Mindfulness training improves employee well-being: A randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Organizations are turning toward behavioral interventions with the aim of improving employee wellbeing and job performance. Mindfulness training has been suggested as one type of intervention that can achieve these goals, but few active treatment randomized controlled trials have been conducted. We conducted a randomized controlled trial among employees of a midwestern marketing firm (n ϭ 60) that compared the effects of 6-week mindfulness training program with that of a half-day mindfulness training seminar comparison program on employee well-being outcomes. Although both groups improved comparably on job productivity, the 6-week mindfulness training group had significantly greater improvement in attentional focus at work and decreases in work-life conflict, as well as a marginal improvement in job satisfaction compared with the half-day seminar comparison group. These findings suggest that although small doses of mindfulness training may be sufficient to foster increased perceptions of job productivity, longer term mindfulness training programs are needed to improve focus, job satisfaction, and a positive relationship to work.

Online Mindfulness Training Increases Well-Being, Trait Emotional Intelligence, and Workplace Competency Ratings: A Randomized Waitlist-Controlled Trial

“…Since we reported a significant decrease in perceived stress in the current sample this explanation does not account for our findings. Given that several organizational mindfulnessbased interventions do not report employing any mindfulness assessment (Davidson et al, 2003;Bazarko et al, 2013;Shonin et al, 2014;Chin et al, 2019b;Slutsky et al, 2019) further research with organizational interventions is required to explore how the different facets of mindfulness are affected by different interventions. In contrast to the findings of Querstret et al (2018), we reported significant increases on the non-reacting to inner experience facet of the FFMQ-SF.…”

“…Querstret et al (2018) used 4 of the 5 facets of the FFMQ-SF (the observing facet was excluded due to prior research by Baer et al (2006Baer et al ( , 2008 showing that observing didn't load onto a single mindfulness construct and did not show changes in meditation-naïve participants), and reported that the non-reactivity facet did not change following the interventions. Finally, several other interventions did not report the use of any mindfulness assessment as an outcome measure (Davidson et al, 2003;Bazarko et al, 2013;Chin et al, 2019b;Slutsky et al, 2019), preventing conclusions about the effects of those intervention on trait mindfulness to be drawn. In the present research we elected to employ the FFMQ-SF, and hypothesized that the mindfulness facets would increase following the mindfulness intervention relative to a randomized waitlist control group (H1).…”

“…However, when looking at productivity, results have been limited and mixed. Wolever et al (2012) did not report any improvements in productivity, whereas Slutsky et al (2019) reported that employees felt more focused and productive following an on-site mindfulness intervention but did not collect any data that was not based in self-assessment. Shonin et al (2014) conducted an intervention in officebased employees that resulted in lower levels of stress, psychological distress, and higher levels of job satisfaction and supervisor-rated workplace performance.…”

“…The growing prevalence of mindfulness programs in organizational settings is due in part to the increasing body of work spanning several diverse research areas of showing benefits of mindfulness-based practices on well-being and performance. Mindfulness-based practices have broadly been found to have several benefits including, but not limited to, reducing stress, anxiety, and depression, and enhancing attentional focus, working memory capacity, cognitive flexibility, positive mood, resilience, immune functioning, interpersonal relationships, and well-being (Astin, 1997;Brown and Ryan, 2003;Davidson et al, 2003;Carson et al, 2004;Tang et al, 2007;Hofmann et al, 2010;Brown et al, 2012;Colzato et al, 2012;Eberth and Sedlmeier, 2012;Ostafin and Kassman, 2012;Mrazek et al, 2013;Roeser et al, 2013;Kersemaekers et al, 2018;Slutsky et al, 2019). Some neuroscientific research has shown that mindfulness meditation may even lead to changes in brain structure and function in regions associated with meta-awareness, body awareness, self-regulation, emotion regulation, attention, and memory (Fox et al, 2014).…”

A study protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial on mindfulness-based stress reduction: Studying effects of mindfulness-based stress reduction and an additional organisational health intervention on mental health and work-related perceptions of teachers in Dutch secondary vocational schools

“…The systematic review by Donaldson-Feilder et al [28] reported positive effects on the well-being, resilience and leadership capability of leaders/managers. Slutsky et al [29] conducted a randomised controlled trial (RCT) and…”