Growth mindset at workplace: A new way to improve employees' job performance and job satisfaction

Despite accumulating research on the growth mindset and its positive impact on academic performance in the last two decades, there is a lack of evidence on how the growth mindset of intelligence facilitates work outcomes. Given this research gap, the purpose of the current research was to bridge the two domains of research on the growth mindset of intelligence and work outcomes (specifically, job performance and job satisfaction). Using job demands–resources theory, we suggested that the growth mindset of intelligence may be an underexplored personal resource, and work engagement may mediate the relationship between this growth mindset and job performance and job satisfaction. To test our hypotheses, we conducted Study 1 (N = 801, 61.5% women, 82.6% younger than 40 years old) using a cross-sectional survey design, and the results supported our hypotheses. To further explore whether individuals' job performance can be effectively improved by a growth mindset of intelligence intervention, we conducted Study 2 (N = 79, 67% women, 92.4% younger than 40 years old) using a pretest–posttest randomised controlled design. The results showed that a 1-h growth mindset intervention led to increased job performance and job satisfaction through the serial mediating effect of an increased growth mindset of intelligence followed by increased work engagement. Our research enriches the predictor pool for job performance and job satisfaction, advances research on implicit theories of intelligence, and fills the research gap on how employees' growth mindset of intelligence can be nurtured in the workplace. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.