A Constructivist Approach to Visualise Organisational Agility

The research question we would like to answer with this article is if agile related constructs or personal assessment criteria can be elicited from a personal construct system of employees and leaders by carrying out a repertory grid study in an organisation. The methodology of personal construct psychology was chosen to get an unbiased view of the corporate culture. In a plannable world an organisational structure with a hierarchy of executives and managers following a vertical top-down approach makes sense. A world that is volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) requires a different model to organisational design. Horizontal integration that fosters involvement and empowerment has proven to be an agile response to this new environment. Consequently, agile management methods are a key instrument for an organisation to prepare for future challenges in a competitive industry. But how can an organisation assess its own agile status quo? This research uses personal construct psychology (PCP) to visualize the agility status of an organisation. A range of recent empirical and practical research articles were studied to filter the most relevant practices and critical factors of organisational agility. The findings are compared to a data basis generated by 61 repertory grid interviews carried out in a SME to evaluate whether personal construct theory is a suitable approach to assess the agility status of an organisation. The findings are visualised with a repertory grid software using Generalised Procrustes Analysis (GPA). This methodology creates a 3D visualisation of the agile assessment criteria derived from the interviews. By comparing the spatial distances between construct clusters and elements the researcher and reader able to assess whether an organisation has incorporated agile practices and traits or can further advance to react more agile and flexible to external forces. Repertory grid structured interviews based on PCP generate simultaneously quantitative and qualitative results. As these are compared to the literature-based findings, it reflects a triangulation research approach.

Innovation capability of the company: the roles of leadership and error management

Extensive research has been conducted promoting empowerment, inclusive decision making, and self-determination by employees. However, where does an organization initiate change if employees stay in their comfort zone and rather have a work-to-rule mentality? They just do not take over responsibility and the power they are given. The inductive case study involved first-hand data about leader-member exchange and corporate culture. A qualitative research approach was selected by employing personal construct psychology to receive an unbiased cultural view of employees and leaders interacting. A sample of 61 repertory grid structured interviews with 21 leaders and 40 employees produced 782 unique personal assessment criteria. The applied methodology allows a quantitative analysis of these assessments in association with leadership, error management, and employees' proactive behavior. This unusual psychological-based approach chosen as intuitive interviews predicated on personal construct psychology is unlikely to provoke socially desirable or questionnaire-driven results. Based on the case study findings, a systematic review of contemporary scientific literature was conducted to generate broadly applicable results. The final qualitative synthesis included 41 research articles relevant to the investigated topic. Theoretical and empirical results allowed concluding that leadership vulnerability supports error management and employees' psychological safety. These combinations are prerequisites to proactive behavior. Additional preconditions to proactivity are employee resilience and organizational commitment. This article's results could give practical recommendations in case organizations lack the proactive behavior of their workforce. Finally, this article advocates further research on vulnerability in leadership and managers communicating their own weaknesses and mistakes as it is an underrepresented area in current scientific literature.

The Organization of Self-Knowledge in Adolescence: Some Contributions Using the Repertory Grid Technique

(1) Background: This study aims to explore the usefulness of personal construct psychology as a comprehensive framework and assessment tool to embrace a diversity of self-knowledge organization constructs, and to account for developmental differences across adolescence. (2) Methods: The repertory grid technique was used to measure self-knowledge differentiation, polarization, discrepancies between Actual Self, Ideal Self, and Others, and implicative dilemmas, a particular kind of intrapersonal conflict. Data were collected from two samples of early and late adolescents, respectively. (3) Results: Globally, they showed that the organization of self-knowledge was different in both samples. In particular, older adolescents revealed a less polarized self-knowledge. In addition, they tended to construe higher Actual–Ideal self-discrepancies and to present more internal conflicts. No differences were found between early and late adolescents concerning global differentiation and the discrepancies between the self (Actual and Ideal) and the Others. (4) Conclusions: Despite the limitations of the study (e.g., small sample size, cross-sectional design), these novel results support the suitability of the repertory grid technique to capture developmental changes in self-knowledge organization during adolescence, as well as the explanatory potential of personal construct psychology to advance their understanding.