Adaptors and Innovators in Large Organizations: Does Cognitive Style Characterize Actual Behavior of Employees at Work? An Exploratory Study

Abstract

This study explores empirically the relationship between employees' cognitive preferences for different styles of creative problem-solving, as measured by the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI), and their actual behavior in relation to organizational change in a large industrial setting. The hypothesis that overt creativity, problem solving and decision-making behavior is modified in a large industrial setting (even though the underlying cognitive style preference remains intact) in a way that is predictable and observable, is supported and replicated across three work groups. The research design produces a matrix with cognitive style and actual behavior as its axes, constructed using the inventory, together with colleagues' ratings of behavior based on items from the same inventory. Implications for research into the situational influences affecting overt creative problem-solving behavior of individuals at work and organizational change and development are discussed.