Fashion and Fads in Management – Project topics materials

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Choice of Respondents

According to Holme & Solvang (1997) it is crucial when conducting interviews to find respondents that possess deep and comprehensive knowledge in the subject of interest. Subsequently, this means that the choice of respondents should not come about on random or occasional bases but rather in a systematic mode using theoretical and well defined criteria that the researcher has formulated.
In finding respondents for this study, the authors have chosen three main criteria; First and foremost, we wanted to interview companies that had an explicit and official Talent Management strategy, this, in order to secure that we were receiving accurate information from companies that undoubtedly had implemented a TM strategy.
Secondly we wanted to interview well established and well known companies, because of the common interest of such organizations, and their position in the society as role models. Thirdly, we wanted to meet someone with deep and comprehensive knowledge about the TM strategy in his/her respective organization, and therefore the head of TM or equivalent HR manager was considered as being appropriate.
In addition, to broaden the perspectives and insights, we wanted to interview an additional TM consultant firm that can be regarded as a management fashion setter. This would allow the authors to apply comparisons with the consultant agency and the normative literature, as well as with the companies that can be regarded as management fashion users (further described in 3.3.2), and hence identify potential divergences and/or similarities. The questions to the consultant agency are therefore also, due the specific nature of relationship between the agency and the concept, somewhat different than those to the other companies (See Appendix 3 and 4).
We have chosen to interview four companies that have adopted a TM strategy and one consultant agency that assists companies in implementing TM. The objective was to conduct interviews with a sample of respondents that was as wide as possible, but at the same time did not sacrifice the dept of the interviews given the authors time constraints. The choice of four responds was thus considered as being an appropriate number because it allowed the authors to meet the respondents and conduct interviews with more dept and at the same time, to gather insights from a variety of different sources.
The respondents are; SKF, SAAB Tech, Electrolux, SEB and Right Management Consultants (further presentation of respondents in 4.2).

Interview Questions

Silverman (1993) claims that qualitative research is best carried out by observations, text analysis, interviews and recording/transcribing. He further explains that these ethods are often combined, to get the best result. “Authenticity” is often the issue in qualitative methods. The idea is to gather an “authentic” understanding of people’s experiences.
According to Silverman (1993) interviews with standardised questions are appropriate in order to increase the reliability of a research. This kind of survey is more into quantitative research and can be coded and generalized into greater population. However, unstructured interviewing, which is often characterized by open-ended questions is generally more flexible and dynamic, and the interviewer tends to have a dialogue and/or a discussion with the respondent. In addition, open-ended questions allow the respondents to freely express their own knowledge and understanding and thoughts of a topic of interest. Open-ended questions are generally also followed by what Taylor and Bogdan (1998) refers to as “probing” which involves series of follow up questions where the respondent is asked to comment on details and certain meanings that they attach to specific issues. In this way the interviewer is allowed to gain a deeper understanding with respect to the underlying reasoning and experience that the respondent holds. The probing may ensure that the questions are perfectly understood and bring clarity in complicated issues and matters, which may enhance the vaMethodology lidity of the study. A possible disadvantage with open-ended questions is that they tend to extract too much, or irrelevant data and thus may complicate the analytic work.
Further, Taylor and Bogdan (1998) states that in order to reveal hidden facts, exaggerations or denied information among the respondents, researchers may examine different statements for consistency using “cross checks”. The researcher may for example ask the same questions several times, by asking it in different ways and in that way compare different versions of an answer to a question.
In conducting this study, the authors have chosen to use unstructured and openended questions, this in order to allow for a more flexible and dynamic interview procedure where the respondents are encouraged to express their own thoughts, knowledge and feeling on certain issues. This kind of questions has also opened up for extended possibilities to interpret and understand the respondents’ real intentions, and to adapt the questions with respect to the progress of a particular interview. Another important motive for using open-ended questions is the complexity of the author’s subject and the sensitiveness of the research problem from the perspective of the respondents. The questions have been followed by series of probing questions and cross checks in order to make sure that the respondents have perfectly understood the questions and revealed as much accurate and relevant information as possible.

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Face-to-Face Interviews

An interview may be conducted in several ways. The most ordinary technique is faceto- face interviews where respondent and the interviewers meet. This type of interview is more time and resource consuming; nevertheless it provides the researchers with the possibility to interpret body language, and to better recognize if any of the questions have been misunderstood. Other techniques to conduct an interview are also by asking questions by telephone or survey questions for e-mail. Further, in order to make the respondent prepared for the interview the researchers could send the questionnaire in advance and force the respondent to be able to answer some more complicated questions (Fontana & Frey, 1994). However, when conducting interviews t is generally important to not letting the respondents to know exactly what you are studying or examining. Taylor & Bogdan (1998) explains that it is sometimes useful to hide the real purpose questions to reduce self-consciousness and the perceived threat. It is also likely that the respondents become more eager to cover up mistakes and other error to make things look better then they really are.

1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.2 Problem Discussion
1.3 Purpose
2 Methodology
2.1 Scientific View.
2.2 Methodological Approach
2.3 Structure of Analysing
2.4 Literature Study.
2.5 Interviews
2.6 Methodological Credibility
3 Theoretical Framework
3.1 The HR-profession
3.2 HRM
3.3 Fashion and Fads in Management
4 Empirical Findings
4.1 Normative Literature
4.2 Presentation of Respondents ..