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 of the organization with the interests of the individuals, thus creating a productive workforce.
People who are most likely to succeed in an R&D organization are analytical, curious, independent, intellectual, and introverted and enjoy scientific and mathematical activities. Such people tend to be complex, flexible, self-sufficient, task-oriented, and tolerant of ambiguity. They have high needs for autonomy and change and a low need for deference (Winchell, 1984). In their study of 2,157 researchers at nine different organizations Debackere, Buyens, and Vandenbossche (1997) found that R&D professionals respond better to a "knowledge ladder" system, rather than one based on a "traditional" managerial hierarchy. R&D professionals tend to be less interested in promotion within the organizational hierarchy and more interested in being recognized for the competence and expertise in their fields. R&D organizations should recognize the need to reward researchers on the basis of their technical competence and expertise, and how these contribute to the organizations' overall R&D process.
A person with a graduate degree probably already has many of the previous attributes listed. Other important attributes, however, may be lacking. For example, it is necessary to scrutinize very carefully a person's tolerance for ambiguity and need for autonomy and change.
People with internal standards and self-confidence are highly desirable, because in many cases research can be very discouraging. The person who is not easily discouraged and is sure of his or her goals and how to reach them is more likely to persist. Interaction with peers is also essential, since most new ideas are generated not by reading the literature but by talking with others who are working on similar problems. Finally, and this is admittedly cynical, a successful scientist needs to be able to tolerate what he or she might consider "bad management." The kind of person who gets upset too easily if the manager is insensitive to his or her needs may not be able to deal with a research environment. Most managers are technical people, interested in research rather than in managing others, so they are likely to do a less than optimal job. But there is a saving grace: Research has shown that people are surprisingly tolerant of poor supervisors! (Clifford E. Jurgensen, 1978).
Another desirable attribute is internal locus of control. This is the tendency to think that the causes of events are internal (e.g., ability, hard work) rather than external (e.g., help from others, luck). Research has shown that internals are better than externals at collecting information and at deciding for themselves about the correct course of action (for a review, see Spector, 1982).
Creativity is, of course, highly desirable. Unfortunately, there are few reliable and valid tests for this attribute. However, previous creativity is a good predictor of future inventiveness.
Friedman (1992) identified primary activities performed by R&D managers at different supervisory levels. Forty-eight tasks that managers stated they spent the most time on were factor analyzed. Three primary activities were identified: project management, personnel, and strategic planning. Strategic planning was rated as requiring significantly higher levels of logical reasoning, originality, fluency of ideas, communication skills, and resistance to premature judgment than was required for the other two primary activities. Strategic planning in R&D organizations has become an important activity; this is outlined in Chapter 16 of this text, "R&D Organizations and Strategy."
In summary, an effective scientist needs to be an individualist (Allen, 1977) who has internal standards, self-confidence (Pelz and Andrews, 1966b) and persistence; and who works in the right organizational environment. It is important to stress that even the most creative person will be a failure if the environment is not right. One can think of the analogy of a rectangle. The area of the rectangle depends on the size of both its sides. Similarly, creativity depends on the attributes of both the person and the environment. If either one is missing, creativity can be zero. An R&D manager has to be able to integrate the activities of diverse, autonomous, and talented people and must do well in handling activities associated with R&D project management, personnel, and strategic planning.