ALÓ PRESIDENTE, programa Nº 306 Plaza Caracas, Caracas

interviews conducted.

72 In the common sense understanding of the term ‘creative’ which means a role in which the person is expected to be creative. Not to be confused with my definition of creativity.

Big Idea Technologies

This was the first company to participate in the research and it can be loosely described as an internet technology company, based in the North West of England. It is owned and run by the managing director (MD) who started the company with colleagues four years prior to the research taking place; it is now being run by him solely. Its market is primarily small and medium-sized local businesses but does also include local government and large multi­ national firms. The number of employees with the company varied during the period of research but never exceeded twelve. The MD had worked for national and multi-national companies and previously been a media sales manager in the South of England before moving to the North West and starting his own company. A graduate, he could be regarded as an entrepreneur who would admit he was learning how to run a successful business through experience. He was a prominent member of the local business community and assisted with government objectives to improve the interests of organisations in the North West.

The market in which the organisation operated at the time of the research was providing a healthy stream of leads, tender opportunities and contracts. The organisation was going through a period of financial growth, which seemed to lead to some stress for employees who were experiencing an increase and change in their work. Repeat business for the company seemed to be healthy and their portfolio of completed work was impressive. Certainly this seemed a relatively successful small business. There was no management structure in the organisation, the MD taking responsibility for all management function, and those working for him could only be seen as employees. Individual employees were taking on many of the functions that a larger organisation would consider in the realm of management but they were not afforded the title of manager and decision making was almost entirely done by the MD.

The MD was therefore responsible for the entire running of the company and took the role of sales director, production director and accounting director; probably typical for such small organisations. Each member of staff had direct access to the MD and would frequently use that access for a variety of purposes. This meant that the role of MD came with a heavy workload. The type of work involved internet and computer based design and the design, implementation, monitoring and reporting on direct marketing campaigns.

Easy Marketing

This print and direct marketing firm also publishes local magazines and had a commercial relationship with Big Ideas Technologies, the nature of which was not fully revealed. However, during my period of research these companies moved from separate offices into offices at the same location. This organisation was also owner-occupied and the owner also

acted as MD. Its market place was regional and local small businesses in the North West that would benefit from advertising within several publications they produced. They also produced magazines for other organisations including the government, tourist boards and companies.

The company had twelve employees at the time of the research and had a limited management structure, with the MD in sole charge of company decision making. He is assisted by a sales supervisor; an office manager, responsible for the administrative functions of the company; and a design manager who dealt with the design production department. It was not established how long the company had been operating prior to the research taking place.

Popular Publishing

This was a South West based publishing company involved in the design, development, production, printing and distribution of a range of books within a niche market sector. The company was an owner-occupier small business whereby the major shareholder was also MD of the firm. This company had been formed for approximately ten years and had been experiencing a period of sustained growth with staff numbers and publications rising consistently. Initially a small company with two people involved, it had turned into a company employing thirty plus people and producing at least nine publications per year. It operated within a niche market and had the luxury of having no competitors within this genre and a loyal base of customers and readers that was growing steadily.

It had a developed management structure with managers in most of the recognised positions (Sales and Marketing, Accounts, Editorial, Production, Information Technology). Most of the managers had previously been employees and gained their promotions as the company grew. However, most of the decisions in this company were made by the MD and his fellow director. The organisation had experienced a period of rapid growth and was continuing to grow, although there was concern over how the internet may effect future growth.

6.3 Materials

Few materials were needed for this research and no specialist equipment was utilised. For the observation periods, I used a pen and paper note pad as well as a laptop to record any observations. I used a dictaphone for the interviews, and recordings were downloaded to a laptop PC via an analogue connection;73 freeware software was used for the playback of the audio with all the normal pause, rewind and play functions and keyboard shortcuts. The transcripts were produced via Microsoft Word.

73 The quality o f the dictaphone, I discovered after the interviews had been conducted was low. Combined with the analogue connection this meant sound quality was poor and some sections of the interviews were inaudible.

6.4 Method 6.4.1 Observations

During the period of observation,74 I was allocated a desk within the offices75 as well as being given freedom to join meetings and move between rooms within the organisations. This included client meetings. In Big Ideas Technology the observations took place intermittently over a six-month period, whereby I would attend the offices in the morning or afternoon on all days of the week on a one-week on one-week off basis. The interviews occurred during the weeks of observation, normally over lunch (which I paid for). The observation functioned to provide the research with as rich an experience as possible of organisational life within the three organisations explored. More importantly, experience from the observation enabled me to give context to the semi-structured interviews. This also highlights the importance of observation to research within critical realist inspired research techniques. With a technique such as the semi-structured interviews, inspired solely through postmodern or interpretative meta-theory, research ends when the agents’ understandings have been recovered. The snag with this is that it does nothing to check out the agents’ claims: observing their behaviour might reveal something (in line with, or contrary to) about what they actually tell the researcher.

The techniques of observation were largely the same for Easy Marketing except the period of observation was considerably shorter,76 at four weeks. Popular Publishing differed from the first two companies in one significant way - all of the research was conducted intensively during a one-week period. The location of the organisation required living away from home and there was a limited budget to cover expenses. For this organisation I was present during normal working hours from Monday to Friday and interviewed during lunch periods and in the evenings. The rest of the time was spent observing. Nevertheless, these observations and subsequent interviews revealed a richness to organisational life.

6.4.2 Definitions

The interviews were informed by the augmented conceptual framework and therefore participants were informed that the interest was primarily creativity, especially unrecognised, un-actualised creativity and creative potential and of the relationship between their in-work and out-of-work creativity. If they requested a specific definition of creativity, the augmented

74 Prior to any observation, participants were asked individually whether there were any objections to my presence and none was recorded.

75 All of the desks were in open-plan areas of the organisations.

76 Having completed the research in Big Ideas Technology, it became apparent that the interviews were able to