Individual interviewsversus group interviews - Essay Example

Individual Interviews versus Group Interviews Individual Interviews versus Group Interviews Individual interviews are perceived to be the most appropriate form of data collection in the event that an interview process requires that the interviewee shares a lot of information. The individual interview setting creates a comfortable environment that allows for interviewees to share more information about themselves than they would have been willing to share if the interview had been conducted in a group setting.

Individual interviews are important in the event that the interviewer wants to give the interviewee an opportunity to participate more directly in the interview and have a greater degree of buy-in to the eventual results of the assessment process (Harris, 2013). Individual interviews are also found to be an appropriate form of data collection in the event that an interviewer needs to ask a number of follow up questions. During individual interviews, there is no significant time delay between when a question is first posed by the interviewer and when the interviewee answers it.

Both the interviewer and the interviewee can be able to immediately react to what the other happens to be saying. A key advantage to his synchronous communication is identified as being the fact that the answers provided by the interviewee are found to be more spontaneous without having any extended reflection (Harris, 2013). Group interview or focus groups would be deemed to be more appropriate or be beneficial when used in addition to individual interviews in the event that the interview wants to determine how the different candidates are able to interact with each other in a group setting.

The interviewer may ask the interviews to work together towards the resolution of problems. This will provide an opportunity whereby the interviewer will be able to observe and very carefully note how each individual performs. Group interview are found be more appropriate in the event that an interviewer wishes to reduce the amount of time it takes to conduct the interview. Individual interviews tend to take a lot of time but with group interviews, a number of candidates can all be interviewed at one go (Denscombe, 2007).

ReferencesDenscombe, M. (2007). The good research guide: For small-scale social research projects. Maidenhead: Open University Press.Harris, M. J. (2013). Evaluating public and community health programs. San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass.