Aim

Meridian’s engagement survey says store-employee engagement is 3.2 out of 5. Below is a different kind of evidence about the same problem: a short excerpt from a semi-structured interview with a Meridian store employee. This exercise asks you to work out what each kind of evidence can and cannot do, and to practise today’s core skill — matching a qualitative approach to a question. The format is Think / Pair / Share: first you work alone, then in pairs, then we compare conclusions as a group.

The excerpt

The interview was conducted by a member of the research team with a sales assistant who has worked at one of Meridian’s stores for six years. I is the interviewer; R is the respondent. It has been lightly edited; names have been changed.

I: You mentioned the rota earlier. Can you tell me a bit more about how scheduling works for you?

R: The rota, yeah… [pause] Look, it’s not that the hours are bad. I’ve had worse. It’s more that you can’t plan anything. It comes out on Thursday, sometimes Friday, for the next week. So if my sister asks can I take her kids on a Saturday, I say, “ask me Thursday.” Every time. And people laugh, but it… it wears you down.

I: You said earlier that the new manager changed some things?

R: Pani Renata, yes. Since March. She’s fine, honestly, she’s — she works hard, harder than the last one did. But she’s got her targets, and the scheduling comes from head office now, through the app, and when you ask her about it she just… shrugs. “It’s the system.” Before, with Marek, you could swap a shift by asking. Now there’s a form. [laughs] A form, to ask a person standing two metres away from you.

I: And the colleagues who’ve left this year — what do you think was behind that?

R: Different things. Kasia went because of the Saturdays, definitely, she said so. Tomek got more money at the petrol station — but I don’t think it was really the money, because it wasn’t much more. He said something that stuck with me. He said, “at least there I’ll know where I stand.” I don’t know. I’m still here, aren’t I? Fifty metres from my flat, I know the customers, the girls on my shift are like family. But I do look, sometimes. At the ads. Everybody looks.

Task 1: Think (10 minutes, solo)

Read the excerpt carefully — twice. Then, working alone, write down:

Three things this excerpt reveals that the engagement score of 3.2 out of 5 never could. Be specific: point to words or moments in the transcript, not general impressions. What does the excerpt tell you about meanings, mechanisms, or context that no number can carry?
One question the excerpt raises but cannot answer. Something this interview makes you want to know — and that no amount of re-reading this one transcript will settle.

Keep in mind session 1’s distinction: an interview is one person’s account. As you read, notice where the respondent is reporting facts, where she is interpreting, and where she is hesitating.

Task 2: Pair (25 minutes)

Step 1 (5 minutes). Compare notes with your partner. Where did you find the same things in the transcript? Where did you read the same passage differently — and what does that disagreement itself tell you about interpreting qualitative data?

Step 2 (20 minutes). The board has broken Meridian’s problem into sub-questions. For each of the four below, decide together which qualitative approach from today’s session fits best — in-depth interviews, focus groups, observation/ethnography, a case study, or document/content analysis — and write one or two sentences justifying the choice. Name what the approach would gather that the alternatives would not. If you think two approaches would need to be combined, say so — but say which leads and why.

How does the handover between morning and evening shifts actually work in practice, and where does information get lost along the way?
How would store employees respond to a proposed switch to a fully app-based system for shift swaps and holiday requests, before it is rolled out company-wide?
Why has Meridian’s store in Gdynia kept staff turnover below 10% while the company average has climbed to 27%?
What do the last three years of head-office announcements and completed exit-interview forms suggest about how Meridian communicates change to its staff — and how leavers explain their departures?

Task 3: Share (15 minutes, plenary)

Pairs report back. For each sub-question we will compare choices and justifications — expect to defend yours, and expect reasonable pairs to disagree.

Then, as a group, the closing question:

Suppose Meridian studied these same four topics with a survey instead — standardised questions, all 450 employees, CAWI. For each topic, what would be gained (breadth? comparability? prevalence estimates? anonymity?) and what would be lost (which specific insights from today’s discussion simply could not appear in the data)? Where does that leave the relationship between the 3.2 and the transcript you have just read: rivals, or partners?

Before you leave

Look back at the one question you wrote down in Task 1 — the thing this interview raises but cannot answer. Write one sentence saying which method (qualitative or quantitative) you would use to answer it, and why. Keep it: in session 12, when we learn how to conduct interviews and focus groups, you will design the instrument that asks it.