Positive Effect of Mindfulness at Work Case Study Answers

• University : e-Campus My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : leadership

Organization Growth - Performance of the Employees

Introduction

The success and growth of the organization depend on the performance of the employees. In the current competitive era, it is very important for organizations to retain their employees. The concept of mindfulness is used by many top organizations to retain their employees and it also helps in gaining more productivity and growth. The study aims to understand the positive effect of mindfulness at the workplace. Mindfulness is a natural capacity and it involves paying purposeful attention to an individual's experience. Moreover, the success of the organization relies on collaboration, creativity, cognitive flexibility, and effective decision making. Furthermore, many business entities are understandably keen to experiment with innovations that develop the internal resources of individuals. Hence, many organizations are increasingly concerned with the well being of their employees. When individuals and teams engage mindfully with each other then mindfulness becomes a social norm and mindful practices turn entire workplaces into mindful organizations. The structure of the study includes the role of mindfulness for job satisfaction, the impact of mindfulness on human beings, benefits of mindfulness at the workplace, trait, and state of mindfulness and a new approach in improving an individual and organizational performance.

Mindfulness

The cultivation of mindfulness is commonly associated with Buddhist traditions, but these practices have been combined with the modern theories of psychology. Mindfulness is considered as a capacity that enables the people to focus on what they experience at the moment, inside themselves as well as in their environment with an attitude of openness, curiosity, and care (Segal et al. 2018). In the business context, Mindfulness is most often referred to as a practice that individuals and teams can do on a day-to-day basis. Workplace mindfulness training ranges from one-hour introductory sessions to 10-week programs. Moreover, mindfulness is the multi-level concept and it is associated with benefits for individual employees and the organization as a whole (Tang et al. 2015).

Trait and state of mindfulness are defined as the state of being where an individual brings their attention to understandings occurring in the present moment in an accepting way or non-judgemental way. Mindfulness has various key features first is receptive awareness and registration of inner experiences like emotions, thoughts and behavioral intentions, and external values. Second processing of mindfulness id pre-conceptualized. In this state, an individual is noticing what is happening without evaluating, analyzing, and reflecting on it (Kiken et al. 2015). Thirdly mindfulness is differentiated by present-oriented consciousness where the individual focuses on the present moment instead of thinking about past experiences and fantasizing about the future. The last feature of mindfulness is that it is an essential human capacity that varies in strength both crossways person and situation.

Research investigating in general public involves that without formal meditation experience, the mindfulness in individuals varies from each other like they have trait-like properties. Most research on natural differences in mindfulness has focused on trait mindfulness. Researchers have repeatedly argued about the definition of mindfulness (Sauer et al. 2013). In that sense mindfulness is a non-judgemental experience of an individual of his present moment with internal and external events, irrespective of whether they are optimistic or adverse. The empirical studies of these normal intra-individual variations in mindfulness are still rare and sometimes don't exist. A few studies in personality literature have also stated that mindfulness can be reliably measured in realistic sets with a size precisely designed for this purpose. The individuals with high realistic capacity of being trait-mindfulness or the individuals engaged in regular meditating practices experience mindfulness intensely if the person is running on autopilot mode without paying attention to the present moment even then they can also experience situations and days.

Impact of Mindfulness on Human FunctioningMindfulness may affect the individual, team, and organizations. It is very important to consider its basic effects on the major domains of human functioning which include attention, cognition, behavior, and psychology (Good et al. 2016).

Attention- mindfulness is theorized to affect human functioning primarily through attention. Mindfulness helps in improving three qualities of attention which include stability, control, and efficiency. Mindfulness has been associated with improved attentional stability better control of attention as well as attentional efficiency. These qualities of attention influence cognitive, behavioral, and physiological domains of functioning.

