Being present and thankful: A multi-study investigation of mindfulness, gratitude, and employee helping behavior.

Abstract

Gratitude plays an integral role in promoting helping behavior at work. Thus, cultivating employees' experiences of gratitude represents an important imperative in modern organizations that rely on teamwork and collaboration to achieve organizational goals. Yet, today's workplace presents a complex array of demands that make it difficult for employees to fully attend to and appreciate the various benefits they receive at work. As such, gratitude is difficult for employers to promote and for employees to experience. Despite these observations, the role of attention and awareness in facilitating employees' feelings of gratitude is largely overlooked in the extant literature. In this study, we examined whether one notable form of present moment attention, mindfulness, may promote helping behavior by stimulating the positive, otheroriented emotion of gratitude. Across two experimental studies, a semiweekly, multisource diary study, and a 10-day experience sampling investigation, we found converging evidence for a serial mediation model in which state mindfulness, via positive affect and perspective taking, prompts greater levels of gratitude, prosocial motivation, and, in turn, helping behavior at work. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our investigation, as well as avenues for the future research.

Trends and Developments in Mindfulness Research over 55 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis of Publications Indexed in Web of Science

“…Keywords which have received recent citation bursts also illuminate some emerging trends. Gratitude, which has been called one of the "sisters of mindfulness" (Rosenzweig, 2013), seems to have attracted renewed interest within mindfulness literature (Sawyer et al, 2021;Swickert et al, 2019). The ability of mindfulness to reduce loneliness also appears to have gained recognition; this probably reflects the ongoing need for interventions to combat loneliness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (Teoh et al, 2021).…”

An empirical evaluation of The Resilience Shield model

“…This is broadly consistent with previous research showing relationships between some of these constructs, although no previous research has examined the relationships between all four of these constructs. For example, Sawyer et al [ 84 ] found evidence of an indirect effect between mindfulness, perspective taking (the cognitive capacity to consider the viewpoint of others, similar to the cognitive flexibility construct included in The Resilience Shield model) and gratitude. Locus of control has also been shown to be associated with gratitude and mindfulness, with individuals with a more internal locus of control having a greater disposition for gratitude and mindfulness [ 100 ].…”

The balance between positive and negative affect in employee well‐being

“…Managers may foster these positive connections for employees by providing them with emotional support during stressful times during the day or by building a team where its members willingly provide task assistance to each other (Colbert et al, 2016). Organizations can introduce mindfulness training for employees to help them better capture PA from positive experiences by reflecting on good things that employees experience throughout the day or the week (Sawyer et al, 2021) and by sharing them with others (Gable et al, 2004).…”

“…Organizations can introduce mindfulness training to minimize the magnitude of reactions to daily negative events (Good et al, 2016). Since negative interactions with customers and coworkers contribute a large part to employees' NA throughout the day and the day after (Tremmel & Sonnentag, 2018), mindfulness training may encourage employees to take customers' and coworkers' perspectives, which may help them minimize the magnitude of reactions to daily negative events (Sawyer et al, 2021) and help them with effective coping (Folkman & Moskowitz, 2000; Larsen & Prizmic, 2008). If organizations are aiming to improve employee health and reduce healthcare costs, our data suggest that decreasing NA and increasing PA are effective.…”