Analysing Documentation

Organisational documents can be incredibly useful sources of data (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Documentation in this sense may take the form of personal diaries and letters, publically available statistics, organisational charts and visual objects. Arguably this study might glean a wealth of information from organisational documents such as;

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 Company newsletters

 Internal memos and minutes of meetings

 Organisational charts

 Operations or induction manuals

 Formal policy statements

Documentation might provide tangible clues about the factors that influence idea generation inside the various study organisations. It can be suggested that this information might provide a form of pragmatic truth (Peirce, 1902) about the reality which exists inside organisations. Further to this it can also be argued that organisational documentation may provide evidence to support a conceptual model of an environment. Alongside other information this may allow for a coherence ‘truth’ (White, 1969) to emerge from the research process with documentation supporting theories about the operation of the organisational system as a whole. Different levels of access will be available in different environments (Bryman and Bell, 2007). For this reason it is not possible to state with certainty that this study will be able to access a complete set of information from all of the study sites. Levels of access will need to be investigated during initial meetings with owners and/or managers with the intention being to seek information which falls under each of the five bullet points above.

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3.7.5 Surveys

A number of different survey designs can be used within qualitative studies; factual, inferential and exploratory (Easterby-Smith et al, 2008). It can be argued that although a conceptual model has already been established from the literature, an exploratory design may be most beneficial for this study. It has already been acknowledged that the literature territory surrounding creative idea generation is incomplete and therefore it would be inappropriate to investigate the variables with a closed, factual survey. Using an exploratory survey together with other data collection techniques is likely to ensure that accurate information is captured about the various factors whilst ensuring that the research process is open to new input.

Under the correspondence theories of truth (Prior, 1969) it is argued that true statements correspond to the actual state of affairs. With this point in mind survey design is a crucial variable which must be attended to before data collection begins. Surveys are attractive to researchers because they are cheaper and faster to administer and can collect more information than a series of interviews (Bryman and Bell, 2007). This said, surveying is not without its problems. Survey responses cannot be probed and surveys cannot ask a series of what might be termed ‘difficult’ questions (Bryman and Bell, 2007; Saunders et al, 2009). With these points in mind it is clear that a survey within this study would need to ask clear, simple questions related to the factors identified through the literature review to ensure that answers reflect the ‘true state of affairs’.

185 Based on the understanding above it can be argued that asking individuals about concepts such as the ‘strength of weak ties’ or ‘generative error’ is unlikely to be effective. As the literature review has shown, individuals might have different understandings of these concepts or they may not understand them at all. Asking complex questions would arguably lead to unreliable data being collected because individuals may interpret questions or issues in different ways. In order to collect information relevant to the research questions, survey questions such as, “what is the general reaction you receive when something (i.e. a project or a task) does not go to plan?” and “how important do you think it is for people to be able to speak to many different individuals when trying to come up with new ideas?” should be included in any survey. These questions are related to the factors identified in the literature and use simple, commonly understood language. Questions such as these may benefit from being answered through free text fields rather than other formats such as yes/no tick boxes or likert scales (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Although this will add complexity to the analysis process, it will ensure that any survey follows the exploratory route of this study and is open to new variables and issues which may arise.

In addition to the issues outlined above, any survey template will also need to capture relevant contextual information (such as gender and age) and provide space for individuals to provide further data if they wish. By using surveys this study would collect information which correspondence theorists (Prior, 1969) believe would accurately identify the physical nature of reality. A survey template which could be used to capture data during this study appears in

186 organisations and revisions made from the feedback received. While this survey will not, in itself, provide conclusive answers to the research questions it may well be a useful tool to begin to shed light onto various contexts. Developing effective and appropriate data collection instruments is vital to the overall success of this study. Discussions here have identified a number of relevant research techniques that could be employed, these will now be woven into a coherent plan.