Focus group interview: Senior management level

Our suggestions: § Time: Between 2-3 hours § Equipment: Voice recorder, video recording device, name tags. § Size: 5-10 persons. A smaller group can provide answers that are more elaborate, a larger group will give a broader insight. § Participants: Preferably, the participants should represent different levels within the management, since this may provide greater variations within views and opinions. In larger organizations, middle management and team management may suffice. § NB: You should be aware of hierarchical considerations and power relations between participants. Differences in status might affect the answers. Keep this in mind during analysis.


This tool will help you get an insight into the senior management’s knowledge of diversity strategies as well as their opinions on the matter. We suggest that you conduct a focus group interview, since the purpose is to get a general overview of the management’s knowledge and opinions, in order to compare these with the opinions and thoughts of the employees. Furthermore, a focus group interview is less demanding in terms of time and resources. However, you may perform individual, in-depth interviews using the same questions as those stated below.

Details regarding the participants in the focus group interview

Participant 1

Participant 2

Participant 3

Participant 4

Participant 5

Name code

(e.g. initials)

Job specification (brief)

Gender (M/F)

Age

Describes themselves as non-majority member (X = yes)

Questions and answers from the focus group interview

The following schedule is meant as a help for plotting answers during transcription.

The questions are based on the assumption that the organisation in question has been rated as having high diversity within management as well as showed correspondingly high business performance.

Question:

Answer:

Your comments:

1.      Diversity as a concept

1.1.  How do you understand the concept of diversity?

1.2.  When thinking of your work and your workplace, what are your thoughts on diversity?

1.3.  How do you think about diversity regarding the core activities in your department, compared the entire organisation?

2.      The diversity strategy of the organisation

2.1.  Do you know the diversity strategy of your organisation?

2.2.  Can you remember one or more key areas, targets or efforts regarding diversity?

2.3.  Does the diversity strategy influence your work in the organisation? If yes, how? If no, why not?

2.4.  Ask the management regarding the points from the Desktop Study that you could not find. Why is this the case?

3.      Diversity management in practice

3.1.  How do you and your colleagues work with diversity in your everyday work?

3.2.  Do you think in terms of diversity in recruitment, employee retention and talent development? If yes, how? If no, why not?

3.3.  Does the organisation have any formal goals when it comes to staff diversity within the organisation on management and employee levels? If yes, which? If no, why not?

3.4.  (If you could not find statistical data on staff composition, please ask the following): Are there any statistics on staff composition based on diversity on management and employee levels in the organisation? If yes, how do the numbers compare to the 70% rule, if no, why does the organisation not have the data?

3.5.  Do you mention diversity in your job advertisements? If yes, how? If no, why not?

3.6.  Do you think of diversity in connection with innovation and development (internally as well as regarding customers and services)? If yes, how? If no, why not?

3.7.  Do you, as management, provide the opportunity for employees to combine their respective diverse backgrounds? If yes, then when and how? If no, why not?

3.8.  Do you openly acknowledge the employees for their ability to combine these differences and work together? If yes, how? If no, why not?

4.       Personal opinions of diversity at work

4.1.  Do you believe that diversity is beneficial to the performance and profits of your organisation? Why/why not?

4.2.  Do you think that diversity is beneficial to the work of the management within the organisation? Why/why not?

4.3.  Do you think that diversity is beneficial to the work of teams within the organisation, in terms of efficiency and quality of the work? Why/why not?

4.4.  Do you think that diversity is beneficial to the working environment of your organisation? Why/why not?

4.5.  Do you value working in an organisation that focuses on diversity? Why/why not?

5.      Final comments

5.1.  Do you have any suggestions regarding diversity at your workplace? Are there opportunities for improvement and do you have ideas as to solutions?

5.2.  Do you have any further comments or thoughts that you would like to add?