Posted: June 2nd, 2015

mindfulness and the effect on performance.

Topic: mindfulness and the effect on performance.

 

Introduction (Me)

History – thousands of years

Attention in the present moment

Definitions, (Dan 2011, Brown and Ryan (2003), Shapiro et, al.need long citation (2005) definitions table in Dane, (2011)

Literature Review (Me)

Bringing together Eastern wisdom and western knowledge (Weick, & Putnam, 2006).

Looking at, many studies in clinical and health settings that show evidence of mindfulness helping with anxiety, stress, depression, physical and emotional wellbeing. Also evidence for psychological well-being, stress reduction, and health benefits.

Many using MBSR (John Kabat-Zinn) programme effectively.

Recently further research shows mindfulness in the workplace and looking at other aspects of employee wellbeing, including engagement, stress, well-being, job performance, and looking at the effect of leader’s mindfulness on their followers.

 

Critical analysis and identify gaps in the research (Sarah)

Yes there is research looking at stress, burnout, psychological distress (Shapiro et al 2005) instead of how mindfulness effects ‘healthy people’ to do better, increase life satisfaction and increase self-compassion, Chiesa and Serretti (2009) agree there is a gap looking at healthy subjects and how mindfulness effects healthy subjects. Also need to look at larger more heterogeneous samples; this includes organisational samples within the workplace.

Research shows us that mindfulness is conducive to wellbeing, lower levels of mental health symptoms, and higher levels of positive psychological experience (Weinstein, et al. 2009) but lack of research looking at actual interventions focusing on work performance, job performance. There is a lack of organisational research looking at how to increasing mental and physical health, interpersonal relationship quality, and behavioural regulation through mindfulness (Dane, 2011). Does mindfulness affect how individuals undertake work tasks (Dane, 2011)? Further research is required.

Further research required focusing on the mindfulness process and whether it is dependent on the type of task undertaken (Glomb, et al. 2011) further research required looking at how mindfulness processes specifically effect which tasks in the workplace. Can mindfulness be ‘learnt’?

Little scholarly investigation of whether and how mindfulness effects task performance (Dane, 2011).

Much research looking at issues with stress, mindfulness is used in medical based settings, health care settings, not so much organisational settings (Weinstein, Brown, & Ryan, 2009).

There is a lack of empirical research, little consideration in organisational scholarship (Dane & Brummel, 2013, Glomb et al, 2011).

Dane and Brummel (2013) study hints at the importance of helping, encouraging, supporting employees to develop greater mindfulness

There is a gap that requires we look into the longer term benefits of mindfulness training once mindfulness training has ended how long people can keep being mindful for (Grossman et al. 2004 long citation) how long does mindfulness stay effective for?

Focusing on how mindfulness can help people in their personal life, holistically not just at work. Mindfulness needs to be tested further in organisational settings (Glomb, et al, 2011). This might sell it to employees and increase number of participants in research.

Further research is required for the ‘downside’ of mindfulness there is a lack of critique for mindfulness, the dark side of using this in the workplace, negative long term effects (Leroy, et al, 2013)

 

Methodology

 

Promotion for creativity, innovation and joy in work, in alignment with the organisations goals and values, incorporating other skills, such as leader ship, dealing with difficult conversations. Mindfulness as part of the organisational culture, the way we do things around here is mindful…present, conscious and aware. Take this home and use it in your everyday life, see if it makes a difference.

 

Participants

Could go through meditation centre and find people that are practicing/have been practicing mindfulness for over a year and that are also working (Glomb, et al, 2011).

Organisation participants, from different industries

Shall we look at differences in mindfulness in the East and West, measure different cultures and if mindfulness works better in Eastern cultures?

Measures

Could develop eLearning module to use in the workplace setting/app (evidence of this working for psych cap, reading from course/Jarrod), also in work time mindfulness work for set time weekly for a month and exercises to complete at home.

Measure mindfulness using the 15 item Mindfulness Attention Awareness scale (MAAS Brown and Ryan, 2003).

Require Pre, During, Post (long term) measures. Pre job performance, post job performance after mindfulness intervention

 

Intervention

Require to measure people that did not do any mindfulness training (control group)

Waiting list control group (Leroy, Anseel, Dimitrova, & Sels, 2013).

Mindfulness training will include sitting mediation, body scan, yoga and three minute breathing space (Shapiro et al, 2005). This is the most common methods found in research currently. Typically research focuses on (Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt & Walach, 2004) Introduce MBSR 8-10 week programme, single weekly sessions 2.5 hours different types of workplaces, manufacturing, service sectors etc. (Shapiro, et al., 2005), (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009).