Cognition- there is a link between mindfulness and cognitive performance, including cognitive flexibility and cognitive capacity. Working memory and fluid intelligence are considered as important aspects of cognitive capacity. Working memory acts as a short term buffer for processing and holding the information that links attention and higher-order cognition. Moreover, it is associated with flexible cognition and mediation experience has also been linked with convergent thinking and creativity. Several studies support the assumption that mindfulness practice fosters cognitive inhibition

Emotions- mindfulness influences the emotions through attention which affects the selection of stimuli for observation. It may alter the lifecycle of emotional reactions and the overall valence of emotional experience. The emotional reaction displays a lifecycle and mindfulness helps in the shortening of that life cycle. Mindfulness has been associated not only in emotional reactivity but also in general emotional tone. Emotional tone refers to the overall positivity and negativity of the emotions but mindfulness pieces of training are associated with less negative and more positive emotional tone.

Role of Mindfulness for job satisfaction due to intense competition in the industries, many organizations face the employees' problems which include workplace stress, anxiety, and other issues including chronic illness, absenteeism, dissatisfaction, and work conflict, and so on. Many organizations are focusing on providing mindfulness training to employees. These training help the employees in reducing the number of symptoms which include emotional and behavioral disorders like depression and anxiety. The regular practice of mindfulness has been linked to better work-life balance and better stress management (Reb et al. 2014). Mindfulness practice can make an individual more focussed, creative, and healthy. The employees using mindfulness skills are found to have positive relationships with the co-workers as well as other departments. There are some stress management programs that involve some mindfulness training. Mindfulness practices help in reducing the employees' stress and it also aims to foster positive work culture with strong social connectedness as it also helps in solving the problems in a better way. Mindfulness also helps the teams to achieve emotional clarity and helps in enhancing creativity. Enhanced creativity can help in developing the new product, finding innovative solutions for the problems as well as effectively redesigning of the processes. The people used to tend to work more enthusiastically when they are stressed free (C. Andrews et al. 2014). At the workplace, individuals face many challenges every day, the mindfulness techniques may facilitate adaptive appraisal of the stressful events. Moreover, mindfulness affects the employee's appraisal of challenging work events as less stressful which ultimately results in the positive reactions and it also leads to job satisfaction of an individual. Furthermore, may relate positively to job satisfaction by promoting self-determined behavior. Mindfulness helps the individuals to get in contact with their basic values and needs. This can be done by reducing habitual and drawing attention to current experiences. Most work environments confront employees with a variety of demands and challenges. Mindfulness promotes autonomous self-regulation which helps in preserving the energies and vitality. Thus, mindfulness helps in achieving the overall goals of the organizations and it also contributes in the productivity of the employees. It also helps in improving better relationships through greater empathy and compassion. Therefore, mindfulness also focuses on improving stability, efficiency, and control. Many organizations, particularly those involved in behavior change or high-risk activities are incorporating behavioral insights in their working practices. Both mindfulness training, as well as behavior insights, are concerned with how an individual process the information and how this affects the behavior of an individual.

Benefits of Mindfulness at the workplace stress reduction- mindfulness is considered an important key element for fighting stress as well as it also helps in dealing with illness problems. In recent years, psychotherapists have turned to mindfulness meditation as an important element in the treatment of some problems which include depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and so on.

Better emotional intelligence- emotional intelligence affects the workplace at all levels of the organization. Mindfulness helps in creating a more positive work environment in the organization and helps in maintaining better employee relationships.
Enhances Creativity- the main aspect of creativity is divergent thinking which can be defined as the ability to generate new ideas. Practicing mindfulness helps an individual at the workplace as it motivates an individual to think more innovatively than as usual.

Adaptability and Problem Solving- adaptability plays a significant role in leadership performance and this quality is mainly present in the leaders or individuals who are more open to adjusting their beliefs and perceptions. On the other hand, problem solving which helps in removing clutter from the untrained mind. It also helps in improving concentration which leads to untying the notes of problem-solving.

