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It’s so boring – or is it? Examining the role of mindfulness for work performance and attitudes in monotonous jobs
Abstract
We examine the role of employee mindfulness in the context of highly monotonous work conditions. Integrating research on task monotony with theorizing on mindfulness, we hypothesized that mindfulness is negatively associated with the extent to which employees feel generally bored by their jobs. We further hypothesized that this lower employee boredom would relate to downstream outcomes in the form of job attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intentions) and task performance. We examined both objective task performance quality and quantity to shed light on the complexity of the mindfulness–task performance relation, which has so far mostly been investigated using subjective supervisor ratings. In a sample of 174 blue‐collar workers in a Mexican company, results showed that employee mindfulness was negatively related to boredom. Further, mindfulness was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively to turnover intentions, partly mediated through boredom. Mindfulness turned out to be a double‐edged sword for task performance in monotonous jobs: Mindfulness was positively related to task performance quality but negatively related to quantity.
Practitioner points
In repetitive, monotonous jobs held by millions of people worldwide, more mindful employees perceive their job as less boring.
Furthermore, mindful employees have higher job satisfaction and are less likely to quit.
With regard to objective job performance, mindfulness can be a double‐edged sword: It positively affects objective performance quality via boredom, but negatively affects objective performance quantity directly.
... There is limited research that shows the indirect relationship between mindfulness and commitment in employees who perform monotonous and routine tasks. Extant research proves that in employees performing monotonous jobs boredom mediates the relationship between mindfulness and job attitude (Wihler et al., 2022). Therefore, this mediation may also be expected in the relationship between mindfulness and employees' commitment. ...
... However, there is limited research that shows the effect of mindfulness on the employees' commitment. Extant research suggests that mindfulness is positively linked to many positive outcomes at work like engagement, satisfaction, job performance and mental health (Johnson et al., 2020;Wihler et al., 2022). Therefore, it may be believed that there is a positive relationship between mindfulness and organizational commitment. ...
... Therefore, it may be believed that mindful employees may feel less bored because of the stability, control and efficiency of their attention. Wihler et al. (2022), also highlight the negative effect of mindfulness on boredom by explaining the nature of information processing related to mindfulness. They contend that mindfulness enhances experiential information processing which directs attention to the present in contrast to conceptual information processing in which thoughts dominate attention. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to show the direct and indirect effects of mindfulness on the employees’ commitment in the employees who perform monotonous work. Moreover, it also shows the role of basic psychological needs proposed by self-determination theory (SDT), on the relationship between mindfulness and commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has used a time-lagged approach. Data has been collected from the nurses in public sector hospitals through a survey strategy. Structural equation modeling has been used to validate the measure and to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results of thi study reveal that there is a positive relationship between mindfulness and employee affective organizational commitment. This study also shows that in the existence of a high level of autonomy, mindfulness does have more effect on commitment. Moreover, this study also shows that this relationship is mediated by employee boredom. However, this mediation is not moderated by the satisfaction of the need for autonomy.
Practical implications
This study serves as a guide for frontline managers in situations where they want their subordinates who perform monotonous and boring work to remain committed to the organization. This study also emphasizes the recruitment of employees who may show more trait mindfulness.
Originality/value
This study enriches the literature in the field of organizational behavior by showing how basic psychological needs proposed by SDT collaborate with mindfulness in producing employees’ positive attitudes.
... There is limited research that shows the indirect relationship between mindfulness and commitment in employees who perform monotonous and routine tasks. Extant research proves that in employees performing monotonous jobs boredom mediates the relationship between mindfulness and job attitude (Wihler et al., 2022). Therefore, this mediation may also be expected in the relationship between mindfulness and employees' commitment. ...
... However, there is limited research that shows the effect of mindfulness on the employees' commitment. Extant research suggests that mindfulness is positively linked to many positive outcomes at work like engagement, satisfaction, job performance and mental health (Johnson et al., 2020;Wihler et al., 2022). Therefore, it may be believed that there is a positive relationship between mindfulness and organizational commitment. ...
... Therefore, it may be believed that mindful employees may feel less bored because of the stability, control and efficiency of their attention. Wihler et al. (2022), also highlight the negative effect of mindfulness on boredom by explaining the nature of information processing related to mindfulness. They contend that mindfulness enhances experiential information processing which directs attention to the present in contrast to conceptual information processing in which thoughts dominate attention. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to show the direct and indirect effects of mindfulness on the employees’ commitment in the employees who perform monotonous work. Moreover, it also shows the role of basic psychological needs proposed by self-determination theory (SDT), on the relationship between mindfulness and commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper has used a time-lagged approach. Data has been collected from the nurses in public sector hospitals through a survey strategy. Structural equation modeling has been used to validate the measure and to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results of thi study reveal that there is a positive relationship between mindfulness and employee affective organizational commitment. This study also shows that in the existence of a high level of autonomy, mindfulness does have more effect on commitment. Moreover, this study also shows that this relationship is mediated by employee boredom. However, this mediation is not moderated by the satisfaction of the need for autonomy.
