1. Structured Interviews

2. What is a structured interview?
A structured or standardised interview, also known as a researcher-administered survey, is a fixed design interview whose context is prepared before it is administered. It aims to ask all respondents the same questions in the same order. The interviewees usually get a limited range of answers; that is why the interview is also known as a directive interview. The questions used in the structured interview are closed-ended, pre-coded, or fixed choice questions.

3. There are many possible approaches to doing a structured interview:
More than one respondent
More than one interviewer
By telephone
Computer-assisted interviewing

4. Procedures for conducting a structured interview
Make an appropriate appointment
Explain the research concept
Establish relationships with interviewees
Ask questions
Record answers
Leave the interview

5. Structured interviews have been used in many situations, for instance, when collecting data about respondents’ experiences working in a specific workplace, exploring cultural differences, assessing students in different educational facilities, and assessing customers’ opinions about a service or product (United States General Accounting Office [GAO], 1991).

6. Advantages and Disadvantages of using Structured Interviews
Standardized questions
Observe the respondents’ feelings and expressions
Control the context and the environment in which the interview takes place.
A powerful source of quantitative data
The interviewer must be comfortable about
response rates, incomplete information,
and the likelihood of making more mistakes

7. Advantages and Disadvantages of using Structured Interviews
The interviewee cannot give his or her opinion
The results may be unreliable because the interviewer’s personality may affect interviewees’ decisions
More complex than normal questionnaires; they consume extra time
The quality of the information is heavily rely on the quality of the questions that been asked
The interviewer must have appropriate skills
The social desirability
The understandings of the question context may vary

8. Reading 1: Microfinance and Sustained Economic Improvement: Women Small-scale Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia
Summary of the overall study
This study was intended to investigate the contribution of Micro-Finance Institutions (MFI) to the economic development of small scale women entrepreneurs.
Data Collection Method
Structured Interviews
Focus group
General Interviews

9. Advantages and Disadvantages
Structured Interview
Survey was conducted through structured interviews which is a
quantitative approach.
86 women entrepreneurs were selected from the total of 1834.
46 structured questions were asked classified into seven categories.
Advantages and Disadvantages
Helpful approach in making major conclusions (✔)
Data was collected only from two sub-cities of the capital city (✖)
Limited research as respondents of structured interviews belong to the poorest district only (✖)
Future research needs to consider institutional factors (✖)

10. Summary of the overall study
Reading 2: Enhancing Student Experiential Learning with Structured Interview
Robert M. Cornell, Carol B. Johnson, and William C. Schwartz (2013)
Summary of the overall study
The journal discussed that the business instructors were repeatedly looking for most effective leaning teaching and one of such tools is the experiential learning method.
Data Collection Method
Structured interview
117 respondents ( 85 undergraduate and 32 graduate (MBA) students)

11. Advantage
Structured interview helps inexperienced interviewer in collecting data (✔)
The authors used a structured interview because of the lack of knowledge of the students.
Finally, the result of this study indicates that the experiential learning format is a good tool for students to understand topic objectives and give them a better experience of real-world applications of the desired concept.

12. References
Belwal, R, Tamiru, M & Singh, G, 2012, ‘Microfinance and Sustained Economic Improvement: Women Small-scale Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia’, Journal of International Development, vol.24, pp
Bryman, A & Bell, E 2007, Business research methods, Oxford University Press, USA.
Bryman, A 2015, Social research methods, Oxford university press.
Cornell, RM, Johnson, CB & Schwartz, WC, 2013, ‘Enhancing Student Experiential Learning with Structured Interview’, Journal of Education for Business, vol.88, pp
Fowler Jr, FJ & Mangione, TW 1990, Standardized survey interviewing: Minimizing interviewer-related error, vol. 18, Sage.
King, N 1994, ‘Qualitative methods in organizational research: A practical guide’, The Qualitative Research Interview, pp.253.
Kvale, S 2008, Doing interviews, Sage.
Phellas, CN, Bloch, A & Seale, C 2011, 'Structured methods: interviews, questionnaires and observation', Researching society and culture, vol. 3.
United States General Accounting Office (GAO), Program Evaluation and Methodology Division,1991. Using structured interviewing techniques. USA