Previous research on agility has focused on investigating agile practices as external structures (e.g. Scrum, Kanban) that make people do agile. A new line of research is increasingly examining internal structures (e.g. mindsets, attitudes) that cause people to be agile. The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the agile mindset as a new construct in psychological research.
This two-wave study (N = 411) examined the agile mindset’s factorial, discriminant, and incremental validity. The authors tested whether the agile mindset adds predictive value for occupational behavior (performance and innovative work behavior) and well-being at work (vigor and emotional exhaustion), above well-established internal dispositions, namely core self-evaluation, proactive personality, and prevention vs promotion focus.
The results indicate that the agile mindset positively predicts performance and innovative work behavior beyond core self-evaluation, proactive personality, and prevention vs promotion focus. Concerning well-being, only positive effects for vigor were found in comparison with prevention vs promotion focus.
The findings are useful for organizations looking to improve their agility to increase competitiveness in complex environments.
This study underscores the importance of further exploration into the agile mindset, emphasizing its significance in organizational psychology.