Capture qualitative data, through open ended questions, in conjunction with quantitative research data suggest MBSR is beneficial for people that complete the course (Shapiro et al, 2005). Can measure changes in blood pressure/cortisol measures (Flook et al, 2013 & Glomb, et al. 2011).

Glomb, (2011) expects mindfulness to reduce automaticaicity of thought, which will lead employees to both be more productive and experience greater satisfaction in their work, which should lead to greater job satisfaction? ….evidence that job satisfaction leads to increase performance.

Also research questions asking about how mindfulness training has helping in home life.

 

 

Conclusion (Sarah)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

 

 

Bennett, R. (2011). Brand managers’ mindful self-management of their professional experience: Consequences for pay, self-efficacy and job performance. Brand Management, 18(8), 545-569.

Bergen-Cico, D, Possemato, K., & Cheon, S. (2013). Examining the efficacy of a brief mindfulness-based stress reduction (brief MBSR) program on psychological health. Journal of American College Health, 61(6), 348-360.

Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822-848.

Chiesa, A., & Serretti, A. (2009). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for stress management in healthy people: A review and meta-analysis. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, 15(5), 593-600.

Dane, E. (2011). Paying attention to mindfulness and its effects on task performance in the workplace. Journal of Management, 37(4), 997-1018.

Dane, E., & Brummel, B. J. (2013). Examining workplace mindfulness and its relations to job performance and turnover intention. Human Relations, 67(1), 105-128.

Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., Bonus, K., & Davidson R., J. (2013). Mindfulness for teachers: A pilot study to assess effects on stress, burnout and teaching efficacy. Mind, Brain and Education, 7(3), 182-195.

Glomb, T. M., Duffy, M. K., Bono, J. E., & Yang, T. (2011). Mindfulness at work. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management, 30, 115-157.

Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits a meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 35-43.

Leroy, H., Anseel, F., Dimitriva, N. G., & Sels, L. (2013). Mindfulness, authentic functioning, and work engagement: A growth modelling approach. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82, 238-247.

Poulin, P. A., Mackenzie, C. S., Soloway, G., & Karayolas, E. (2008). Mindfulness training as an evidence-based approach to reducing stress and promoting well-being among human services professionals. International Journal of Health Promotion & Education, 46(2), 72-80.

Reb, J., Narrayanan, J., & Chaturvedi, S. (2014). Leading mindfully: Two studies on the influence of supervisor trait mindfulness on employee well-being and performance. Mindfulness, (5), 36-45.

Roche, M., Harr, J. M., & Luthans, F. (2014). The role of mindfulness and psychological capital on the well-being of leaders. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, advance online publication, 1-14.

Shapiro, S. L., Astin, J. A., Bishop, S. R., & Cordova, M. (2005). Mindfulness-based stress reduction for health care professionals: Results from a randomized trial. International Journal of Stress Management, 12(2), 164-176.

Shonin, E., Van Gordon, W., Dunn, T. J., Singh, N. N., & Griffiths, M. D. (2014). Meditation awareness training (MAT) for work related wellbeing and job performance: A randomised controlled trial. International Journal Mental Health, Addiction, (12), 806-823.

Van Gordon, W., Shonin, E., Zangench, M., & Griffiths, M. D. (2014). Work-related mental health and job performance: Can Mindfulness help? International Journal Mental Health Addiction, (12), 129-137.

Weick, K. E., & Putnam, T. (2006). Organizing for mindfulness Eastern wisdom and Western knowledge. Journal of Management Inquiry, 15(3), 275-287.

Weinstein, N., Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2009). A multi-method examination of the effects of mindfulness on stress attribution, coping, and emotional well-being. Journal of Research in Personality, 43, 374-385.

 

 

 
Team part

 

Working with someone else on an assignment made me look at the actual process I use to get through one, the reading time, the planning time, first few drafts, send to prereading, then articulate this process and pull the team mate along. Also personally things went crazy for me and I had planned to do certain things by a certain time and I didn’t so I kind of ‘let the team down’ which was awkward as I expected things from her but didn’t hit my own targets which probably annoyed her too. I did find it harder to work virtually, and I wanted to make a skype date to talk about the concept and what we were up to even though we could have done without the skype date I suppose.

 

Mathieu, J., Maynard, M. T., Rapp, T., & Gilson. (2008). Team effectiveness 1997-2007: A review of recent advancements and a glimpse into the future. Journal of Management, 34(3), 410-475.