Events

Dr. Trevor Foulk
Associate Professor
Management & Organization
The Robert H. Smith School of Business
University of Maryland

ABSTRACT

In two papers, I will discuss how considering employees’ internal mindsets can help us both identify and solve important work problems that employees may be experiencing. In the first paper, taking an identity perspective, I will demonstrate that domain-incongruent self-affirmation (defined as affirming an important non-work identity while at work) can change employees’ mindsets in a way that induces anxiety, and that this affirmation-induced anxiety can have costs for employees, both at work and at home.  In the second paper, taking a goal perspective, I will demonstrate how non-work goal reflection (thinking about important non-work goals at the end of the workday) can shift employees mindsets in a way that helps them stop ruminating about work during non-work time, and how rumination mediates the effect of non-work goal reflection on employees’ after-work well-being.  Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of employees’ internal mindsets, and provide insights into how employees understand and interpret the work environment and their relationships with it.