The topic of my master’s thesis is to develop an integrated corporate health management and thus to sustainably influence the mental and physical health as well as the general satisfaction of the employees.
The focus is on positively influencing the leadership culture and thus the mental health of team leaders and employees. Transparent communication within the company is also integrated into this complex of topics in order to increase the acceptance of decisions and create participation. The aspect of conflict management must also be included.
The aim is to reduce psychological stress through suitable, sustainable measures. With the help of expert interviews on various topics such as ergonomics, healthy leadership, conflict management, collegiality, participation and stress, an overview of current health measures is created and further developed.
Qualitative expert interviews will now help to get in touch with the various players in occupational health management and obtain detailed information. In addition to team leaders and employees, the company doctor and HR managers will also be included.
In order to learn as much as possible about the potential for conflict, it was decided to conduct the analysis using guided expert interviews. The qualitative-understanding approach is about „understanding“ in the sense of objects, contexts and processes. These should not only be analyzed, but should also be able to be empathized with and re-experienced. Thereby, qualitative science starts from the understanding of the unique, the individual, while quantitative science starts explanatorily from general principles and laws (Mayring, P. (2015). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken).
Therefore, in the specific case, this form represents an appropriate instrument of analysis. A questionnaire-oriented survey would already be too predetermined with the answer options and there would be no possibility to include new thoughts and opinions. Thus, currently prevailing problems could possibly not be fully captured and thus no new content could be analyzed. For this reason, this analysis is suitable for capturing topics that recur in the interviews conducted and might otherwise be neglected.
Since the interviews are to be conducted as part of the survey, the aim is to capture and interpret the views and attitudes of the interviewees. In the context of the team survey, group and/or individual interviews are possible and may be semi-standardized or non-standardized. Using a guideline and predetermined topics and a list of questions, the same questions are answered in each interview. However, these are not fixed in order to create a natural conversational atmosphere and to disturb the flow of the conversation as little as possible. In order to reconstruct social facts, it must be ensured that each question with different thematic aspects is answered by each interview partner (Gläser, J. & Laudel, G. (2010). Experteninterviews und qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Als Instrumente rekonstruierender Untersuchungen).
Heterogeneous teams in terms of socio-demographic characteristics would be particularly desirable here. This broadly diversified target group makes it possible to obtain stimuli and impressions from the most diverse areas.
To ensure anonymity as well as to avoid influence, the interviews will be conducted as anonymously as possible. For the transcription it is necessary to record the interviews. After transcription, the recordings will of course be deleted and not passed on to third parties. The creation of the target group specific guideline for the interviews is done in several steps. First, hypotheses on the respective topics are formulated. This is followed by the construction and elaboration of guidelines for each target group. It is important to formulate the questions as openly and neutrally as possible so as not to influence the interviewees in advance.
The structure of the guide is divided into the topics general, stressors, communication, cooperation, team leadership, conflict management and participation. The interview questions are designed in such a way that the experts can give their personal assessment on each question, but also new aspects can be mapped for the later conception of measures. To create a high level of acceptance and encourage employees with a positive attitude to participate, it is very important to build on the analyses already carried out and create a clear communication structure. The project should therefore be launched with information events.
Transparent and clear communication is the cornerstone for successful implementation and gaining the trust of those involved. The teams to be surveyed as well as the individual employees of the teams already drawn are drawn by lot.
After the successful transcription of the interviews conducted in advance, a qualitative content analysis follows in the further course. The insights gained are structured using a model. Certain topics, contents and aspects are filtered out of the material and a content-related structuring is carried out. The aim of this content structuring is to filter out and summarize certain topics and content from the interviews conducted.
Which content is extracted relates to the previously created theory-based categories. Thus, after the text has been prepared, the paraphrased material is summarized according to both subcategories and main categories with the help of the category system.
With the help of the conducted interviews, the listed fields of action could be examined in more detail and thus the weak points could be worked out. In a next step, these fields of action, which entail a particularly great need for action, were linked to practical derivations that can also be implemented in the company. For example, what can be done practically in the company to reduce conflicts and lower psychological pressure.
For me personally, it was an extremely exciting project, firstly the practical work and secondly, of course, the use of methods. Expert interviews are a versatile method that also plays a major role in user experience research. Possible usability problems in the store can be illuminated in depth in this way. In this way, it is possible to understand why users have problems with certain functions and not just that they have problems.