The influence of software developers’ creative style on their attitudes to and assimilation of a software process innovation

This study examines outcomes associated with differences in software developers’ creative style, based on Kirton’s adaption–innovation theory. Propositions were developed and tested to identify the relationship between software developers’ creativity and their attitude to a technological innovation that altered the software development process in their organizations. Based on adaption–innovation theory, we expected that innovators (i.e. more innovative employees) would demonstrate higher levels of job satisfaction and performance than adaptors (i.e. less innovative employees), after approximately 4 months of using the innovation. We conducted a survey of 220 developers in two firms that had recently replaced mainframe-based software development with client/server development. Our results demonstrate a pattern of relationships among employees’ creative style, attitude to the innovation, job satisfaction, and performance which we believe have important implications for managers responsible for implementing other technological innovations.