Open ended interview question

ADS Question Types
OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS. Open-ended questions include those such as “What do you think about putting all the managers on an intranet?” “Please explain how you make a scheduling decision.” “In what ways does the system extend your capability to do tasks that would not be possible otherwise?” Consider the term open-ended. “Open” actually describes the interviewee’s options for responding. They are open. The response can be two words or two paragraphs. Some examples of open-ended questions are found in Figure 4.2. The benefits of using open-ended questions are numerous and include the following:

1. . Putting the interviewee at ease.
2. Allowing the interviewer to pick up on the interviewee’s vocabulary, which reflects his or her education, values, attitudes, and beliefs.
3. Providing richness of detail.
4. Revealing avenues of further questioning that may have gone untapped.
5.  Making it more interesting for the interviewee.
6. Allowing more spontaneity 

7. Making phrasing easier for the interviewer.
8. Using them in a pinch if the interviewer is caught unprepared.

As you can see, there are several advantages to using open-ended questions. There are, however,
also many drawbacks:
1. Asking questions that may result in too much irrelevant detail.
2. Possibly losing control of the interview.
3. Allowing responses that may take too much time for the amount of useful information gained.
4. Potentially seeming that the interviewer is unprepared.
5. Possibly giving the impression that the interviewer is on a “fishing expedition” with no real objective for the interview.

You must carefully consider the implications of using open-ended questions for interviewing.

CLOSED QUESTIONS. The alternative to open-ended questions is found in the other basic question type: closed questions. Such questions are of the basic form “Is it easy to use the current system?” and, “How many subordinates do you have?” The possible responses are closed to the interviewee, because he or she can only reply with a finite number such as “None,” “One,” or “Fifteen.” Some examples of closed questions can be found in Figure 4.3. Aclosed question limits the response available to the interviewee. You may be familiar with closed questions through multiple-choice exams in college. You are given a question and five responses, but you are not allowed to write down your own response and still be counted as having correctly answered the question.

A special kind of closed question is the bipolar question. This type of question limits the interviewee even further by only allowing a choice on either pole, such as yes or no, true or false, agree or disagree. Examples of bipolar questions can be found in Figure 4.4. The benefits of using closed questions of either type include the following:

1. Saving time.
2. Easily comparing interviews.
3. Getting to the point.
4. Keeping control over the interview.
5. Covering lots of ground quickly.
6. Getting to relevant data.

The drawbacks of using closed questions are substantial, however. They include the following:
1. Being boring for the interviewee.
2. Failing to obtain rich detail (because the interviewer supplies the frame of reference for the interviewee).
3. Missing main ideas for the preceding reason.
4. Failing to build rapport between interviewer and interviewee.

Thus, as the interviewer, you must think carefully about the question types you will use. Both open-ended and closed questions have advantages and drawbacks, as shown in Figure 4.5. Notice that choosing one question type over the other actually involves a trade-off; although an open-ended question affords breadth and depth of reply, responses to open-ended questions
are difficult to analyze. ADS