Remote administration of repertory grids 49 Personal Construct Theory & Practice, 7, 2010 REMOTE ADMINISTRATION OF REPERTORY GRIDS THROUGH MICROSOFT LIVE MEETING IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT Luca Magni Johnson & Johnson Medical, Pomezia, Italy Repertory grids are a flexible form of assessment that new web conferencing tools allow to administer at dis- tance. This study refers to a specific experience in this direction conducted at Johnson & Johnson Medical Ita- ly, where 12 managers have been exposed to the remote administration of repertory grids that were designed and managed through Idiogrid and administered via Microsoft Live Meeting. The experience was reported as highly positive by participants, both in terms of user-friendliness and with respect to the level of engagement and interest it generated. Ideas for further research and applications are presented at the end of the paper with some highlights and concerns on the application of this methodology in organizational contexts. Keywords: Repertory grid, Idiogrid, Insider Management Action Science, Microsoft Live Meeting. CONTEXTUALIZATION This paper presents and discusses the results of a preliminary study conducted at Johnson & John- son Medical Italy as part of a wider program named Value Driven Training. The program was launched early in January 2010 and concentrates on the investments that Johnson & Johnson Medical is making on the training of Area Sales Managers operating in Italy, where 70% of John- son & Johnson Medical sales depend on tenders. An extensive use of repertory grids (Kelly, 1955) was planned, as part of the program and a pilot study was therefore conducted, to evaluate the possibility to administer repertory grids, leverag- ing on new technologies and reducing costs and time required by more traditional approaches. While the overall objective of the Value Dri- ven Training program is to identify areas of de- velopment, relevant to increase Area Sales Man- agers’ capabilities to impact tenders outcomes – through key stakeholders’ recognition of the quality of Johnson & Johnson products, the fo- cus of the pilot study was to test a specific solu- tion for the remote administration of repertory grids. The writing illustrates briefly this pilot experience and reports various considerations around the technological choice that was tested within this preliminary study. The experience was conducted at Johnson & Johnson Medical Italy and involved the remote administration of repertory grids via a web conferencing system: both the description and the evaluation of such experience are detailed here below. Despite the heavy use of statistics that sustains the develop- ment and the analysis of repertory grids, this study is qualitative, both in its form (engaging a relatively small number of subjects) and in its nature (descriptive rather than predictive). The extensive use of numbers, graphics and quantita- tive jargon should not mislead readers in this respect. The primary aim of the pilot study was to stimulate further ideas and to address areas of concern that the Company wanted to have cleared, before proceeding with the adoption of repertory grids as a tool of investigation on learning needs of Area Sales Managers. The analysis was in this sense exploratory and part of it converged on the level of acceptance that a peculiar web enhanced rep grid administration could encounter, within Johnson & Johnson Medical Italy. The pilot experience was driven by the Human Resource Department of Johnson & Johnson Medical Italy and it involved a panel of 12 employees: 3 Area Sales Managers, 3 Di- visional Mangers, 3 Key Account Managers, and 3 Managers in Business Support functions. The