How Mindset Matters The Direct and Indirect Effects of Employees' Mindsets on Job Performance

Individuals vary in their mindsets - their implicit beliefs regarding the malleability of human attributes. Because mindset influences responses to achievement situations, we hypothesize that employees with a more incremental mindset (i.e., believing that human attributes can be changed through effort and hard work) will have higher job performance and better relationships with their manager. We found that employees with a more incremental mindset have higher job performance. Also, when their manager has a strong learning goal orientation, employees with a more incremental mindset have a higher quality relationship with their manager, which, in turn, positively relates to their job performance.