Curiosity has comprehensive benefits in the workplace: Developing and validating a multidimensional workplace curiosity scale in United States and German employees

Abstract Curiosity is a fundamental human motive that is beginning to garner closer attention by researchers and practitioners interested in workplace functioning. Recent work suggests that rather than designating someone as possessing curiosity or not, there is benefit in detailing the various elements of curiosity. To date, there is no research on how multiple dimensions of curiosity operate in the workplace. Across four samples, we developed and validated the M-Workplace Curiosity Scale. Participants were American and German employees from a range of industries. We found evidence for four workplace curiosity dimensions: Joyous Exploration, Deprivation Sensitivity, Stress Tolerance, and Openness to People's Ideas. These workplace curiosity dimensions predicted a substantial amount of variance in adaptive outcomes including job satisfaction, work engagement, job crafting, healthy work relationships, and innovation; as a test of construct specificity, workplace curiosity outperformed trait mindfulness in predicting each of these workplace outcomes. Results offer support for a comprehensive model of curiosity that identifies high performing, satisfied individuals in the workplace. These findings underscore the importance of understanding, assessing, leveraging, and developing curiosity in teams and organizations.