Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

This project originated in an earlier study commissioned by Dundee University based on narratives of managers talking about their innovations. Four main themes emerged: the innovator, their perceptions of context, the tactics they used in pursuing their innovation, and the social processes that unfolded. The intensity with which the managers identified with, and invested themselves in, their innovations gave rise to the term `personalised' managerial innovation. These four themes were drawn on in shaping the design for this current project.

Main Topics:

The dataset consists of two parts: Onequest.sys (Personalised Managerial Innovation I) targeted 150 managers made up of 50 from each of the three organisations; Twoquest.sys (Personalised managerial Innovation II) was a follow-up survey that targeted all managers who agreed (at time I) to continue their participation. The 109 managers who responded at the first stage were asked to give details of an innovation introduced in the previous year. 77 gave an example and answered questions on its personal context. All respondents also answered questions on more generally relevant aspects of the organisation. The second stage of the survey was designed to explore more deeply the particular innovations and to examine all respondents' attitudes to innovation. Measurement scales In Onequest.sys an adopted version of Quinn's Competing Values Culture Instrument was used to assess organisational culture at a surface level and to facilitate comparisons between the three organisations : see Quinn, R.E. and Spreitzer, G.M. (1991) <i>The Psychometrics of the Competing Values Culture Instrument</i>, and R.W.Woodman and W.A. Passmore (eds) <i>Research in Organizational Change in development</i> (JAI Press).

Quasi-random (eg random walk) sample

Quasi-random selection of 50 managers from each of three organisations.

Face-to-face interview

Postal survey