Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination

Organizations and their stakeholders constantly face disruptions to stay competitive, relevant, and upgraded. Firms employ agile production, marketing, and technology practices to handle and benefit from such sudden changes. However, they seldom focus on understanding or enhancing Workforce agility...

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Main Authors: M. Janani, V. Vijayalakshmi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-08-01
Series:Acta Psychologica
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825005281
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author M. Janani
V. Vijayalakshmi
author_facet M. Janani
V. Vijayalakshmi
author_sort M. Janani
collection DOAJ
description Organizations and their stakeholders constantly face disruptions to stay competitive, relevant, and upgraded. Firms employ agile production, marketing, and technology practices to handle and benefit from such sudden changes. However, they seldom focus on understanding or enhancing Workforce agility at the individual level. This work adopts a bottom-up approach to explore the effects of psychological variables - Epistemic curiosity, Rumination, and Joy on Workforce agility. In Study 1, the cross-sectional survey (n1 = 482) validated the conceptual model. PLS-SEM was employed to analyze the roles of Epistemic curiosity (Interest-type and Deprivation-type curiosity), Rumination (Reflective Pondering and Brooding), and Joy in influencing Workforce agility. The analysis also revealed additional post-hoc relationships. An external sample (n2 = 194) was employed in Study 2 to verify the findings from Study 1. The findings revealed that Interest-type (I-type) curiosity and Joy positively predict Workforce agility. Additionally, D-type curiosity predicts both types of rumination and indirectly influences Workforce agility through Brooding. This paper explains why strength-based mechanisms must replace deficit-focused employee development initiatives by highlighting the differential roles played by I-type and D-type curiosities. In sum, it discusses the dark side of curiosity in the workplace, which is often overlooked in the literature.
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spelling doaj-art-ad1ea397e4d841d298a105a32389c9b32025-08-20T03:31:15ZengElsevierActa Psychologica0001-69182025-08-0125810521510.1016/j.actpsy.2025.105215Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and ruminationM. Janani0V. Vijayalakshmi1T A Pai Management Institute Bengaluru, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, India; Corresponding author at: T A Pai Management Institute, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Govindapura Village, Yelahanka, 560064 Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, IndiaOrganizations and their stakeholders constantly face disruptions to stay competitive, relevant, and upgraded. Firms employ agile production, marketing, and technology practices to handle and benefit from such sudden changes. However, they seldom focus on understanding or enhancing Workforce agility at the individual level. This work adopts a bottom-up approach to explore the effects of psychological variables - Epistemic curiosity, Rumination, and Joy on Workforce agility. In Study 1, the cross-sectional survey (n1 = 482) validated the conceptual model. PLS-SEM was employed to analyze the roles of Epistemic curiosity (Interest-type and Deprivation-type curiosity), Rumination (Reflective Pondering and Brooding), and Joy in influencing Workforce agility. The analysis also revealed additional post-hoc relationships. An external sample (n2 = 194) was employed in Study 2 to verify the findings from Study 1. The findings revealed that Interest-type (I-type) curiosity and Joy positively predict Workforce agility. Additionally, D-type curiosity predicts both types of rumination and indirectly influences Workforce agility through Brooding. This paper explains why strength-based mechanisms must replace deficit-focused employee development initiatives by highlighting the differential roles played by I-type and D-type curiosities. In sum, it discusses the dark side of curiosity in the workplace, which is often overlooked in the literature.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825005281Workforce agilityInterest-type curiosityDeprivation-type curiosityBroodingReflective ponderingJoy
spellingShingle M. Janani
V. Vijayalakshmi
Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
Acta Psychologica
Workforce agility
Interest-type curiosity
Deprivation-type curiosity
Brooding
Reflective pondering
Joy
title Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
title_full Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
title_fullStr Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
title_full_unstemmed Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
title_short Agility and the three musketeers: The interplay of epistemic curiosity, joy, and rumination
title_sort agility and the three musketeers the interplay of epistemic curiosity joy and rumination
topic Workforce agility
Interest-type curiosity
Deprivation-type curiosity
Brooding
Reflective pondering
Joy
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0001691825005281
work_keys_str_mv AT mjanani agilityandthethreemusketeerstheinterplayofepistemiccuriosityjoyandrumination
AT vvijayalakshmi agilityandthethreemusketeerstheinterplayofepistemiccuriosityjoyandrumination