This study (N = 69) confirms the longer term stability (test-retest over 3.5 yeas) of Kirton's Adaption-Innovation Cognitive Style concept. Earlier test-retest studies were limited to periods of up to 1.5 years, although longer term stability (implied by, for example, consistent item-factor loadings across samples from different countries and organisations) was expected. The longer term stability was supported in this study by a test-retest coefficient of 0.82. This finding indicates clearly that studies and organisational interventions which have the objective of modifying this individual style preference will, by implication, fail. If any training intervention is to be regarded as successful, then overt behaviour rather than personal preference must be addressed. More attention must now be paid to Kirton's notion of "coping behaviour" and the ways available for reducing the psychological expense to the individual when overt behaviour needs to be different from personal preference.
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.
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