Communicative signaling of occupational fitness: How innovative ability is expressed and assessed

This study investigates how individuals working in the innovation field communicatively define the nature of their work and make assessments of others’ innovative ability. Drawing on signaling theory, this work explores what communicative signals are valued within an ambiguous professional context. Interviews with 36 innovation workers revealed that individuals perceive this emerging occupational role as comprised of skills and traits that vary in how easily they are communicatively expressed, and in turn what forms of communication allow these dimensions to be evaluated. These findings inform the development of a grounded model for communicatively assessing innovative ability. This work extends our theoretical understanding of how signals of professionalism are actively, and communicatively expressed and assessed in new occupational settings.