Decades of established research have focused on the attrition, workplace trauma, and career burnout of student affairs (SA) professionals working at colleges and universities (see N. J. Evans, 1988; Herr & Strange, 1985; Perez & Bettencourt, 2024; Walterbusch, 2019). The purpose of this generic qualitative research study (Khalke, 2016) was to understand the workplace experiences of the population of midlevel SA administrators working in the United States and Canada. Specifically, this study explores how midlevel SA administrators experience different mindsets in response to their workplace context and persist in their SA careers. The mindset concepts explored in this study include thriving (Schreiner, 2010), buoyancy (Parker & Martin, 2008), and resilience (Winwood et al., 2013). Positive psychology literature posits thriving, buoyancy, and resilience as mindsets. The following research question guided this generic qualitative study: What are the experiences midlevel SA administrators have with thriving, buoyancy, and resilience mindsets? Participants (n = 12) included midlevel SA administrators working in the United States or Canada, each sharing similar work-related characteristics and responsibilities while persisting through their SA careers. Participants completed an individual self-reflection activity focused on their career trajectory, followed by two in-depth interviews over a two-week period. Findings present a distinction among the concepts of thriving, buoyancy, and resilience. Midlevel SA administrators engaged buoyancy and resilience as mindsets but experienced a thriving state or condition at work. Participants engaged a buoyancy mindset to respond to consistent changes and local challenges within their specific department. Participants were more likely to engage a resilience mindset in response to high stake workplace challenges, and significant, unexpected, complicated, and compounded workplace issues that also influenced personal stress. Participants recalled thriving as a very specific, monumental career experience from the past that are uncommon at work. Overall, all participants indirectly expressed ways their sense of agency (Bai, 2006; Mitchell & Meacheam, 2011) influences their feelings of success at work, suggesting agency can affect one’s workplace mindset. Implications for practice focus on midlevel SA administrators, the supervisors of midlevel SA administrators (e.g., vice president, students; vice provost, students), senior campus leaders (e.g., president, provost), and SA professional associations in the United States and Canada. Other implications center on theory and directions for future research.
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