Case Study: Interviewing National Park Service Employees

A Question

As more and more National Park Service employees reach retirement, I'm asked about using oral history interviews to capture the expertise acquired during a long career and to offer veteran employees a chance to reflect on how their careers and the bureau changed over time.

Is there anything different about these interviews? Are there suggested questions?

Response

Conducting interviews with NPS employees follows the same protocols and guidance of all oral histories—conduct background research, schedule the interview at a time and location comfortable for the narrator, and arrange a pre-interview to discuss the goals of both interviewer and narrator. Ask the narrator for a resume so you get a sense of career development and locations of employment. Get to know the parks and/or programs where the narrator served.

While the topics you want to pursue will vary from person to person, here are some topics that offer a basic outline and starting point that might be appropriate for many NPS employees.

National Park Service Sample Interview Topics

Adapted from an interview guide for Yosemite Oral History Project

The sample topics are offered as a guide for interviews. Interviewers can tailor topics and questions to the particular career trajectory of each narrator.

Introduction

• State interview participants’ names, date, place of interview.

Biographical Topics

These questions locate people in time and place. 

• Place and date of birth

• Family (occupations of parents; siblings)

• Education (influential teaches; favorite subjects; extracurricular activities)

• Influential adults (teachers, ministers, Scout leaders, employers)

• Characterize knowledge of the NPS and/or particular NPS sites before beginning working for NPS

• First memory/experience of a national park service site

Post-Secondary Education and Vocation

• College (where; major and why chosen; mentors and their influence) 

• Military service (if applicable)

• Summer or part-time jobs

• Career ambitions and employment before NPS

National Park Service Career

• First NPS position and how obtained. What made the Park Service an appealing place to work? What alternatives to the NPS did you consider?

• Did you have a conscious career plan or did you take advantage of opportunities as they arose?

• Cover all positions and how moved from one to the next:

  • Division/branch - function/mission

  • Responsibilities of position(s) and how they changed over time

  • Co-workers, supervisors, staff supervised

  • Duty stations/locations

  • Describe a typical day

  • Experiences and skills gained in each position

• Favorite projects worked on/completed during career  -- and why

• Discussion of key issues, events, or responsibilities that consumed most  time

• Interaction with the visiting public – change in visitor population over time

• Most rewarding, the most challenging positions held with federal government? Explain, please.

• Role that continuing education and leadership training offered by the Park Service played in career

• Definition of good leadership. Examples of good NPS leaders. 

• Changing management challenges of the Park Service during career

• Wisdom comes not just from success but from failure as well. What can future employees learn from any less-than-successful experiences that you had during your career?

• With the perspective of time, what would you have done differently, and why?

Community

• Spouse and/or children?  Employed with park or elsewhere?

• Housing at NPS units - description of quarters; housing outside of park units

• Neighbors

• Seasons

• Leisure time activities (after work/school, weekends, vacations, etc.)

• What was the community like? (Children in school? Social interactions? Places people congregated? Annual community celebrations? Entertainment? Local customs, etc.)

• Civic activities/clubs/groups (Rotary, Lions Club? Women’s clubs? Political interests, etc.)

• Religious community

• Frequency leaving the park – outside contact

• Rewards/challenges living in the park

• Relations between formal and informal communities (concession employees, NPS, gateway communities? Management, workers? Etc.

Sense of Place

• Natural and cultural features of park units where worked

• Favorite natural environments where lived – and why

• Adjustments to different locations

Wrap Up

• Memorable events that happened in the parks where served (special visitors, floods, fires, rescues, etc.)

• Other topics that need to be addressed

• Recommendations for other people to be interviewed

Thank You!

NPS staff conduct an oral history interview of an NPS employee.

NPS

Questions Suggested by Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry is a method of assessing organizational strengths and challenges in a positive way. It encourages reflection the spirit of problem-solving.

1. Think back to when you first joined the National Park Service. What attracted you to the agency? What were your first impressions of the organization when you joined? How have these impressions changed over time?

2. Please describe a time when you felt most excited, most engaged, most involved with your work, with your colleagues, with park visitors, or with a particular project. What was the situation? Who was involved who contributed to the sense of excitement and efficacy?

3. Describe a colleague whom you admire. What traits make her respected and effective in the agency?

4. Today, what do you value most about the organization? Why?

5. During your career, you certainly witnessed many changes and transitions in the Park Service. Think of a change that was particularly well handled. What was the specific change? What about it was managed well? Who was involved? What did they do that was particularly helpful? What part did you play in this change? What about the organization contributed to the change’s success?

6. What do you consider your key contributions to the National Park Service during your years here and during retirement? Was it a particular policy or procedure? Was it a certain temperament that set a new tone?

7. What do you leave as a legacy at the National Park Service?

8. Nothing is perfect and nothing works as well as we might like all the time. In hindsight, is there a major disappointment or missed opportunity that you’d like to discuss? A time when the organization under-performed or did not take advantage of a good opportunity? What might be keeping the agency from being all that it could be? What happened (or didn’t happen) in this particular incident? What was the result?

9. What three suggestions do you have for enhancing the organization’s effectiveness? How would each suggestion help the agency in its work?

10. If the agency lived up to its promise, what would it look like and what would it be doing?

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