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Qualitative Semi-Structured Interview Essay

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A qualitative methodology was used in this research because it was considered to be the most appropriate way of discovering or uncovering the workforce perceptions towards female leaders and how the female leaders managed or led the team.
Why employ a semi-structured interview technique? Qualitative semi-structured interviews are used interchageably with in-depth interviews, as in-depth interviews are similar to structured interviews (Liamputtong & Ezzy, 2005) . In conducting semi-structured interviews the researcher explores topics in order to see from the participant's perspective, but respects the responses from the participant (Marshall & Rossman, 1999, p.108).
Accoring to Patton (2002), semi-structured interviews affords the research to gather 'thick description' - this is the context of practises within a society, which can be verified to develop interpreations about the research question.
Another justification of Semi-structured interview as a data collection method is that it can uncover participants‘ perspectives, assist participants to describe complex interactions, and can help in gaining an understanding of the research problem without imposing pre-existing notions on the research setting (Fontana …show more content…

It can also facilitate immediate verbal clarification of what is said by participants (Fontana & Frey, 2005; Marshall & Rossman, 1999; Patton, 1990). Given the idea that an in-depth interview was issue oriented (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006) and the need was to the perception of the workforce towards women leaders, it was decided to utilise semi-structured interviews with all participants. The focus was on seeing the world through the eyes of the respondents as much as possible; to explore with them their thoughts and feelings; to thoroughly understand their point of view (Alston & Bowles, 2003); and to help participants to express their own personal perspectives and experiences (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2006; Patton,

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