A new approach to improving individual and organizational performance current years the trend and concept of applying mindfulness have been increased in organizations. Its popularity has increased among the various people like the organizational leader, consultants, and employees. The reason behind this popularity in mindfulness is the physical and psychological benefits to the employees (Hlsheger et al. 2013). From last ten years, doctors and psychologists are using mindfulness techniques to cope up with people, their illnesses like depression, chronic pain, and anxiety. Researchers have also started using the benefits of mindfulness at the workplace, which will improve the task performance, social relationships, enjoyment, and memory of an individual.
As a result of this, many organizations have started using mindfulness programs in their organizations for the employees. They have started arranging training programs to improve and enhance employee well-being and effectiveness. Mindfulness is strictly related to Buddhist mind-training methods. According to them, mindfulness is the act of seeing things the way they are now. Mindfulness practices in the workplace mostly consist of the customized mindfulness-based stress reduction program. Many large organizations and some small organizations have developed providing specialized training program of mindfulness training with appropriate responses and mindfulness of leadership. The content and format of the mindfulness program are adapted from the MSBR model for more conducive and effective for the workplace.

The research on mindfulness has become interesting and popular form last decade, the research has increased rapidly. According to ElainorRosch, cognitive psychologist mindfulness is a simple aspect which can be present and absent at the time of awareness. Another researcher, Grossman distinguished that mindfulness is a difficult perception to describe, let alone operationalize. Buddhist monk defines mindfulness as keeping a person perception alive to the existing reality. Most researchers have defined mindfulness as an individual, state-level variable which enhances cognitive, physiological, and psychological functioning in various ways. Mindfulness prevents an individual from thinking mechanically or mindless. Bond, Hayes, and Barnes-Holmes argue that mindfulness is the state where an individual is more psychologically flexible and can make choices that are influenced by the personal value and not by professional attitude.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that mindfulness helps in creating a positive environment in the workplace as well as it also contributes to the overall performance of the employees. The concept of mindfulness does not necessarily involve meditation but for most of people, this form of training is required to stay present and allowing quality of thoughts. Some of the research studies have shown that those practicing mindfulness report lower levels of stress during the multitasking and can concentrate more. Moreover, mindfulness training programs have also helped in reducing anger, stress, and physiological symptoms. The regular practice of mindfulness has been linked to better stress management and work-life balance. The success and growth of the organization depend on the employee's performance. Many organizations adopted mindfulness training to enhance the well being of the individual. The study also includes benefits of mindfulness which involves stress reduction, better emotional intelligence and better problem and decision making skills.

References

C. Andrews, M., Michele Kacmar, K. and Kacmar, C., 2014. The mediational effect of regulatory focus on the relationships between mindfulness and job satisfaction and turnover intentions.Career Development International,19(5), pp.494-507.
Good, D.J., Lyddy, C.J., Glomb, T.M., Bono, J.E., Brown, K.W., Duffy, M.K., Baer, R.A., Brewer, J.A. and Lazar, S.W., 2016. Contemplating mindfulness at work An integrative review.Journal of management,42(1), pp.114-142.
Hlsheger, U.R., Alberts, H.J., Feinholdt, A. and Lang, J.W., 2013. Benefits of mindfulness at work the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction.Journal of Applied Psychology,98(2), p.310.
Kiken, L.G., Garland, E.L., Bluth, K., Palsson, O.S. and Gaylord, S.A., 2015. From a state to a trait Trajectories of state mindfulness in meditation during intervention predict changes in trait mindfulness.Personality and Individual differences,81, pp.41-46.
Reb, J., Narayanan, J. and Chaturvedi, S., 2014. Leading mindfully Two studies on the influence of supervisor trait mindfulness on employee well-being and performance.Mindfulness,5(1), pp.36-45.
Reb, J., Narayanan, J. and Chaturvedi, S., 2014. Leading mindfully Two studies on the influence of supervisor trait mindfulness on employee well-being and performance.Mindfulness,5(1), pp.36-45.
Roche, M., Haar, J.M. and Luthans, F., 2014. The role of mindfulness and psychological capital on the well-being of leaders.Journal of occupational health psychology,19(4), p.476.
Sauer, S., Walach, H., Schmidt, S., Hinterberger, T., Lynch, S., Bssing, A. and Kohls, N., 2013. Assessment of mindfulness Review on state of the art.Mindfulness,4(1), pp.3-17.
Segal, Z.V., Williams, M. and Teasdale, J., 2018.Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression. Guilford Publications.
Tang, Y.Y., Hlzel, B.K. and Posner, M.I., 2015. The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation.Nature Reviews Neuroscience,16(4), p.213.