Managing Research, Development, and Innovation: Managing the Unmanageable, Third Edition

2.1. PEOPLE

Scarpello and Whitten (1991) have identified four different personality traits relevant to engineers:

• Creative Type. Creative types are idea generators, comfortable with abstract problem solving and have a preference for working alone.

• Entrepreneurial Type. Entrepreneurial individuals are more likely to take and manage risk while giving the profitability of a product or project high priority.

• Analytical Type. Analytical people do well with complexity and prefer to have order and organization while also avoiding risk.

• Development Type. Development-oriented personalities tend to gravitate toward team projects and maintain high energy levels while cooperating with others.

Recognizing the personalities of employees helps to match the interests ...