Goals

After reading this article, you will be able to do the following:

• Explain why rapport building is important in ethnographic interviewing.
• Determine when the ethnographer and the informant establish rapport.
• Identify how ethical issues may arise during rapport building.
• Apply the rapport-building process and stages in your own research.

Why Rapport Building Is Important

Ethnographic studies rely on the relationship between informants, the researcher, and the community they are observing. Building rapport is particularly important to ethnographic interviews as it enables the interviewer to elicit information from their informant and encourages them to disclose information about their culture. This relationship is based on trust, which allows information to flow freely between them. This free flow creates positive feelings about the interviews for both informants and ethnographers (Spradley, 2016), which allows both to either be in tune or click with each other (Zakaria & Musta’amal, 2014).

All parties involved in the ethnographic research process must get along in some way. They must build rapport or some type of good working relationship. Establishing rapport is like learning the rules of engagement in any relationship. You learn what is expected, what is allowed, and what might not be well-understood as you engage with another person. When you lay out the ground rules from the beginning, you prevent misunderstandings, confusion, anxiety, and suspiciousness to occur between you and your informants throughout the study.

What If Rapport Is Not Built?

Imagine that you are invited to participate as an informant in a study about foreign exchange students who play a sport at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). This is all the information you have. You show up to the interview and realize that you are the only male and the only White person present. Upon further inquiry, you realize that you were not told that the study’s focus is primarily on Black female foreign exchange students who play a sport. Instantly you feel confused, disrespected, very annoyed, and that your time was wasted.

In this example, rapport between you—the informant—and the researcher was not established. Why? The researcher did not give you all the relevant information necessary to participate and to engage you as the informant. They did not clearly lay the rules of the road. This might be a simple example; however, it illustrates that when you do not establish rapport, there is a lack of meaningful dialogue between the researcher and their informants. Hence, the phenomenon, cultural group, and social world that you are studying is inaccurately represented. To stress how critically important it is to establish rapport in ethnographic research, go back to our example: if the White male student stayed and participated in the study, whatever he disclosed would not accurately represent SLCC’s Black female foreign exchange student athletes’ lived experiences.

Friendship in an Ethnographic Study

Developing a true friendship between you, the ethnographer, and your informants can be helpful; however, this does not always occur. Even so, you can still establish rapport. For instance, in the example above with the White male student, the researcher could have established rapport and mutual respect by being transparent and honest, by truly revealing the athletes’ identities, by disclosing the study’s purpose, and by clearly defining all study expectations. Then, the student would have been able to participate in the study.

Ethical Concerns—a Delicate Dance

Berger (2001) related that sharing her personal stories and true identities with informants in her field study helped form relationships, exchange information, and establish rapport. She also spoke about ethical concerns that might arise as you try to develop friendships and establish rapport in ethnographic research. To be successful in both areas, you’ll need to create a balance, which is a delicate dance. On one hand, you want to get close to your informants while maintaining a distance so that the quality of your study is not compromised. On the other hand, to observe mutual respect, you must ensure that you are not too distant (Zakaria & Musta’amal, 2014).

Drawing boundaries is often difficult for even the most skilled ethnographers as they establish intimacy and friendship with their informants. The lines between the ethnographer and the informant might become blurred as they negotiate access, develop trust, and build rapport (Sandiford, 2015). For that reason, do not lose focus of the study’s purpose—continue to develop rapport, but avoid compromising your research’s quality and rigor. These actions can help to produce authentic results and, most importantly, ensure that the research reflects your informants’ shared information and viewpoint while upholding the high standards required in ethnographic research.

Existing literature highlights rapport’s importance in ethnographic research (Dundon & Ryan, 2010). To enhance your understanding, consider these best practices:

• Be Transparent: Communicate your research’s nature and purpose to your informants, which prevents deception about their involvement.
• Acknowledge Power Dynamics: Recognize and minimize any imbalances between researchers and informants (Dundon & Ryan, 2010). Avoid exploiting informants for personal gain (Creswell, 2013).
• Build Trust: Establish trust through genuine interest, respect, and empathy. Actively listen to your informant’s perspectives.
• Avoid Leading Questions: Use open-ended questions that encourage free expression without biasing responses (Creswell, 2013).
• Foster Mutual Benefit: Make rapport mutually rewarding for you and your informants (Zakaria & Musta’amal, 2014).
• Seek Informants’ Perspectives: Immerse yourself in your informant’s world to gain valuable insights (Zakaria & Musta’amal, 2014).
• Motivate Informants: Create a supportive environment that encourages accurate information sharing (Horsfall, Eikelenboom, Draisma & Smit, 2021).
• Promote Authenticity: Encourage your informants to be themselves and aim to be a trusted and accepted presence (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008).
• Practice Mutual Attentiveness: Show active interest in your informant’s stories and experiences; value their input.
• Maintain a Positive Image: Project positivity, respect, and professionalism. Use appropriate humor and compliments to build rapport.
• Avoid Detrimental Behaviors: Refrain from sharing negative study information or excessive personal details, which can hinder rapport.
• Rapport Is Crucial: Remember that rapport is essential for reliable and valid ethnographic research (Dundon & Ryan, 2010).

