but open discussion with a group 5-12
participant, moderated by neutral facilitator usually
lasting 1-2 hours. The facilitator usually has a topic (or
question) guide which may or may not be covered in
sequence.
• Purpose is to obtain in-depth information on concepts,
perceptions and ideas of a group.

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Focus Group Discussion (cont.)

• A FGD aims to be more than a question-answer
interaction. The idea is that group members discuss
the topic among themselves, with guidance from the
facilitator.
• Researcher is facilitator or just observer
• Use when particular group is important in a study but
small group, or cannot be easily identified as group
• Possible strong characters dominating group
• 5-12 participants, justify choices. Tape/video record it,
then transcribe and group answers.

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Focus Group Discussion (cont.)

Example:
• A district health officer had noticed that there were an
unusually large number of cases of malnutrition of
children under 5 reported from one area in her
district. Because she had little idea of why there might
be more malnutrition in that area she decided to
organise 3 FGD (one with leaders, one with mothers
and one with health staff from the area). She hoped to
identify potential causes of the problem through the
FGDs and then develop a more intensive study, if
necessary.

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Focus of Qualitative questions

Experience: When you told your manager that the project
has failed, what happened?
Opinion: What do you think about the role of
evaluation for program improvement?
Feelings: When you got to know that the project was a
success, how did you feel?
Knowledge: Tell me about the different ways of promoting
………………?
Input: When you have lectures on evaluability
assessment, what does the instructor tell you?

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Focus Group Discussion: Strengths and

Limitations
• A well chosen group, in terms of composition and number,
FGDs can be a powerful research tool which provides
valuable spontaneous information in a short period of
time and at relatively low cost.
• FGD should not be used for quantitative purposes, such as
the testing of hypotheses or the generalisation of findings
for larger areas, which would require more elaborate
surveys.
• Depending on the topic, it may be risky to use FGDs as a
single tool.
• In group discussions, people tend to centre their opinions
on the most common ones, on ‘social norms’.

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Focus Group Discussion: Strengths and

Limitations (cont.)
• In case of very sensitive topics, (such as race, Sexuality,
Domestic violence, mental health, disability, abortion,
rape, torture, HIV/AIDS, drug/alcohol, death and
suicide) FGDs may also have their limitations, as group
members may hesitate to air their feelings and
experiences freely.

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Which one to use : Interview or FGD ?

Factors to
Use indepth interview when... Use focus groups when...
consider
interaction of respondents may
Group group interaction is likely to be
stimulate a richer response or
interaction limited or nonproductive.
new and valuable thought.
group/peer pressure will be
group/peer pressure would inhibit
Group/peer valuable in challenging the
responses and cloud the meaning
pressure thinking of respondents and
of results.
illuminating conflicting opinions.
subject matter is not so sensitive
Sensitivity of subject matter is so sensitive that
that respondents will temper
subject respondents would be unwilling to
responses or withhold
matter talk openly in a group.
information.
the topic is such that a greater
the topic is such that most
Depth of depth of response per individual is
respondents can say all that is
individual desirable, as with complex subject
relevant or all that they know in
responses matter and very knowledgeable
less than 10 minutes.
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Which one to use : Interview or FGD ?

Factors to
Use indepth interview when... Use focus groups when...
consider
it is possible to use numerous it is desirable to have one
individuals on the project; one individual conduct the data
Data collector
interviewer would become collection; a few groups will
fatigue
fatigued or bored conducting not create fatigue or boredom
all interviews. for one person.
Extent of issues a greater volume of issues must the volume of issues to cover is
to be covered be covered not extensive.
it is necessary to understand
a single subject area is being
Continuity of how attitudes and behaviors
examined in depth and strings
information link together on an individual
of behaviors are less relevant.
basis.
it may be necessary to develop
Experimentation
the interview guide by altering enough is known to establish a
with interview
it after each of the initial meaningful topic guide.
guide
interviews.
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Which one to use : Interview or FGD ?

Factors to
Use indepth interview when... Use focus groups when...
consider
stakeholders do not need to it is desirable for stakeholders to
Observation by
hear firsthand the opinions of hear what participants have to
stakeholders
participants. say.
respondents are dispersed or an acceptable number of target
Logistics
not easily assembled for other respondents can be assembled in
geographically
reasons. one location.
quick turnaround is not critical,
Cost and quick turnaround is critical, and
and budget will permit higher
training funds are limited.
cost.
interviewers need to be focus group facilitators need to be
Availability of
supportive and skilled able to control and manage
qualified staff
listeners. groups

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