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Possibilities, Purpose, Pitfalls: Insights From Introducing Mindfulness To, Amanda Sinclair

Amanda Sinclair

While mindfulness has been part of Buddhism and other religious and philosophical traditions for millennia, the last decades have seen adoption of mindfulness in clinical settings and more recently, in organisations and leadership. This article reports experiences introducing practices and concepts of mindfulness to managers and leaders across a wide range of sectors and organisational settings over the last ten years. I identify six particular insights that have emerged as important over that time: from how to define and explain mindfulness to leaders, through to ethical issues of the purposes to which mindfulness is put. Through discussion of these insights, …

Mindfulness At Work: Antecedents And Consequences Of Employee Awareness And Absent-Mindedness, Jochen Reb, Jayanth Narayanan, Zhi Wei Ho

Jochen Reb

The present study examines antecedents and consequences of two aspects of mindfulness in a work setting: employee awareness and employee absent-mindedness. Using two samples, the study found these two aspects of mindfulness to be beneficially associated with employee well-being, as measured by emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and psychological need satisfaction, and with job performance, as measured by task performance, organizational citizenship behaviors, and deviance. These results suggest a potentially important role of mindfulness at the workplace. The study also found that organizational constraints and organizational support predicted employee mindfulness, pointing to the important role that the organizational environment may play …

The Influence Of Mindful Attention On Value Claiming In Distributive Negotiations: Evidence From Four Laboratory Experiments, Jochen Reb, Jayanth Narayanan

Jochen Reb

We examined the effect of mindful attention on negotiation outcomes in distributive negotiations across four experiments. In Studies 1 and 2, participants who performed a short mindful attention exercise prior to the negotiation claimed a larger share of the bargaining zone than the control condition participants they negotiated with. Study 3 replicated this finding using a different manipulation of mindful attention. Study 4 again replicated this result and also found that mindful negotiators were more satisfied with both the outcome and the process of the negotiation. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, limitations, and future directions.

Leading Mindfully: Two Studies Of The Influence Of Supervisor Trait Mindfulness On Employee Well-Being And Performance, Jochen Matthias Reb, J. Narayanan, S. Chaturvedi

Jochen Reb

This research examines the influence of leaders’ mindfulness on employee well-being and performance. We hypothesized that supervisors’ trait mindfulness is positively associated with different facets of employee well-being, such as job satisfaction and need satisfaction, and different dimensions of employee performance, such as in-role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors. We also explored whether one measure of employee well-being, psychological need satisfaction, plays a mediating role in the relation between supervisor mindfulness and employee performance. We tested these predictions in two studies using data from both supervisors and their subordinates. Results were consistent with our hypotheses. Overall, this research contributes to …

Mirror As Prism, Kenneth Fox

Kenneth H Fox

As cooperative private international dispute resolution practices become increasingly common, it is tempting for conflict practitioners to assume that the human relations insights, skills, and practices that worked well for them at home will be equally effective (and appropriate) in an international, cross-cultural environment. Attending to the human dimension of conflict and interaction should be a central part of global negotiation and dispute resolution practice.

This Essay focuses on two dimensions of reflective and reflexive practice. It first discusses the nature of reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action from a modernist (“reflective”) and postmodern (“reflexive”) perspective. It then examines how engaging with practice …