Management

Development of aN ASSESSMENT TOOL FOR MeasurING Person-Job Fit/MISFIT for Innovation

Muayyad Jabri, New England Business School, University of New England,

Armidale, NSW 2351, Australia

Phone +61 2 6773 2051

Fax: +61 2 6773 3148

mjabri@une.edu.au

ABSTRACT

Over the past 40 years considerable research has been conducted on person-job (P-J) fit/misfit at work. P-J fit has been commonly defined as the degree to which the individual’s needs, qualities, and innovative tendencies, etc. match the demands and opportunities presented by the job context and/or the environment. This idea of P-J is provoking a growing interest and research in the area of organizational behavior, including R&D management and the management of information personnel (Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman & Johnson, 2005; Schneider, 2001). The purpose of this paper is to present the theoretical framework used for the development of the assessment tool to be used for testing the P-J fit/misfit between a person's innovative style and the degree to which that innovative style is required in the job.

Recognition of the differences in intuitive and logical modes of cognitive approaches to problem solving is not new. The term mode refers to the individual's style for innovative problem solving. Chan (1963) argues that the distinction between intuitive and logical modes of problem solving dates back to Taoist thought in China. Jaynes (1979) notes that the intuitive mode probably predated the development of the logical mode; it arose as mankind acquired language and the ability to name, dissect, and analyze the world.

Several attempts have been made to highlight the conceptual differences between the logical and the intuitive modes of problem solving. For example, Baer (1976: 27) stated that the "The middle ages distinguished between ratio (the power of discursive, logical thought that could be expressed in words or by symbols and notations) and intuition (the power of the intellectus that could...