Description
Using examples from the text and other course resources, your task this week is to devise a scheme to code and categorize your transcript data in a disciplined manner to uncover at least four major themes from the interview data. Spend time with the transcript and use comments in the margins, color coding, and other methods to identify key concepts discussed during the interview. Then, categorize your codes. Identify themes and organize them with participant quotes as evidence into a table. For example, in an interview about workplace conflict, you may see repeated themes of anger or frustration. You may note issues related to power or leadership. Your participant may have reflected on interpersonal communication challenges. Perhaps in hindsight, the participant noted issues of regret or relief. Your participant may also recall lessons learned from the conflict and its resolution. For this assignment, you will submit two files:Your coded interview transcriptA table of themes with evidence from the interview dataIn coding your interview data, you may use any system that works for you. A simple approach is to use color-coding in Microsoft Word with a code key. An example is provided using this format. Please take a few minutes to review the example. It includes guidance at the top to illustrate how you might approach developing themes from the coded data. The table of themes must include a minimum of four themes identified from your coded interview data with direct quotes from the transcript presented as evidence and cited by line number. You may use any format you prefer for your table of themes. An Effective Communication.docx is provided that can be used as a template if you’d like. Member checking is not a required component of this assignment, but if you engage in member checking, please indicate so in your table of themes. As you work on this assignment, keep in mind that codes and themes are not the same. You will have a larger number of codes that will be grouped into fewer categories used to develop themes. You will normally have codes that end up not being part of a theme. If you are unable to attend the Week 9 live session, please be sure to watch the recording before submitting this assignment.
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DSRT 850: Qualitative Research Methods
Coded Interview Transcript Excerpts and Theme Development Example
This example does not include a full interview transcript; instead, it illustrates multiple codes
within two excerpts from an interview. When working with a full transcript, your codes will be
spread throughout the full document, and you will likely have more instances of each code.
Remember that your purpose in coding is to use the interview data to represent the participant’s
experience with the phenomenon of a workplace conflict; as such, only the participant’s words
should be coded.
Once you finish coding, your next step is to categorize your codes. In this example, you might
combine Newness to Job and Reliance on Supervisor into a category called Transition
Challenges. You might categorize Emotional Impact, Angry with Self, and Loneliness into one
broader category called Emotions of Conflict. You might use Communication Challenges as a
category on its own. You might combine Gratefulness, Learning from Experience, and Benefits
of Conflict together and use the latter as the category name.
From those categories, you will develop themes for the participant’s experience. For this
assignment, you need to identify a minimum of four themes. It is important that your final
themes reflect the participant’s experience instead of categories of information. For example,
you should not have a theme called Workplace Conflict. This was the phenomenon being
explored, but these words do not reflect anything about a participant’s unique experience with
the phenomenon. Final themes for this example might be Transition Challenges: Adjusting to
New Job and Developing Independence; Emotions of Conflict: Loneliness, Anger, and Stress;
Communication Challenges: Ineffective Workplace Collaboration; and Benefits of Conflict:
Development of Mutual Respect and Effective Communication.
Interviewer: Tiffany Hamblin
Interviewee: Rebecca (pseudonym)
Date and Time: August 13, 2023, 3:30 PM
Location: Virtual via Zoom
Code Key: Newness to Job, Reliance on Supervisor, Emotional Support, Emotional Impact,
Communication Challenges, Passion for Work, Learning from Experience, Angry with Self,
Loneliness, Gratefulness, Benefits of Conflict
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Interviewer: How long had you been working in the position when the conflict occurred?
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Participant: I had only been in the job for about six months at this point.
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Interviewer: So pretty new. Could you tell me about what your working relationship was like?
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Participant: I was still learning and depending on him for training and guidance with decisions I
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wasn’t yet comfortable with.
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Interviewer: How would you describe the support you received from colleagues or others at
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your workplace?
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Participant: Well, we are a small department, and um, I didn’t really feel like I had been able to
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bond with any of my coworkers because of the strained relationship I had with my boss. I was
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really pretty much alone at work. I have a good friend outside work. I relied on her for
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emotional support during that time, but she lives in my old hometown. She wasn’t here with me.
