SIMPLE AVAILABILITY: TO MANAGERS IN PARTICULAR
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50
51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67
68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84
85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101
102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118
119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131
To focus on the other, and broader, audience for this guidebook, the managers
and practitioners. Forget all that about epistemologies. From your point of
view in particular, there simply hasn’t been a simple practical guidebook to
offer you for many years, ever since the Stewarts’ Business Applications of
Repertory Grid, published in 1982, went out of print. There have been many
books outlining the basic theory, and one or two on the technique itself, but
none have gone into the kind of practical, procedural detail which a user,
bereft of a decent introduction in the psychology departments or isolated as a
practitioner, needs to see if s/he is to become comfortably proficient in
repertory grid technique.
The second edition of the Manual of Repertory Grid Technique by Fransella, Bell
& Bannister will appear in 2004 (also published by Wiley). That gives a more
detailed and in-depth coverage of repertory grids, as did the first edition
(1977) by Fransella & Bannister, which has been out of print for several years.
This guidebook has been seen in its entirety by the senior author, who has
shared details of the planned contents of the Manual with me, all within the
constraints of our respective publication schedules.
Between the two, it may be possible to ameliorate, if not reverse, the neglect of
this technique in the universities, and in the meanwhile provide the user with
a solid foundation for practice.
It remains to thank my kind collaborators. Fay Fransella has already been
mentioned; her spirit resides in the comments made by the ‘second voice’ of
this book, though the responsibility for its embodiment in print is, of course,
my own. Tom Ravenette provided examples of early forms of grid analysis
and much moral support! Thanks, too, to Ms Marianna Pexton of the
Analytical Services Division of the Department of Social Security (DSS), now
Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), for facilitating departmental
permission to reproduce Table 7.1. My special thanks go to my colleagues and
students, who have seen earlier drafts of this guide and contributed their
valuable comments and ideas.
Devi Jankowicz
Professor of Constructivist Managerial Psychology
Graduate Business School
University of Luton
February 2003