Digital for all: Developing and evaluating an intervention to stimulate the digital growth Mindset of knowledge worker

Abstract

In a rapidly changing and digitalising world of work, in which new professional roles are emerging and skill requirements are shifting, change readiness and learning motivation have become crucial assets for employees. In order to thrive at work, workers need a growth mindset (Dweck, 2007), characterised by positive self-beliefs, such as high self-efficacy and strong malleability beliefs about one’s ability to learn new skills. A digital growth mindset, in particular, which we define as having a growth mindset towards digitalisation and digital skills, has become a necessity for workers in all industries. This is especially the case for knowledge workers, as their jobs are becoming more complex due to automation and new business models, leading to new skill demands that are more technical, digital, and interpersonal.Consequently, there’s a growing interest within the field of Work and Organisational Psychology when it comes to developing workplace interventions that stimulate positive self-beliefs, as they positively impact people’s motivation to learn and actual learning behaviour (Bandura, 1977; Burnette, O’Boyle, VanEpps, Pollack, Finkel, 2013; Mangels, Butterfield, Lamb, Good, Dweck, 2006; Rigolizzo, 2021). A related challenge is the quest for effective yet pragmatic methods to assess the effectiveness of these interventions and understand why certain interventions work while others don’t (Berge, 2008; Griffin, 2011). Relying on the Double Diamond Process (British Design Council) and following an iterative process of prototyping and user testing, the online mindset intervention ‘Digital For All’ (DFA) was developed in 2020-2021, to positively shape mindset beliefs of knowledge workers in the context of digital transformation and digital skills. The intervention consists of 8 different learning modules, all related to the general concept of the growth mindset: (1) digital awareness, (2) digital technology, (3) digital growth mindset, (4) digital (re)thinking, (5) digital self-leadership, (6) careers in the digital world, (7) digital resilience and (8) digital data.From February to June 2022, DFA has been implemented in several organisational contexts to evaluate its effectiveness by means of case studies. In line with the formulated selection criteria and striving at a diverse set of cases (diversity in terms of employment status, function, age and gender), the research team selected and analysed a total of 12 cases. We relied on multiple data sources for the case studies: interviews with participants, interviews with observers or coaches who were part of the intervention, and survey data. Process tracing analysis (Beach & Pedersen, 2013) was used as a within-case method for theory-based impact evaluation to understand how our intervention led to increased growth mindset beliefs in most of our cases, and why positive effects were missing in others. Process tracing is seen as a promising methodological avenue for empirically studying causal mechanisms, especially in social science disciplines (Beach & Pedersen; 2013; George & Bennett,2005; Bennett, 2008). As part of the symposium ‘Attitudes and Mindsets During Organisational Transformation’, we will first introduce our developed DFA intervention to practitioners and scholars in the field of Work and Organisational Psychology. Secondly, we will provide an overview of the insights and results derived from the conducted case studies, and we will elaborate on the causal mechanisms explaining how 2282DFA has led to its hypothesised effects. Thirdly, we will share our lessons learned with the audience and reflect on limitations of our research. Doing so, we want to inspire practitioners seeking for effective and rigorous ways to support employees in futureproofing their skillset via mindset interventions. Also, we want to inspire academics interested in exploring process tracing as a research method for evaluating those interventions. For Work and Organisational Psychologists conducting research in real-world business settings, process tracing might be an interesting approach to assess and increase the effectiveness of certain practices in a profound yet pragmatic manner.We hope to contribute to two Sustainable Development Goals, as described by the United Nations. First, our work is relevant in relation to ‘Decent work and economic growth’, by encouraging employees to invest in their employability and considering growth mindsets as a prerequisite for sustainable employment and economic growth. Second, we will contribute to ‘Quality education’, considering DFA as a training intervention stimulating lifelong learning