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Funnel, Inverted-Funnel, and Tunnel Sequence for Questioning

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Write your answers/responses to each question below the respective question. Answer the questions completely and succinctly. This is a good tool to help you with your final exam.

1. Describe the funnel, inverted-funnel, and tunnel sequence for questioning. Explain which sequence would be most appropriate in the following situations, and why.

a. An interviewer interested in finding out the daily routine of a communications manager.
b. A market researcher exploring many customers' reactions to a new product.
c. A supervisor interviewing an employee to determine the success of a computer-training seminar.

2. Describe the five steps involved with the quintamensional plan developed by George Gallup. Select an important social topic that is worthy of a public opinion poll. Using the quintamensional plan, devise ten appropriate interview questions for the poll.

3. Describe five performance factors that are important topics in an appraisal interview. For each of the five factors, construct one sample question that is appropriate for each of following two business contexts (five sample questions for five performance factors for two business contexts for a total of ten questions.)

a. A principal appraising a teacher.
b. A production supervisor appraising a line worker.

4. Explain why or why not a single leadership style is effective for most situations.

5. Explain the advantages and disadvantages of consensus and voting as decision-making processes.

6. As a manager, you have been and/or will be confronted with verbal aggressiveness by employees, peers, and superiors. Describe the strategies that you can employ to maintain high standards of communication effectiveness and professionalism in such circumstances.

7. Explain the demographic characteristics that can be considered in an audience analysis. Describe the adaptations that can be made for the following audiences: college graduates versus high school graduates, adults over 55 versus adults under 25, clerical workers versus manufacturing workers, and employees at a for-profit corporation versus volunteers at a non-profit organization.

8. Explain how shared perspective (including both the presenter's and the audience's perspective) contribute to increased audience understanding and acceptance of the presentation message. Describe techniques that can be used to encourage a shared perspective.

9. Describe the process of persuasion. Describe and explain strategies that can be employed to prevent the audience from tuning out and/or dropping out during the persuasion process.

10. Develop an outline based on the process of persuasion for the following two topics.

a. Persuading the company cafeteria to stop using Styrofoam plates and cups.
b. Persuading a personnel manager to hire several college interns for your department during the summer.

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Solution Summary

? Funnel
Use this question sequence when the interviewee knows the topic well and feels free to talk about it, or when the person wants to express strong feelings. This is the most common of all question sequences for all types of interviews.

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1a. Describe the funnel, inverted-funnel, and tunnel sequence for questioning.
? Funnel
Use this question sequence when the interviewee knows the topic well and feels free to talk about it, or when the person wants to express strong feelings. This is the most common of all question sequences for all types of interviews. In this sequence, the interviewer begins with broad, open-ended questions and moves to more narrow, closed-ended questions. The interviewer may also begin with more general questions and gradually ask more specific questions.
? Inverted Funnel
This question sequence is effective when an interviewee needs help remembering something or to motivate an interviewee to talk. In this sequence, the interviewer begins with narrow, closed-ended questions and moves to more broad, open-ended questions. The interviewer may also begin with more specific questions and gradually ask more general questions.
? Tunnel
In this sequence, all questions have the same degree of openness. Also called the "string of beads" questions sequence, the Tunnel sequence allows for little probing and variation in question structure. It can be useful for simple, surface information interviews, but not for in-depth interviews.

1b. Explain which sequence would be most appropriate in the following situations, and why.

? An interviewer interested in finding out the daily routine of a communications manager.
o Tunnel Interview would be most appropriate for this line of questioning as the interviewer is looking for specific information and since the communications manager knows his job, will need little probing.
? A market researcher exploring many customers' reactions to a new product.
o Funnel Interview - The employee knows the topic well and needs little probing to get information from him/her. As the interview progresses, the interviewer will ask more specific questions to get more detail. Tunnel would not be appropriate because the employee needs to give detailed information. Inverted would not work because it is not a sequence interview (i.e. the employee is not trying to remember a sequence of event as in a employee issue).
? A supervisor interviewing an employee to determine the success of a computer-training seminar.
o An Inverted Funnel interview would be best in this situation. The question sequence should be narrow at first to help the employee remember the seminar and motivate the employee to speak about the course. As the employee becomes more comfortable, the questions can move to more broad, open ended questions. Since this is an in-depth interview, tunnel would not be appropriate and funnel would not be as the employee does not know the topic well.

2a. Describe the five steps involved with the quintamensional plan developed by George Gallup.
An elaborate form of question organization is Gallup's Quintamensional plan. This plan is designed to ensure that the questions explore many aspects of the respondent's opinions. Questions asked (and their order) are:
1. Is the respondent aware of the issue?
2. What are his general feelings about the issue?
3. Questions involving specific parts of the issue.
4. What are the reasons for his views?
5. How intense or strong are his views?
Obviously, this technique involves some aspects of the "funnel" approach, but augments it with other considerations.
2b. Select an important social topic that is worthy of a public opinion poll. Using the quintamensional plan, devise ten appropriate interview questions for the poll.

Combating poverty and social exclusion: Poverty reduction programs are relatively successful; to do even better requires contributions from education, labor market, housing, urban planning and anti-discrimination policies. Regulations concerning the renting of accommodation must not be such that they depress the supply of private housing. Efforts to provide support for poor families must be continued and focus on cost effective ways of increasing supply.

1. Do you know of anyone that is at the poverty level and currently needs housing?
2. Are you willing to have a portion of your state, county, or local taxes go towards helping individuals seek affordable housing?
3. If affordable housing was located in your neighborhood, would you support your local social programs in this endeavor?
4. If yes, what would you be willing to do to help support this cause?
5. Please explain.
6. If no, why do you think this cause is not viable?
7. Please explain.
8. If the local social welfare program in your area imposed specific taxes, would you be willing to participate in another opinion poll?
9. If no, explain why.
10. In the event that local authorities impose new taxes to help support this effort, what are you prepared to do to either support or protest against this new initiative?

3a. ...

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