Examining Creative Performance in the Workplace through a Person-Environment Fit Model

Puccio, Treffinger, and Talbot's 1995 paper examined relationships between creativity style and characteristics of employees' products. Using the same data, the present investigation tested a quite different question. Specifically, this investigation explicitly tested a person-environment fit model for predicting employees' level of creative productivity. A modified version of Kirton's Adaptor-Innovator Inventory was used to operationalize the personenvironment fit model and a self-report measure, based on Bese-mer's work, was used to assess creative productivity. Multiple regression analysis yielded main effects across all three subtraits associated with Kirton's creativity style measure. Significant interaction effects were found for the efficiency subtrait and two of the subscales from the product measure. The interaction effects indicated that style match between the individual and the environment was associated with higher levels of product novelty and resolution. Greater negative effects of a style mismatch were found for those with an innovative preference. The implications of these results and suggestions for future research are discussed.

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