Exploratory interview exercise in the dissertation project orientation phase

Exploratory interview exercise in the Exploratory interview exercise in the dissertation project orientation phase [of the agile literature review approach]

This example illustrates how to conduct an exploratory interview exercise in the Exploratory interview exercise in the dissertation project orientation phase on a case study about a private bank investment service for individuals. The interview is between the researcher and the manager in charge of the investment service unit of the private bank. The interview makes use of the cognitive mapping technique from the soft operational research field:

[It would be useful to make explicit the organizational unit of analysis under investigation at this initial stage].

Researcher A: could you give me one major management concern your investment service unit has right now?

Manager in charge B: concerned about ability to maintain good service operation, with special regard to customer service quality..

Researcher A: What can be the consequences of weak service operation in this case? [so-what questioning]

Manager in charge B: I can think of a few consequences, which are: (i) loss of the private bank's reputation, (ii) loss of customers of the investment service unit, (iii) lower staff morale, and (iii) poorer sales performance.

Researcher A: Could you tell me what factors can affect the investment service unit's competence on its service operation management? [why questioning]

Manager in charge B: One factor is that the compliance regulations relating to wealth management and investment service are getting more complicated and cumbersome. Another factor is the wide swings of the market demand by customers facing the investment service unit leads to highly unstable internal manpower demand.

Out of this brief interview, Researcher A sketches the following cognitive map:

Note: 

1. In this interview session, the researcher can also ask (i) what improvement and policy solutions are being introduced or are planning to be introduced (zone 3b related) and (ii) what management concerns, if any, are associated with these solutions (i), in the form such as "concerned about how to formulate an effective XXX solution for ABC Ltd".

2. The next step for the interview is to ask the interviewee to suggest another main management concern and go through the exercise with "so-what" and "why" questioning. Doing so will further enrich the cognitive map from this research interview exercise.

3. A third step is to encourage the interviewee to suggest 1-2 management-concern items as related to zone 2 (organizational capabilities)

It is useful to classify the items in the cognitive map in terms of zone 1, zone 2 and 3a and 3b of the diagramming method in the agile literature review approach, as the following diagram illustrates:

Note:

1. It is relatively straightforward to convert the management concerns items into high-level research tasks to produce a theoretical framework level-0. For examples:

a. "concerned about the cumbersome compliance regulations" is converted into "to evaluate the impacts of the cumbersome compliance regulations on ABC private bank's investment service unit".

b. 'concerned about the the bank reputation damage" is converted into "to evaluate the the present status of ABC private bank's investment service unit's reputation.

2. With the derived theoretical framework level-0, the researcher can think about (i) which item(s) to pick up from the framework to make up the core-focus-domain for theoretical framework level-0 and (ii) formulating the dissertation project title based on the core-focus-domain of theoretical framework level-0.

Overall, by using specific interviewing tactics, the researcher aims at constructing a management-concerns diagram with 2-3 items in zone 1, 2-3 items in zone 2, 2-3 items in zone 3a and 1-3 items in zone 3b.

References

1. an article on cognitive mapping (pdf).

2. The inconspicuous nature of zone 2 items in management-concerns diagram construction.