Measuring innovation, productivity, and job performance of professionals: A decision modeling approach

The innovation, productivity, and job performance of professionals in a high-technology firm in the nuclear industry were operationally defined through a policy capturing approach. Policies of 83 professionals and managers of professionals on the three dimensions were simulated by presenting each of the subjects with the work behaviors of 32 hypothetical professionals. Each of the 83 subjects decided on the innovation, productivity, and job performance of each of the 32 profiles for a total of 7968 decisions. Analysis of the decisions indicated that innovation, productivity, and performance were each defined differently and that there were differences between the professionals' and the managers' policies. This research indicates that decision modeling offers a promising methodology to operationally define the dimensions of professionals' work performance in a variety of research, development, and engineering contexts.