Leveraging a Dual-Focused Growth Mindset to Boost Employee Resilience and Work Well-Being: Evidence From a Two-Wave Survey and an Intervention Study

Abstract

The post-pandemic era, coupled with the rising adoption of AI chatbots and robotics, introduces significant new challenges for employee work well-being. Thus, it is important to investigate underlying mechanisms about how employees can develop mindsets to promote well-being at work. This study examines how a dual-focused growth mindset—comprising a growth mindset about the self (the belief in the ability to develop personal abilities) and a growth mindset about work (the belief in the capacity to optimise work conditions)—can enhance employee work well-being through resilience. In a two-wave survey involving 606 full-time employees in China (Study 1), we found that both mindsets were associated with lower levels of mental ill-health symptoms (one dimension of work well-being) by increasing personal resilience. Notably, the effect of a growth mindset about the self (but not about work) on personal resilience was stronger when individuals perceived a high (vs. low) level of work stress. In Study 2, a quasi-experimental design with 85 participants in an intervention group and 66 in a control group demonstrated that a growth mindset intervention effectively enhanced dual growth mindsets, leading to improved well-being, including job satisfaction and individual flourishing. A serial mediation analysis confirmed that resilience mediated the relationship between the self-growth mindset (not work-growth mindset) and employee flourishing. Theoretical and practical implications were discussed.