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She encouraged me to talk with him, but I just didn’t feel like it would do any good.
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Interviewer: I know this was a really hard time for you. How would you describe the emotions
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you felt while you were going through this challenge?
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Participant: The emotions I was feeling were intense. I cried every morning before work.
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Sometimes, I couldn’t make it through the day without crying, but I cried during the day also. It
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was a really awful time in my life. I was in a new place in a new job and really regretting my
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decision to move here at that point. Um, my time outside work was just as lonely as my work
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time. I felt like I had no one. I didn’t know anyone here. Well, I did have my one close friend I
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was talking to about it, but she was 500 miles away.
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Interviewer: What are some ways you tried to cope with your feelings?
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Participant: I have always been a workaholic. Work gives me a purpose, and there is nothing I
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enjoy more than watching students be successful with something they really want to do. It’s the
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most rewarding work I could ever do. I absolutely love it. I found joy through working with
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students.
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Interviewer: Would you say work was both a source of stress and a way to cope with that
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stress?
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Participant: Yes, if I hadn’t had those joyful moments with my students, I honestly don’t know
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how I would have survived all the stress. So my work truly is rewarding, and it was even during
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that time.
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Interviewer: It’s really great to be able to work at something you enjoy. Thinking back to the
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conflict, could you tell me about the moment you knew it was something you would have to
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work through?
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Participant: To know that I was allowing him to rob me from that joy was really hard for me. I
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was angry with myself. Why couldn’t I just get over this? I felt more alone than I had ever felt
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before. I really didn’t know what to do at that point.
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Interviewer: I’m really glad to know everything is better now. How do you feel about the
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situation now that you can look back knowing the hard times are behind you?
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Participant: Now that it’s over, I guess I’m almost glad it happened. I learned so much about
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how to stand up for myself. I also learned what not to do as a leader. I think it may have been
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good for him, too. We were just not communicating well from my first day on the job. Having
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the opportunity to really engage in an open conversation about what I needed was the first step in
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helping me understand that he really did care. He shared my passion for the work we do, but he
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just didn’t know how to really talk with me.
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Interviewer: I love that you have this new perspective. Could you tell me about anything else
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you learned from the experience or positive outcomes that came from it?
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Participant: Yes, um, he got better, and I learned how to interact with him in more productive
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ways. I think he came to understand that I still needed to be able to come to him for decisions.
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There was still a lot I needed to learn, and he was the best person to teach me. Really, I was
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completely dependent on him to train me because he was the only person who knew what needed
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to happen in this job. I think maybe he recognized for the first time how important this work is
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to me. He realized how much better we could be together. Things are just so much better now.
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I really can’t describe what a difference there is in our relationship. I don’t think we would have
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gotten to this point without this experience. I am so grateful.
Qualitative Research Table of Themes
Effective Communication
Line 42
“…Large groups are more difficult to manage, communication wise…”
Line 29
“…I prefer small numbers of people to get my point across…”
Line 121
“…one on one works better when there is conflict…”
Line 95
“…communication was broken…”
Conflict Impact
Line 39
“…the stress on the team was making everyone uncomfortable…”
Line 166
“…resolving the problem would help everyone on the team…”
Line 118
“ waiting to see if it would work out was not working…”
Line 99
“…I had to make an effort to fix the issue…”
Learn from Past Experiences
Line 37
“…learned the hard way that conflicts between even two people will create tension in the
whole group…”
Line 133
“…the tension was too great and I had to approach the person and get this resolved…”
Line 87
“…a similar experience at another job was remarkably similar so I used that information
here…”
Line 142
“,,,As I expected, the issue was resolving with the intervention…”
Leadership and Work Drive
Line 57
“…I was in charge and it was my responsibility for the good of the team…”
Line 99
“…I looked for ways to mitigate the problems…”
Line 61
“…my boss was expecting me to step up and lead…”
Line 115
“…I wanted to lead my people into a better team…”
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