Rapport Building Stages

Spradley (2016) offers a rapport-building model for ethnographic interviewing that will help you determine when either rapport is developing well or when it is no longer on course. In cases where the rapport process develops successfully, it typically goes through the following stages: apprehension, exploration, cooperation, and participation (Spradley, 2016).

Stage 1: Apprehension

Whether you are an expert or a beginner in conducting ethnographic interviews, it is normal to sense apprehension and uncertainty among your informants. Even though you’ve developed rapport by now, and your informants know the study’s rules of engagement or the rules of the road, apprehension is inevitable. Do not let apprehension either overwhelm or distract you. For example, imagine you are conducting an ethnographic interview with detention facility youth. You might ask:

This question might seem straightforward since these are programs the youth participate in daily; however, you might get responses such as the following:

Here, the youth are apprehensive, not forthcoming with rich information, and in turn, you as the ethnographer might feel overwhelmed and discouraged.

How to Prevent Apprehension

Consider this example: You are conducting an ethnographic interview with female domestic-violence victims in the Afghan community, and you determine that your female informants are highly apprehensive from the beginning. This apprehension comes in the form of brief and curt responses. The females are concerned that the imam—spiritual leader—and others in their immediate family and wider community will find out that they are talking to an outsider about a private and inside issue. In this example, you must confirm with the victims that (a) the information they share is kept confidential; (b) their identities are not revealed; (c) their responses are not recorded anonymously; (d) the information they share is very valuable to the research; and (e) their safety and security are of utmost importance to you and the research process. In so doing, you will put their minds at ease, and they will likely talk and continue to talk.

You can also ask the female victims descriptive questions such as the following:

These questions further encourage your informants to speak freely. Once you keep these female victims talking, they will move quickly through the apprehension stage.

Stage 2: Exploration

In the exploration phase, neither you nor your informants are feeling uncertain or suspicious. The relationship that you’ve established is growing, and now it is easier for you both to learn more about each other. You are now listening to and observing your informants more closely. In this phase, it is common that your informants will have questions that go unspoken, such as:

Knowing about these question types provides more insight as to how you and your informant feel at this stage.

The more you talk with each other and share information, the more relaxed you both will become. It is imperative that your informants feel free and relaxed during this stage and that they should not feel pressured to fully cooperate. It will take time for your informants to grasp and understand the nature of ethnographic interviews and to see if your actions throughout the study match the explanations you offered to them in the initial interview (Spradley, 2016). For these reasons, full disclosure, transparency, and restating expectations are important throughout the study.

Why Explanations and Restatements Are Important in the Exploration Stage

In the exploration stage, three key rapport-building principles apply. First, ethnographers must offer repeated explanations. For instance, when dealing with female domestic-violence victims in the Afghan community, encourage rapport by reiterating your intentions. For example, explain that:

Second, restate what informants share. For instance, ask:

This demonstrates understanding and values your informants’ input in their own words.

Third, prioritize usage over meaning in ethnographic interviews. Avoid delving into motives and meanings, as it may come across as judgmental. For example, refrain from asking:

These questions can imply mistrust or concealment (Spradley, 2016).

Ethnographic interviews are different from other interview types because they do not ask why and what do you mean questions. To the female victims, these probing or why questions suggest that their responses are not clear, and subtly they cause the informants to feel as if they are not clear in explaining their own experiences in their ordinary language (Spradley, 2016). Repeated explanations combined with restatements allow ethnographic interviews to move quickly through the exploration stage.

Stage 3: Cooperation

By the cooperation stage, you have formed complete cooperation between you and your informants. You both know what to expect from each other, and there is mutual trust. Neither of you is as worried as before about making mistakes in asking or answering questions or offending the other (Spradley, 2016). The meetings you have now are more satisfying. You also notice that your informants are answering more questions and are even willing to pose questions to you in return. Your informants feel so comfortable that spontaneously they might correct you. Drawing on the female-victims example, your informant may say:

Stage 4: Participation

Participation is the final stage in the rapport-building process. Here, your informants might accept and recognize their role in teaching you, the ethnographer. This enhanced dimension to your working relationship comes weeks after you both have been working together. You experience a deeper sense of cooperation from your informants as they do not feel pressured, and there is more willingness from you to immerse yourself in the process. You will find that your informants have become more assertive in the interview process and bring more information to you, helping you as the ethnographer to discover patterns in their culture (Spradley, 2016). Unfortunately, not all your informants will make it to this final stage. If they do, they become informant observers in their cultural setting, and your role is to help them accurately record what they know.

