Publication Type
Conference Proceeding Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
6-2025
Abstract
This study explores the antecedents of students’ resilience in a management education setting, by looking at the role of state hope and dispositional optimism in cultivating their psychological hardiness. While resilience is recognized as integral to personal growth, extant research has predominantly focused on its correlations with psychological capital (PsyCap) elements such as hope and optimism; or examined the outcomes of hardiness as a proxy of resilience. Little has been done to explicate the directional causal relationships among the PsyCap elements and hardiness in view of resilience-building. Using a longitudinal mixed methods design, this study delves into how state hope, with its component willpower and waypower, and dispositional optimism, may cultivate hardiness among higher education students. We gathered data from university students in Singapore enrolled in an experiential learning course, both before and after facing course challenges with educator advice. The findings show that willpower and waypower are linked to specific hardiness components of commitment and control, while dispositional optimism serves as a moderator. These results highlight the potential for curricula and educational interventions aimed at fostering hope and optimism to systematically strengthen students’ hardiness too, thereby enhancing their resilience and preparing them more effectively for an increasingly complex world.
Keywords
resilience, psychological capital, state hope, dispositional optimism, hardiness, higher education, experiential learning, student development, positive psychology, management education
Discipline
Higher Education | Personality and Social Contexts
Research Areas
Lee Kong Chian School of Business (LKCSB)
Publication
Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings 2025
Volume
2025
Issue
1
Identifier
10.5465/AMPROC.2025.12942abstract
Embargo Period
8-26-2025
Citation
LIM, Paul; LOW, Chin Heng; and KOH, Kevin.
Hardiness, optimism and hope: Longitudinal study of how individuals may build resilience through experiential undergraduate university courses. (2025). Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings 2025. 2025, (1),.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7730
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.