Creating Qualitative Interview Protocols

This manuscript describes a technique which facilitates the documentation of research participant stories interpreting their experiences in response to a research question. From a Narrative Inquiry approach interview protocols were developed based upon the exploration of a research question. The technique may be applied when gathering qualitative data in one-on-one interviews. Each interview protocol provided consistency across a number of interviews; but also allowed for flexibility of responses by the research participant within their respective interviews. This document provides a description of a technique which addresses the conundrum of consistency and flexibility. Four different research projects are described in this manuscript. The specific interview protocol is presented and it is shown how the protocol serves to address the project’s research question. This document concludes with a description of how these techniques may be employed, in general, to contribute to the exploratory investigation of a research topic in business and management studies.