Descripción del Programa por Áreas de Ejecución

Easterby-Smith, Thorpe and Lowe (p.71-72, 1991) listed six

' instruments' or approaches to gain Insights into people and situations. They are the Critical Incident Technique or C1T, repertory grid technique, projective techniques, protocol analysis, group interviews and cognitive mapping. Some of the techniques were complicated to use for a single researcher, others were more suited for eliciting the 'hidden' or •non-verbal lsed', and still others were

more appropriate for action research (p. 83-96, Easterby-Smlth, Thorpe and Lowe, 1991). The CIT was decided as the most appropriate technique for the study because it focused on a problem or area intensely and unearthed specific reasons or causes by getting the respondents to

tell you about It; It also follows leads In the responses rather than being guided by questions.

The CIT was developed by Flanagan while he was connected with the Aviation Psychology Program of the U.S. Army Air Forces. The technique

grew out of studies like the analysis of the specific reasons for failure in learning to fly or causes of pilot failure. He defined CIT as a

"set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behaviour in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems and developing broad psychological principles"

<p.327, Flanagan, 1954).

'Incident* refers to any observable human activity that is sufficiently complete in Itself to permit Inferences and predictions

to be made about the person performing the act. To be 'critical1, an incident must occur in a situation where the purpose or Intent of the act seems fairly clear to the observer and where its consequences are sufficiently definite to leave little doubt concerning its effects. His technique is highly objectlvlst and has been used to great effect by qualitative researchers. Respondents may be asked to explain their actions and motives with regard to instances that have occured. The main criticism of the technique relates to recall and the tendency in individuals to rationalize the past. Measures have been taken to

minimize this difficulty by improving memory through advance notice of the areas of interests for the Interviews. The findings were further substantiated by interviews with senior management of the organizations concerned. The Unit General Manager and two consultants were interviewed for further information from HOSP/B but access to

interview senior managers from EDUC/B and FAST/B was not available in the same way. In Singapore organizations, one senior manager in

HOSP/S, two senior managers In EDUC/S and one senior manager in FAST/S were Interviewed for further Information.

The CIT consists essentially of a collection of reports of behaviours which were critical. The Incident Is acceptable as a critical one only

if in the judgment of the observer it relates to an important aspect of work and Includes behaviour which is outstandingly effective or is ineffective with respect to the specific situation. An ineffective incident leads to significant delay, mistakes, omissions, lack of accompl 1 shavent, or obstacles to achievement of work (p.21, Mayeske, Harmon and Glickman, 1966). They made the difference between success and failure in the observed work situations <Flanagan, 1951).

The steps (Flanagan, 1949; 1954; Barnes, 1960) in using the technique might be outlined thus:

1. Determine the aim or purpose of the investigation carefully and

completely.

2. Secure the reporters/respondents and inform them of the ala of the investigation. These reporters must be responsible persons in the field of investigation and competent to recall and relate incidents in the area being studied.

3. Collect the incidents by individual interviews, group interviews or mailed questionnaires. Each respondent should be asked to report in

detail one incident which is outstandingly effective and one which is outstandingly ineffective in the field of study.

4. Include In the final study only Incidents that report behaviour that was actually observed by the reporter/respondent recently enough

to be recalled accurately.

5. Analyse the results, make classifications with the help of a

professional Jury and tabulate the results.

6. Interpret the f indings.

The first four objectives explore the requirements that are crucial In the overall sense. They probe indepth 'What pleases managers about a

change?'; 'What displeases managers about a change?'; 'What Is difficult for managers In a significant change?' and 'What is helpful for managers w h e n in a significant change?' They also probe the extremes of ' conuaunlcation', 'commitment' and 'power' variable as follow: 'What was lacking in the communication on the change?'; 'What

was helpful about the communication on the change?'; 'What was difficult that put managers off in their commitment to change?'; 'What encouraged their commitment to change?'; 'What were the things they found difficult not to be in control of or have influence on in a change?' and 'What control or influence should be delegated to them at the before, during and after stages of change?' The CIT is useful for

studying extrema behaviour such as those above.

The 'reporters' o r respondents were middle managers who had been identified by senior management as those most affected by the change

and therefore w e r e in a competent position to report about their experience of the recent, significant change. They were also informed and prepared by circulars in advance of their interviews. The interviews were conducted on a one-to-one basis to remove problems or inhibitions and fear of what their colleagues and peers thought of

than. As explained In Chapter 3, two neutral professionals formed the team for triangulating the data.

The overall structure of my interview schedule was modelled on the

interview format of a Health Authority's 'Customer Services Project' which used the CIT (Caple and Deighan, 1986). The schedule of questions for each of the five parts followed a pattern of opening questtonfs), question(s) on expectations and questions about the critical incident until this line of questioning was exhausted. Anticipated prompt questions were also constructed in case they were needed.

The interview schedule is a useful checklist to ensure that the important points are not missed out. Some of the questions in the schedule may seem repetitive but the purpose is to have a ready set of questions should the researcher lose her way during the interview. The schedule was not strictly adhered to and ad hoc questions were asked

to pursue leads in the responses to elicit further details.

L__ Analytical Tools and Techniques

The accuaiulation of large masses of Interview data and quantitative forms pose difficulties with processing and analyses.