essential-guide-to-qualitative-in-organizational-research

6 –––– Repertory Grids ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Catherine Cassell and Susan WalshThe repertory grid technique stems from the personal construct psychology (PCP) proposedby George Kelly (1955). It is a well-used technique within psychological research although,traditionally, repertory grids have predominantly been analysed using quantitative techniques.In this chapter, we focus on how repertory grids can be analysed in a qualitative way, indeedwe argue that this is more appropriate given their underlying constructivist epistemology. First,we outline the principles of Kelly’s personal construct psychology and review the use ofrepertory grid technique in organizational research. We then describe a study we conductedusing repertory grid technique, and finish by evaluating the advantages and disadvantages ofusing repertory grids in a qualitative manner.KELLY’S PERSONAL CONSTRUCT PSYCHOLOGY ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––Kelly believed that individuals act like scientists, continuously striving to make sense of theirworld and their place within it. A key notion within PCP is that the individual is an inquiringperson (Bannister and Fransella, 1977). This implies that the unique principle that governshuman behaviour is the need for meaning which includes the need to make sense of theworld. In order to do this individuals develop constructions (or theories) of themselves andtheir world. These constructs change as we experience events that confirm or disconfirmprevious predictions we have made based on our existing construct system. Kelly thereforeadopts an explicit ontological and epistemological stance. The repertory grid is located withinthe philosophy of constructivism, namely we all create and make sense of our own worlds.Salmon (1978) suggests that Kelly’s psychology is all about the sensemaking process, about howwe come to know what we know, and how we live out that knowledge. She suggests that thecentral feature of it all is the ‘absence of any single, final version of reality’ (Salmon, 1978: 43).In seeking to understand the processes of personal sensemaking it is recognized that ourconstructs develop through negotiations with others. Kelly also stresses that our constructsystem is often unarticulated or implicit, and the exploration and elaboration of these systemsis therefore a key theme. This philosophy shapes how both researcher and the researched areperceived. As Salmon (1978) suggests:One consequence of his particular view of construct systems as personal is theemergence of both the researcher and any subjects he [sic] may be working with, assalient personal figures. From a Kellyan standpoint, the convention of a non-person,black box of an investigator, and a group of subjects described only by some crudelydefined common denominator, is totally inappropriate. (1978: 41)