Methodological Dilemmas and Opportunities in Interviewing Organizational Elites

This article discusses the challenges and opportunities encountered in interviewing organizational elites. Drawing on a wide range of experiences in elite interviewing, I offer suggestions for gaining access to elites, controlling the interview, obtaining the highest-quality interview data, and writing effectively about those data. I also discuss the 'dilemma of seduction' that can occur in elite interviewing and suggests ways to both present and critique the worldview of elites when writing about qualitative interviews.