How People Use It

 

Overview

You can use Enquire Within for self-analysis, or for analysing other people. The material you work with can be entirely objective (e.g. testing your knowledge of a study topic) or highly subjective (e.g. examining how you feel about important challenges and choices).

Major users of Repertory Grid are in marketing, consultancy, human resources and the education community. To make it easy for them to use Repertory Grid, we have designed special tutorials for this web site and for the help system of the purchased version of Enquire Within with examples and prepared sessions tailored to their requirements.

Marketing and Consultancy

The Marketing and Consultancy professions have applications for Enquire Within as market research software and business software to:

• determine user experience of a product. Usability is a major factor at the time of purchase of an article and is a major determinant of user satisfaction during the life cycle of a product. This article discusses Repertory Grid as a user experience evaluation technique;
• support management decision-making;
• gain insight into how the organisation manages change and crises
• determine organizational culture
• understand the perceptions of an expert;
• Developing the profile of an ideal digital camera
• support a management change programme;
• design management competences;
• support personal and professional development such as as part of a Continuing Professional Development Program;
• support market research
• act as a selection interview tool, either in assessing knowledge or as a highly advanced behaviour-based interview;
• develop person-specifications for an existing job or for concentrating attention on the demands of a new job;
• support research projects -  Issues in the Early Stages of Construction projects. A good example of derivation of concrete information from research of a soft issue.

Human Resources

Human resource management have applications for use of Enquire Within as human resources software to:

• evaluate the effectiveness of training: knowledge-based training, skills training, and major developmental interventions;
• Getting Value For Money From Your Career Training.
• act as a selection interview tool, either in assessing knowledge or as a highly advanced behaviour-based interview;
• develop person-specifications for an existing job or for concentrating attention on the demands of a new job;
  • develop person specifications by analysing the characteristics of existing jobholders;
  • develop person specifications for a new team member by analysing the team dynamics;
  • develop person specifications for re-organization by analysing the characteristics of critical incidents that will be encountered by a new appointment
• measure organisation culture, and improving management performance through change management, and developing management competences;
• develop individual training needs and act as a tool for performance counselling;
• reflect on personal experience, for example examining individual learning styles, self-analysis of skills and abilities, and examining people’s experience with systems such as performance appraisal;
• design attitude surveys, for example on work stress;
• design a training programme for knowledge or skills;
• support an organisational review;
• resolve conflict and negotiate shared meanings about key concepts.

Education

Enquire Within has much to offer education professionals, particularly those with a strategic interest in life-long learning and with multimedia applications. Enquire Within forms the basis of an entirely new learning methodology, rich in feedback and in learner involvement. We welcome enquiries from education professionals interested in the many ways that Enquire Within can contribute to their innovations.

Other Uses

Of course, you are not limited to the uses described. You could use Enquire Within at work to help with your market research, and then take it home for your children to use with their study programmes. You could keep several sessions on your desktop, to help you set goals and plan your time, to reflect on your key relationships, to build and test your professional knowledge or have fun with your hobbies.

For example, here is an application in the medical field from the Journal of American Medical Association - Chicago,IL,USA. Edited by P. Gallagher, D. Desmond, and M. MacLachlan "Psychological Fit of a Prosthetic Arm: An Illustrative Case Study Using Repertory Grid Analysis With a User of a High-Tech Upper-Limb Prosthesis.

An application in Social Work is `The problem of assessment in social work : practice, education and continuing professional development' Cooper, Barry (2009) Saarbrucken, Germany: VDM Publishing House Ltd.

Abstract: Is social work `The Assessment Profession?' This book argues that assessment is a defining feature of professional social work and it analyses how the power of assessment pervades both individual and institutional practices. Social workers' roles and tasks are increasingly shaped by the need to carry out social assessments of people's lives in complex and contestable public welfare environments. At the same time, social workers themselves are subject to assessment of their competence and capability through occupational standards and continuing education requirements. In highlighting social work as uniquely positioned within this nexus of assessment processes, the author offers a historical and contemporary synthesis of ideas that combine the critical social theories of Habermas with the pioneering constructivism of George Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology. The book outlines an innovative research enquiry which is used to explore the dilemmas and opportunities of practice-based professional learning and offers a `conducive' alternative approach to assessment in social work. This book will be important reading for students, practitioners and social care educators.

Some Other Pages Related to Common Uses

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