Growth mindset research has explored the important, separate effects of leaders’ or followers’ mindsets on work outcomes. Nonetheless, their combined effects are also theoretically important. Drawing upon a resource-demand perspective, we examined how leader-follower (in)congruence of growth mindsets predicts followers’ work engagement and task performance, and the moderating role of perceived developmental HR practices. We conducted a two-source, two-wave survey design with a sample of 320 followers and their respective 72 leaders and conducted polynomial regression analyses coupled with response surface plots. We found that followers’ work engagement was higher (1) when leaders’ and followers’ growth mindsets matched at a higher level, particularly at a higher level of perceived developmental HR practices, and (2) when followers’ growth mindset exceeded that of the leader, particularly at a lower level of perceived developmental HR practices. We discussed the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
