Long Interviews in Organizational Research: Unleashing the Power of “Show and Tell”

Abstract

Long interviews represent a powerful method for generating rich qualitative data, yet they are rarely used in organizational research. To address their untapped potential, our paper provides methodological clarity on long interviews and illustrates how they can help researchers do and see more. We reflect in depth on our own experiences using long interviews to produce a theme analysis that illuminates the nature, role, and benefits of long interviews in organizational research. Our key insight is that long interviews are more than simply “speech events”; they offer a unique opportunity to unleash the power of “show and tell,” both by integrating material objects and spaces into the conversation and by making them the locus of interaction. Importantly, such interactions can elicit rich narrative details that inspire conceptual leaps, which, in turn, can lead to the development of impactful theories. We conclude with detailed recommendations for conducting long interviews and engaging in show-and-tell.

Policing Work: Emotions and Violence in Institutional Work

“…Long interviews. We adopted an interpretivist qualitative approach by treating data as something to be "generated" rather than "collected" (Crawford, Chiles, & Elias, 2020). We completed 21 long interviews lasting between 8 and 12 hours each (totaling more than 220 hours).…”

Making Interviews Meaningful

“…Integrating physical artifacts and spaces into interview designs may also have the power to foster the production of rich and varied discursive data. Crawford et al (2020, p. 5) suggest for instance moving beyond the interview as a simple “speech event” by integrating objects and spaces into long interviews and by making them the loci of interaction that may include movement in these spaces. In so doing, they argue that the interview situation can stimulate data generation through seeing, touching, and smelling; and generate data by engaging “all the human senses.” The interview context can therefore become more fully experiential.…”

“…By bringing in material or visual elements that are meaningful to the participants—that is, which are symbolically or practically connected to their professional activity—, multimodal interviewing may also lead participants to develop alternative and richer forms of verbalization. As a result, multimodal interviewing also leads us to see that people can verbally express themselves during an interview without explicit “question-and-answer sessions” (Crawford et al, 2020). This perspective encourages us to be open to more methodological possibilities, with imagination and reflexivity (Cunliffe, 2018), and to be more inventive in the way we use traditional research methods such as interviews, in order to make them innovative and meaningful.…”

“…In some circumstances, where the nature of the work allows it, shadowing may offer the potential to mobilize think-aloud interviewing as well, but this time in a natural setting. In arguing for the value of long interviews, Crawford et al (2020) describe how one of the authors shadow-interviewed fly-fishing guides over several hours as they explored river valleys in the course of ongoing policing work. These experiences suggest the value of creatively combining observations and ad hoc interviewing in studies of practices where the purpose is to articulate tacit knowing.…”

Mind, Body, and Soul: A Spiritual Perspective on the Entrepreneurial Imagination

“…Inspired by Eastern experiential wisdom, we recommend that researchers seeking to "eff the ineffable" (Claxton, 2013) fully immerse themselves in the phenomena under study-by, for example, (1) engaging in autoethnography while enacting entrepreneurial endeavors and reflecting on their practices (Johannisson, 2011); (2) applying psychoanalytically informed techniques, such as dream analysis, to delve deep into dreams-not only researchers' but also participants'-and thus develop hermeneutic insight into unconscious processes and lived experiences (de Rond & Tunçalp, 2017); and (3) using specialized interviews such as long interviews and walking interviews to explore, alongside entrepreneurs, and in situ, deep meanings and multisensory insights that are profoundly connected to the environment in which imagined futures unfold (Crawford, Chiles, & Elias, 2020;Evans & Jones, 2011). Finally, similar to Grimes and Vogus's call for laboratory studies, it would also be worth considering Johns Hopkins-style psychedelic research (Griffiths, 2013;Richards, 2016) that focuses on entrepreneurs and their divine/creative imaginings, and the unique entrepreneurial set and setting needed to facilitate such research.…”