An Empirical Analysis of Mid-Career Managers' Adaptive-Innovative Cognitive Styles and Task Orientations in Three Countries

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Abstract
Studies of the cognitive styles of broadly defined managerial functions are reviewed, showing that internally vs externally oriented subfunctions within each exhibit predicted differences in adaptive/innovative modes of decision-making and problem-solving. A sample of mid-career managers on MBA programs in the United States, who provided career histories and completed the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory, confirmed the distribution of adaptors and innovators that was established on the basis of studies in the United Kingdom and Australia. Data from a sample of European managers permit the marketing function to be subdivided on the same basis of internal- vs external-orientation, and the cognitive styles of marketers who differ in task orientation to be compared for the first time.