Conclusion

When studying harmonious relationships across cultures and to understand the qualities that build rapport, pay close attention to each cultural setting’s nature of friendly relations. Trust is crucial as informants need to believe that the disclosures made to you are protected and will not bring harm. As an ethnographer, prioritize your informant’s welfare and dignity over serving scientific purposes. Giving positive impressions, learning cultural rules, and maintaining authentic communication help to build trust between you and your informants (Strohmayer & Comber, 2015). Failure to establish trust leads to your informants either withholding information, acting unnaturally, or compromising the collected data’s validity and reliability (Zakaria & Musta’amal, 2014).

Practice

In this activity, you will explore different scenarios involving various informant groups and reflect on rapport-building strategies with them. Read each scenario carefully and put yourself in the ethnographer’s shoes. For each scenario, consider the two reflection questions provided. Write down your responses and ideas as you reflect on these questions and think about practical strategies to build rapport with the specific informant group mentioned in each scenario. Reflection questions will help you apply what you have learned after reading this article.

Scenario One

Domestic Violence Victims from the Afghan Community at Salt Lake City’s YWCA.

As the ethnographer, you aim to determine apprehension while interviewing five Afghani women who are domestic violence victims at Salt Lake City’s YWCA. This is your first contact with these women, and you are aware of their cultural and religious ideologies, which dictate the way these women handle family issues. And you were warned that they might not be very forthcoming.

Reflection Questions

1. How would you determine and address the informants if they are either apprehensive, uncertain, or anxious?
2. How important is it to clearly restate the interview’s expectations, motives, and purpose?

Scenario Two

Members of the Karen Tribe at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City.

You aim to determine if you have full cooperation while interviewing seven members of the Karen Tribe of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, at the IRC in downtown Salt Lake City. These individuals sought refuge in the United States due to the genocidal ethnic conflict in Myanmar, and they are one of the largest ethnic minorities in their country. You are conducting an interview with them to better understand the importance of the conflict their group is in against their military government. This is your second interview with them at the IRC. You have determined that the informants have become a bit more relaxed and comfortable as they are offering smiles and gentle nods compared to when you first met them. You want to ensure that you are not engaging in behaviors that deter good rapport.

Reflection Questions

1. Do the informants feel pressured to cooperate?
2. Are the informants engaging in resistance? Has their body language changed? Is there prolonged silence in the interviews? Are they offering curt and short responses?

Scenario Three

Black Transgender Sex Workers in Hunts Point, New York, City.

You aim to determine if the women in this group are fully immersed in the process and appear comfortable in responding to questions. You are interviewing Black transgender women who make a living as sex workers in Hunts Point, New York City, and you are asking them about the ways they are treated when engaging with law enforcement officers after becoming sexual assault victims. This meeting is occurring after a few interviews. The women are more engaged and less concerned about how their responses appear to the ethnographer.

Reflection Questions

1. Are the informants fully cooperating?  Have both you, the ethnographer, and your informants agreed to the interview’s definition and that the interview’s goal is to discover the participant’s culture in their ordinary language?
2. Do they appear to be less concerned if they will make mistakes in responding?

Scenario Four

Tongan Crip Gang (TCG) Members in Utah State Prison.

You are conducting an interview at the Utah State Prison with Tongan Crip gang members. You aim to determine if TCG members are sharing accurate responses, or if they are withholding for fear of hurting your feelings. This is your last meeting; therefore, you have established trust and built a good rapport with these individuals after six months of interactions. Your ethical concern now is whether they are giving you responses to please you and avoiding responses that are authentic. You seem not to have kept a great balance in terms of distance and proximity with them.

Reflection Questions

1. Are Informants fully sharing accurate responses?
2. Do you think you have become too close to the informants? Have you maintained a fair amount of distance?

References

Gray, D. E. (2014). Ethnography and Participant Observation. Doing Research in the Real World (3rd Ed.). London, UK: Sage.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.

Dundon, T. & Ryan, P. (2010). Interviewing Reluctant Respondents: Strikes, Henchmen and Gaelic Games. Organizational Research Methods, 13(3), 562-581. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428109335571

Eriksson, P., & Kovalainen, A. (2008). Participant Observation. Qualitative Methods in Business Research. London: SAGE. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4135/9780857028044. 

Horsfall, M., Eikelenboom, M., Draisma, S. & Smit, J. H. (2021). The Effect of Rapport on Data Quality in Face-to-Face Interviews: Beneficial or Detrimental? Int J Environ Res Public Health, 18(20):10858. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182010858. PMID: 34682600; PMCID: PMC8535677.

Sandiford, P. (2015). Participant Observation as Ethnography or Ethnography as Participant Observation in Organizational Research. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137484956.0031

Spradley, J. P. (2016). The ethnographic interview. Holt Rinehart & Winston.

Strohmayer, A. & Comber, A. (2015). Ethical Encounters – Rapport in Sensitive Settings. Retrieved from https://ethicalencountershci.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/chi2015-ethical-encounters_p5-stroymaher.pdf.

Zakaria, R., & Musta’amal, A.H. (2014). Rapport building in qualitative research.