Do Intense Work Experiences Influence Growth Mindset, Emotional Intelligence and Knowledge Creation and Sharing?

Abstract

We examined the impact of participating in Wilderness Conservation Corp (WCC) leadership development program on crew members’ emotional intelligence (EI), knowledge management/sharing (KM), and growth mindset (GM) during one summer of intense wilderness crew work activity. We found that low EI crew members experienced significant increases in emotional intelligence as the result of their experience. We also found that crew members that measured low in EI increased their perceptions of knowledge creation and sharing (KM) in the WCC organization after the experience. Finally, we found that those crew members with a more fixed mindset moved towards a significantly more growth mindset