(Paper)

'Personalities Prone to Invent'

This paper is aimed at the novice (written by a novice). It's quite long-winded, and  often quite awkward in the way it describes Creativity, Innovation and associated Processes. However, it's not a bad start.

Overview:

'Innovation is widely recognized as a means for organizations to compete in the global business world. It is about new ideas, processes, products or procedures, which will benefit the individual or organization. Innovation is directly related to the people that work in an organization. They can provide the competitive advantage an organization is looking for. The present research tried to find which personality characteristics innovative people possess. This might enable organizations to focus on certain personality traits when looking for innovative people.


The organization as a whole can become more innovative. The personality of the people was analysed by using the five factor model, which consists of the factors: emotional stability, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. With these five factors a description of one’s personality can be given.






A questionnaire was developed to collect the data among three different sample groups. In total 106 questionnaires were returned and the data was analysed. It seems that the personality factors openness to experience and emotional stability are the most important predictors of innovative behaviour. This means that organizations should focus on people who are open to experience and who are emotionally stable. Personal initiative is also a necessary trait for innovation. In order to get support for new ideas, a person needs to behave proactive and take initiative. Interesting to see is that age has a significant effect on innovative behaviour as well. It seems that the older a person is, the more innovative this person will behave. These findings can direct organizations more specifically in their selection and training procedures.'

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