Qualitative interviewing is the most common qualitative method in management and higher education management research. It is underpinned by three mutually exclusive onto-epistemological paradigms – objectivism, subjectivism, and social constructionism.

In this research seminar, Professor Stefanie Reissner will first outline the differences between these paradigms and then identify distinct 'packages' of research practices used in objectivist, subjectivist, and social constructionist interview studies. She will then shift attention to what kinds of conclusions interview researchers may draw from their study and what forms of inferential reasoning they employ when doing so.

In this way, she aims to give attendeees a greater understanding of the diversity underpinning interview studies in contemporary management research and to develop a more critical appreciation of the limitations of interview research.

The research seminar will draw on:

• Reissner, S. & Whittle, A. (2022). Interview-based research in management and organisation studies: making sense of the plurality of methodological practices and presentational styles. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, 17(1), 61–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-03-2021-2118
• Whittle, A. & Reissner, S. (2025). Making knowledge claims from qualitative interviews: A typology of epistemological modes. British Journal of Management, 36(1), 3-16. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12845