Mindfulness at work

Abstract

Mindfulness broadly describes an open and receptive awareness of current experience that involves the self-regulation of attention, keeping it focussed on the present moment in order to develop greater awareness and recognition of mental events. Research has shown that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with measures of psychological well-being, including workrelated measures such as job satisfaction, work engagement, and work-family balance. Furthermore, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) delivered to employees have been found to decrease perceived stress, burnout, and depression, and to improve life satisfaction, mood, and sleep quality.The current project extends that body of research by investigating the effects of mindfulness on a range of workplace outcomes that have previously received little empirical investigation, including co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, and engagement and thriving at work. The current research also proposed and investigated a number of mechanisms to explain the effects of mindfulness on these workplace outcomes. Specifically, the proposal drew on previous research suggesting that mindfulness leads to more adaptive functioning and greater selfregulation by increasing cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect.An initial cross-sectional study of 184 office workers found that dispositional mindfulness was associated with all five workplace outcomes, and that the association with each was fully mediated by one or more of the three proposed mechanisms. Specifically, mindfulness was associated with co-worker relationship quality and thriving at work via positive reappraisal and positive affect, whereas it was associated with innovative behaviours and less resistance to change via cognitive flexibility alone. On the other hand, cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect all mediated the association between mindfulness and work engagement.A follow-up study found that a 4-week workplace MBI delivered to 131 employees, including office workers, school teachers, cleaners, and senior executives, improved self-reports of mindfulness, positive reappraisal, and negative affect. An additional novel finding was that the MBI reduced dispositional resistance to change. The study also found an unexpected decrease in innovative behaviours following the intervention, but this result may have been an artefact of the measure that was used. No significant pre-post changes were found in the other measures.The current project also investigated the mechanisms of change during the workplace MBI by looking at the correlations between changes in different measures, and by analysing weekly changes during the intervention. Results indicated that decreases in resistance to change correlated with increases in mindfulness, suggesting that mindfulness may have mediated that improvement.iii In contrast, improvements in reappraisal and reductions in negative affect and innovative behaviours were not correla...