Qualitative Research: Validity

3.7.1 Validity

In qualitative research, validity refers to the extent to which the researcher manages to interpret the intended meaning from the language used by a participant whilst explaining their knowledge and experience (Saunders et al. 2012: 319). Interviews can result in a high level of validity as they enable flexibility and responsive interaction between the interviewer and participant allowing for meanings to be explored, topics to be covered from a range of viewpoints, and questions made clear to respondents. To ensure validity of the study, the researcher did not use any leading questions or preconceived ideas that could have influenced what is and not worth discussing as well as probed further and clarified questions that seemed

For this study semi-structured interviews were conducted through face to face interaction with all participants. To meet the requirements of the concept of reliability, all participants were informed about the research process and invited for the interviews through emails. The same method of data collection and analysis was followed with all the participants to ensure a consistent approach. The interview questions for managers were different to those of coordinators, though the same basic questions were asked for each respective group. The information was further cross-referenced to ensure accuracy and

The first challenge was to identify the right participants to interview due to high staff turnover as some people had not undergone the Restless Leaders training. The interviews were all held over a period of 5 days during a staff quarterly workshop were all staff was present. This was very tiring as the interviews had to be scheduled outside working hours and the researcher had to chase participants to afford her time to interview during their spare time. As the interviews were semi-structured, it was difficult to keep them within the fixed time period of one hour. In some instances, the interviewee had so much pertinent facts to share that the interviews lasted up to 90 minutes. The researcher was patient and flexible to accommodate the participants and so the challenges were not impossible.

3.9 Ethical Considerations

According to Saunders et al (2012: 226) ethical considerations emerge as one designs and plans their research in relation to standards or norms of behaviour that guide moral choices. Thus, the aim of ethics is to ensure that respondents and non-respondents are not affected in an adverse manner from research activities. Below is a summary of some of the ethical considerations this research stood by;

3.9.1 Ensuring that permission is