Self-Reflection at Work: Why It Matters and How to Harness Its Potential and Avoid Its Pitfalls

Abstract

It is difficult to fathom how an organization could be successful without its employees engaging in self-reflection. Gone would be its personnel's capacity to problem-solve, learn from past experiences, and engage in countless other introspective activities that are vital to success. Indeed, a large body of research highlights the positive value of reflection. Yet, as both common experience and a wealth of findings demonstrate, engaging in this introspective process while focusing on negative experiences often backfires, undermining people's health, well-being, performance, and relationships. Here we synthesize research on the benefits and costs of self-reflection in organizational contexts and discuss the role that psychological distance plays in allowing people to harness the potential of self-reflection while avoiding its common pitfalls.

Internal Dialogue, Creative Potential, and Creative Achievement

“…Manipulating uncertainty could therefore enable studying the relationship between internal dialogues and creativity experimentally in novel ways. Establishing causality subsequently opens the door to developing ways to control and harness one's internal dialogical activity in adaptive ways (Kross, 2021).…”

Proactivity and Job Search: The Mediating Role of Psychological Closeness With External Mentors

“…that put them at the greatest risk during the pandemic (Fry, 2022; Kantamneni, 2020). Another alternative explanation suggests that across gender, COVID-induced job search anxiety and chatter that directs effort away from substantive forms of job search may impact fully employed adults in similar ways (Gabriel et al, 2021; Kross, 2021). While research suggests women alter their job search networking differently than men, under shared pressure of the pandemic, structures of networking may become more uniform (Obukhova & Kleinbaum, 2022).…”

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“…With distraction (e.g., reading, listening to music, and sports activities), the ruminating person is encouraged not to think about troublesome self-related elements (e.g., [126]). With self-distancing (see [127]), the ruminating individual is motivated to "discuss" negative emotions as if they were another person, very much like when one offers advice to a friend. Such advice is more likely to be detached and objective, rather than subjective and biased.…”