Making Sure That Mindfulness Is Promoted in Organizations in the Right Way and for the Right Goals

Abstract

I am happy to see the topic of mindfulness at work find its way into this journal as a focal article (Hyland, Lee, & Mills, 2015), and I read it with great interest. Although I agree with most of the points made, I want to elaborate on some critical issues that were not or were only briefly touched on and that I deem worthy of further exploration and discussion.With the current surge in popularity of mindfulness trainings in organizations, it is our responsibility as (mindfulness) researchers to ensure that mindfulness interventions are used for the right goals and implemented so that they benefit the participating individuals. Given the current publicity about mindfulness in the media and comparatively little empirical evidence on mindfulness in industrial and organizational (I-O) psychology, there is a risk that mindfulness interventions will be sold as a panacea to fix wellbeing, motivation, and performance-related problems in organizations without changing potentially underlying structural problems. In order to be able to manage organizational expectations about mindfulness interventions and to safeguard the proper use and promotion of mindfulness in organizations, it is important to address a number of critical issues. These issues refer to commonly held (mis)conceptions and research foci that limit not only our

Being mindful at work and at home: Buffering effects in the stressor–detachment model

“…Besides training employees to be more mindful and delegating all responsibility to them, organizations should also pay attention to contextual and organizational variables that may impact the ease with which employees are able to engage in mindful behaviour in the first place (Hülsheger, ). Organizations may not only provide employees with adequate opportunities for mindfulness practice (e.g., by planning in time for practice during work hours and providing designated rooms), but also enable employees to be mindful via job design and shaping a supportive environment.…”

“…Employees may experience different levels of mindfulness at work and at home because the factors facilitating or hampering mindfulness may be different across work and home contexts. For example, organizational factors (e.g., climate) may hinder mindful working (Hülsheger, ), but employees may have the chance to be mindful at home where they may have more autonomy to craft an environment that supports their mindfulness. Vice versa, when being mindful at home is difficult due to family duties, employees may be able to lessen job stress via being mindful at work.…”

Be(com)ing Real: a Multi-source and an Intervention Study on Mindfulness and Authentic Leadership

“…Mindfulness could be integrated as a substantial building block of leadership development programs, or might even be included in trainee programs in order to build leader mindfulness and authentic leadership in a sustainable way. In addition to offering adequate training, organizations should not neglect their responsibility to craft a working environment-e.g., via job design and organizational practices-that allows for and facilitates mindfulness and authentic leadership among their employees (Good et al, 2016;Hülsheger, 2015).…”

“…Despite the evidence that trait mindfulness and mindfulness interventions are associated with a variety of beneficial outcomes for individuals and organizations (Eby et al, 2017;Good et al, 2016;Lomas et al, 2017), there is a growing swell of criticism surrounding current mindfulness research and practices (e.g., Foster, 2016;Hülsheger, 2015;Purser & Loy, 2013;Van Dam et al, 2018). Several authors have criticized the shallow and popularized version of mindfulness (McMindfulness;Purser & Loy, 2013) for lacking the inherently genuine and ethical foundations that defined the original traditions.…”

Leader Mindfulness: Well-Being Throughout the Organization

“…Although we reported on numerous positive results of mindfulness (training), it is important to take account that a training is not a "quick fix," but rather "being mindful" is the result of continuous attention and practice (Hülsheger 2014).…”