Kirton Adaption Innovation Inventory

The Kirton Adaption-Innovation-Inventory (KAI) is a psychometric analysis of individuals' preferred style of change. The KAI is recorded using a questionnaire.

model

The British psychologist MJ Kirton examined the problem-solving behavior of people and found gradual differences. There are people who prefer small, gradual changes. You like to stick to the tried and tested and shy away from taking risks. He calls this attitude "adaptive". Others prefer rapid changes, leaps in development, and radically new things. He calls this behavior "innovative".

The KAI builds on three subscales that Kirton claims are correlated. Kirton names the subscales as follows:

Description of the property	English technical term	German name	abbreviation
Number of ideas	Sufficiency proliferation	sufficiently excessive	SO
Attention to details	Efficiency	Efficiency	E.
Evaluation of conformity / non-conformity in groups	rule and group conformity style	Rules and group compliance style	R.

RL Payne describes the relationships between the individual characteristics and the measurement results as weakly correlated. In addition, based on empirical studies, WGK Taylor takes the view that the SO scale is better broken down into two scales, one for generating ideas and one for preferring stability versus change.

To determine the KAI, Kirton compiled questionnaires. According to his theory, the average human race on its index is exactly 100. A value lower than 100 means an above-average tendency to adaptive behavior, a value above 100 means above-average "innovative" behavior.

quality

According to Jane Henry, a good psychological test fulfills three criteria. He is

• valid, i.e. the test measures what it claims to be measured ( validity )
• reliable, ie people answer the test similarly at different times ( reliability ), and
• free from the influence of social groups, i.e. it is not easy to manipulate ( objectivity )

According to Bartram, the British Psychological Society rated the 1995 KAI test in the dimensions of validity as Adequate (reasonable) and reliability as Excellent (excellent, with a correlation of> 0.85);

Consequences for behavior

The KAI expresses itself in the behavior of people. Henry names typical behavioral differences between adapters and innovators

Adapters	Innovators
do something better	do something different
work within the given framework	challenge or break out of the given framework
few acceptable solutions	many solutions
prefers established situations	sets new rules / structures
essential in routine matters	essential in changing situations

The external perception (perception of a person by others) is influenced by the KAI. Others perceive adapters and innovators (Henry, 2001) as

Adapters are considered to be	Innovators are considered to be
reliable	undisciplined
using normal approaches	Challenging basic assumptions
improving	redefining
working systematically	tiring
careful	willing to take risks
practically	idealistic

Adapters and innovators also differ in self-perception .

Adapters see themselves as	Innovators see themselves as
supportive	full of ideas
practically	energetic
stable	Challenging assumptions
resistant	Accepting changes
methodical	intuitive
cooperative	not constrained by the past
neat	willing to take risks
for sure	risky

Adapters often have little opinion of innovators, and innovators can see adapters as boring. Kirton claims that KAI is relative; H. should be viewed as the distance of values ​​on a scale between two people. This distance determines whether one is perceived as innovative or adaptive towards another person. At a distance of 20 or more points, Kirton predicts communication problems.

Even if the KAI gives an average value of 100 for the total population, the mean values ​​differ greatly in different occupational groups. Henry (2001) gives the following overview for clarification.

job	middle KAI
Officer	80
Maintenance technician	85
Production manager	90
Executives in banks	90
Teacher	95
MBA students	100
Development manager	102
Marketing Manager	105
HR manager	105

swell

1. ↑ MJ Kirton (1989): Adaptors and Innovators: Styles of Creativity and Problem-Solving, London: Routledge, also 2nd ed. 1994.
   Kirton, MJ (1987): Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) - Manual, 2nd ed ., Hatfield, Herts: Occupational Research Center.
   Kirton, M. (1984): Adaptors and Innovators - Why New Initiatives Get Blocket, in: Long Range Planning, 17, 2, pp. 137-243, also Chapter 16 in Henry (1991).
2. ↑ RL Payne (1987) Individual differences and performance amongst R and D personnel: Some implications for management, in: R and D Management, 17, pp. 153-161, quoted in Bartram (1995) p. 127.
3. ^ WGK Taylor (1989) The Kirton Adaption-Innovation-Inventory: a re-examination of the factor structure, in: Journal of Organizational Behavior, 10, pp. 297-307, cited in Bartram et al. a. (1995), pp. 125-127.
4. ↑ Jane Henry (1991): Creative Management, London, Sage p. 99.
5. ↑ D. Bartram (1995): Review of personality assessment instruments (level B) for use in occupational settings, Leicester: British Psychological Society.
6. ↑ Jane Henry (2001): Creativity and Perception in Management, The Open University, Milton Keynes.
7. ↑ Jane Henry (2001): Creativity and Perception in Management, The Open University, Milton Keynes; adapted from Kirton, personal communication, 1990, 1999, see also Kirton, 1987.