For the informational interview, select one topic/one chapter from either volume

For the informational interview, select one topic/one chapter from either volume of the Wrench set.
Identify someone in the workplace—someone employed in a for profit or not-for-profit/nonprofit organization, whether educational, industrial, governmental, healthcare related, or any other of the many types of organizations identified by Wrench in that first chapter. This person can be a relative, a friend, a friend of a friend, a work colleague, a supervisor, or anyone you can identify who is a full-time employee somewhere. Those of you who are currently employed full-time may find it convenient to select a coworker or supervisor to interview, but please choose anyone you want, as long as the person has experienced the process described in the chapter you choose (e.g., the organizational socialization process, issues of diversity—a human resources manager might be good for that one—a project manager who works with teams and groups for the chapter on work group dynamics; a person in a position of leadership for the one of the chapters on leadership).
The questions for the interview should be drawn from the content of the chapter you chose (or from more than one chapter, if there is more than one chapter about the topic and you would like to include some of that content). Go through the chapter and think about the various topic headings and ideas/concepts/principles/practices discussed under each heading. Those topics will provide the basis of your questions for the interview.
Your goal is to get the person you’re interviewing to talk about his/her experience with that process, so you should ask questions that will elicit responses from the person you’re interviewing that map onto the subject of the chapter as the various facets of that subject are discussed in the chapter sections. You don’t have to choose all the sections—just enough to make the interview rich and interesting. You will want to find out about the person’s experience with the topic of the chapter.
You don’t necessarily have to use the exact terms from the chapter in the interview questions, but ask the questions in such a way that you’ll get answers relevant to the concepts. You will definitely need to use the terms in the paper you write, though.
To begin the interview, ask the person to provide some information about his/her educational background, the person’s role or position in the organization, how long the person has been in that position, how the person attained that position, and any other background questions that you think may be important for purposes of the interview. Include questions about the organization, too—how big it is, what is purpose is/what type of organization it is, and whatever other details may be relevant to the content of the chapter.
Then you would proceed with the next part of the interview, which should be focused on the content of the chapter. For instance, if you select the chapter on organizational socialization that focuses on stages of organizational socialization (chapter 3), you could base the questions on the stages of organizational socialization and the various content areas the person had to learn and/or communication/messages during the organizational socialization process and related terms/processes. Take notes or record/video (with permission!) what the person says.
Then, when you write up the interview report, you will connect what the person said with concepts/ideas/themes/terms from the chapter, integrating that person’s responses with ideas from the chapter.
Length: Three to five double spaced pages. You don’t need to use quotes from the interviewee; you can describe what the person said in your own words as you describe the person’s experience. You should include specific terms/concepts from the chapter, with page numbers, making sure that a definition of those terms/concepts emerges somewhere in your report.