Do Subordinates Formulate an Impression of their Manager's Implicit Person Theory?

Abstract

Implicit person theory (IPT) is characterised by the belief that specific attributes of people are generally either more static (i.e. entity beliefs) or more malleable (i.e. incremental beliefs). Within the organisational sciences literature, past IPT research has focused on the impact of managers' IPT beliefs on their own behaviours. The current research advances the extant literature by presenting two empirical studies that assess whether subordinates formulate an impression of their manager's IPT. The results are consistent with subordinates forming such an impression, as subordinates working under the same manager generally agreed on their manager's IPT. Moreover, our results support the convergent validity (e.g. with job satisfaction, turnover intention) and the discriminant validity (e.g. with transformational leadership, subordinates' own IPT perception) of the subordinates' impressions of their manager's IPT. The theoretical and practical implications of the current research, and future directions regarding cross-cultural differences related to IPT impression, are discussed.

Growth Mindset for Human Resource Development: A Scoping Review of the Literature with Recommended Interventions

“…Recent interest in a growth mindset in the common press may be fueling curiosity among researchers in a broader range of disciplines with findings that are pertinent to HRD researchers and practitioners. Studies have examined a growth mindset as one of the factors that enhance workplace engagement (Caniëls et al, 2018), employee productivity (Keating & Heslin, 2015), mentoring (Gregory & Levy, 2011), leadership (Gutshall, 2013;Heslin et al, 2005;Kam et al, 2014;Özduran & Tanova, 2017), willpower (Dweck, 2012), openness to feedback (Forsythe & Johnson, 2017), self-awareness (Ravenscroft et al, 2012), and creativity (Hass et al, 2016) in organizations. HRD researchers and practitioners may be interested in the findings shared by Kam et al (2014), whose study demonstrated that employees' assumptions of their managers' mindset impact workplace performance.…”

“…Studies have examined a growth mindset as one of the factors that enhance workplace engagement (Caniëls et al, 2018), employee productivity (Keating & Heslin, 2015), mentoring (Gregory & Levy, 2011), leadership (Gutshall, 2013;Heslin et al, 2005;Kam et al, 2014;Özduran & Tanova, 2017), willpower (Dweck, 2012), openness to feedback (Forsythe & Johnson, 2017), self-awareness (Ravenscroft et al, 2012), and creativity (Hass et al, 2016) in organizations. HRD researchers and practitioners may be interested in the findings shared by Kam et al (2014), whose study demonstrated that employees' assumptions of their managers' mindset impact workplace performance. Not only does the literature demonstrate individual gains from a growth mindset, workplace leaders' growth mindsets have been described to impact the overall organization through their influence on employees (Dweck, 2006;Özduran & Tanova, 2017) and we are starting to see references to organizational or collective mindsets (e.g., Dweck et al, 2014a;Hanson et al, 2016) that are pertinent to HRD research and practice.…”

Motives in Response to Negative Feedback: A Policy-Capturing Study

“…Where individuals fall on this spectrum has a significant effect on their thoughts and behaviors (Dweck, ; Dweck, Chiu, & Hong, ). An extensive body of research suggests that individuals’ mindsets influence perceptions and, consequently, motivational and behavioral responses (Dweck & Leggett, ; Tabernero & Wood, ; Heslin & VandeWalle, ; Rattan, Good, & Dweck, ; Mathur, Jain, Hsieh, Lindsey, & Maheswaran, ; Kam, Risavy, Perunovic, & Plant, ; Keating & Heslin, ). In particular, whether individuals have more of a fixed or growth mindset often predicts their responses to failure and setbacks; those with a fixed mindset typically have a helpless response to failure, whereas those with a growth mindset typically have a mastery response to failure (Dweck & Leggett, ; Dweck, ; Tabernero & Wood, ; Burnette et al, ; Novell, Machleit, & Sojka, ).…”

Does Fitness Priming Influence Self- and Other-Judgements of Personal and Physical Characteristics?

“…Past researchers asked participants to rate the implicit person theory of their supervisor (Kam, Risavy, Perunovic, & Plant, 2014;Jenssen, 2014). Kam and colleagues (2014) operationalized the perception of someone else's implicit theory as whether the supervisor would notice performance change.…”