Dr. Tobias Nowak
UCG Policy Making in the EU 2018/19
Calling Brussels - Manual for the
Skype Interviews
1. Purpose
In this course you will conduct an interview with a person involved with political and/or legal matters of the European Union (EU). This manual will help you prepare and complete the interview. In the course you will learn about interview techniques (mainly semi-structured narrative interviews) and about the working of the EU at the same time. Hopefully, the interviews will make the EU a less abstract international organization. Interviewees will be assigned to you, you do not have to find them yourself. You will not conduct the interview alone but as a team together with other students of the course.
In order to improve your interview skills you will have to approach an interviewee who works at or with the EU (staff of EU institutions, staff of law firms, interest groups, members of the European Parliament, ministers of accession states etc.). These interviews are integrated within the course and are worth thirty percent of your grade (report and paper) and should be around 20 minutes long. You will have to do the necessary research on the person you will be interviewing and prepare questions beforehand. It will be your responsibility to get into contact with the interviewee and arrange a time and date. You are expected to always engage with your interviewee in a professional manner.
2. Getting Started
To get stated you are encouraged to read the following:
William C. Adams, ‘Conducting Semi-Structured Interviews’ in Kathryn E. Newcomer et al. (eds), Handbook of Practical Program Evaluations (Chapter 19, 4th edition, John Wiley & Sons,
2015)
Ben McCammon, ‘Semi-Structured Interviews’
<http://designresearchtechniques.com/casestudies/semi-structured-interviews/>
These two articles will give you the guidance needed to understand how interviews should be conducted.
3. Finding Background Information
The next step in getting started is to collect background information on the interviewee you have been assigned and the organization he or she works for. This entails researching your interviewee beforehand, by finding general information about them on the internet. This way you do not waste time with in the interview with basic questions about their position and specialization within their organization. By having the necessary background information from the start you can ask more detailed questions in the interview. You can for example look at their LinkedIn profile, at their bibliography on the website of the institution they work for or at their own website if they have one etc. Also try to find sufficient information on the organization they work for to get an idea of what 1
they do. What kind of organization is it? Is there a specific policy field this organization specializes in? What are the main issues in this policy field? This background information lets you get to know your interviewee and help you formulate relevant questions. You will gather this background information during the first class and present your first findings to the rest of the class.
4. Formulating Questions
Based on this background information you then come up with questions that you like to ask your interviewee. These questions must be about their professional engagement with EU affairs. The questions should be open questions which the interviewees have to answer in their own words. Do not ask questions that can be answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’. You should also not spend too much time on the interviewee’s background. It is important to gather some background information, but the majority of questions should revolve around the interviewee’s work with the EU. The questions have to be written out beforehand and will be discussed in class. In the interview itself you might have some follow-up questions to the initial questions to clarify what the interviewee has said or to go more in-depth with something they said. These cannot be prepared and have to be improvised during the interview.
5. Arranging an Interview
It is up to you to arrange the time and date to conduct the interview. Make sure that when contacting the interviewee you do so in a professional manner. Also use the full title of the person when writing to them and ensure that the email has a feel of a professional letter. The email should not be very long but should have all important information in it (your names, subject line on what it is for, what you wish to do, etc.). Remember that you have flexibility to conduct the interview as it will be done outside class hours. As best as possible ensure to work with the interviewee’s schedule, as they are dedicating their time to you. Reach out to the interviewee as soon as possible as respondents have busy schedules. Contacting your respondent early on assures an interview as soon as possible/before this course ends.
6. The Interview
You are expected to take notes during the interview, writing down the answers that the interviewee gives you. Ensure to inform the interviewee that you wish to do so and ask for their permission beforehand at the start. Be sure to all introduce yourselves at the start of the interview.
During the interview all group members are expected to ask questions, there should not be just one person asking the questions. Make sure to not interrupt the interviewee unless it is absolutely necessary (due to time restrictions). However, if you wish to clarify a point it is expected that you ask (a) follow-up question(s). Throughout the process ensure to remain professional. Make sure that you are not relying on only one person’s laptop, as technical difficulties do occur, and have a back-up in-case this happens.
7. The Reports
After the interview each group has to write a 500-800 words reflection report on the interview process. How did the preparation go, how the interview, where you happy with the questions you asked, what could you have done better? In addition, each group has to write a 2000-3000 words
interview report in which you report its substantial findings (the questions you asked and the answers you got and what you learned from it about the EU). Both reports will be discussed in class.
8. Time line
Week 1: Background research Week 2: Interview guidelines Week 3: Interviews
Week 4: Writing the reports
Week 5/6/7: Presenting findings to the rest of the course
