journal entry

conducted and transcribed 3 of the 4 interviews for my project

1 of the interviews was very curious:

The guarded answers from the manager surprised the interviewer. He seemed relaxed and casual but gave substantially less information in his answers than did the others interviewed. He maintained eye contact with the interviewer, didn’t fidget, smiled, seemed relaxed in every way except for his answers. This guardedness did not diminish throughout the interview.

It should be noted that unlike the other interviewees he did not bring a copy of the questions to the interview for reference, although he was given one in advance. It also should be noted that the interviewer has had no work related contact with him to judge whether or not this is his customary way of dialoguing.

If this is not his normal way of dialoguing and the absence of a page of questions for him to reference during the interview was not the cause of the guardedness, the interviewer could conclude his position within the organization requires him to be guarded in what he says. That is a red flag!

What does this sound like to you?

Learning organizations give the freedom to fail. What causes his guadedness? It would be interesting to interview and compare the answers from another manager within the organization. But that was not within the original scope of this project.