Practical implications
This study serves as a guide for frontline managers in situations where they want their subordinates who perform monotonous and boring work to remain committed to the organization. This study also emphasizes the recruitment of employees who may show more trait mindfulness.
Originality/value
This study enriches the literature in the field of organizational behavior by showing how basic psychological needs proposed by SDT collaborate with mindfulness in producing employees’ positive attitudes.
... Mindfulness is certainly popular in white collar work and at various management levels, but there is less research investigating mindfulness in blue collar workers. A notable exception to this was a study conducted with blue collar workers in Mexico that demonstrated some positive effects on job satisfaction via a reduction in boredom (Wihler et al., 2022). Yet even this study measured trait mindfulness only and did not evaluate mindfulness training. ...
... And on the other side of the attentional environment spectrum, mindfulness can also help employees to maintain their attention and concentration on a boring or monotonous task. A recent study found that more mindful employees perceived their tasks as less boring and were more satisfied with their jobs, resulting in higher quality, though not quantity, outputs (Wihler et al., 2022). Future work on attentional environments could investigate the role of mindfulness in building resilience to distractions in modern workplaces, which feature open plan offices or always-connected workers. ...
The interface of public health and mindfulness as presented in Oman’s review (Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda) holds great promise and reveals fertile ground for future research and interdisciplinary exploration. Oman’s framework is supported by compelling arguments, offering a balanced critique of mindfulness that identifies genuine applications and potential. This commentary notes key ideas in Oman’s paper that carry important lessons for organisational research on mindfulness and explores how organisational psychology research and theory can contribute to this proposed integration of mindfulness into global health efforts. It begins by reviewing the close relationships between work, mindfulness, and health, identifying commonalities between mindfulness, health, and organisational research. This is followed by an illustration of organisational psychology’s potential contributions to the alignment of mindfulness and health, focused on 2 of the 14 dimensions proposed by Oman (Concern for Equity and Addresses Attentional Environments). The commentary then draws on recent research and theoretical developments in mindfulness research within the workplace context to discuss the role of resilience and challenges in measuring mindfulness. Overall, this commentary aims to provide insights for organisational research while contributing to the integration of mindfulness and public health.
... Hence, reducing employees' job stress in hospitality organizations is crucial for improving their work performance. Apart from the above-mentioned reasons for job stress among employees, the monotonous work environment is a major reason that leads to aggravated job stress in hospitality organizations, such as, hotels (Savitri and Widajati, 2023;Wihler et al., 2022). In this regard, fun at the workplace is believed to be effective in reducing workplace monotony (Bowen et al., 2020;Tews et al., 2020). ...
Drawing on job demand-resource theory and social exchange theory, this study investigates how work engagement mediates the impact of workplace fun on job stress through moderating role of job autonomy in the hospitality industry context. Survey data collected from 384 employees was analyzed using SmartPLS 4.0 to test the hypotheses of the study. The analysis revealed that workplace fun has a negative relationship with the job stress of employees, while work engagement has partial mediation in this relationship. Moreover, job autonomy was found to be a significant moderator in the relationship between workplace fun and employee engagement. The implications for theories and practices, followed by limitations and future directions and concluding remarks, are discussed.
... Individual characteristics, like family motivation, also appear to enhance job performance among blue-collar workers (Menges, Tussing, Wihler, & Grant, 2017). The monotony of blue-collar work may reduce task performance (Loukidou, Loan-Clarke, & Daniels, 2009), job satisfaction (Melamed et al., 1995), and turnover intentions (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2014), but these negative effects can be mitigated by individual factors such as mindfulness (Dane & Brummel, 2014;Wihler, Hülsheger, Reb, & Menges, 2022;Zhang, Ding, Li, & Wu, 2013) and envy (Tussing, Wihler, Astandu, & Menges, 2022). ...
As immigration continues to reshape workforce demographics in many Western states, we aim to understand how the inclusion of migrants in blue-collar workgroups impacts group productivity. Our study examines the effects of migrant percentage in workgroups and tests several moderators, including the percentage of women in the group, organizational tenure, origins of migrant group members, leadership by migrants, and regional demographics. Using a quantitative approach, we analyze a time-lagged sample comprising 629 workgroups from a large Swiss company. Our findings reveal a non-linear relationship between migrant percentage and group productivity, characterized by an inverted U-shape. This relationship is further influenced by organizational tenure, specific migrant origins, and the regional proportion of migrants. Traditional diversity theories fall short in explaining our findings, suggesting that subjective status changes may offer better insights into these dynamics.
... Although not a limitation, it is an important boundary condition for our theorizing that merits attention. Similarly, mindful attention may have different outcomes outside of a change context such as when activities are routinized (Wihler et al., 2022), because in such contexts, organizational members have internalized the relevant procedures and will only experiment when their established procedures break down (Kudesia, 2019). ...
Strategic change in organizations prompts pervasive ambiguity. As change initiatives cascade down the hierarchy, they can be met with habitual, inertial responses that ultimately generate negatively charged emotions—or they can prompt novel, experimental behaviors that forestall them. What remains unclear, however, is which factors drive teams, and the leaders that guide them, toward or away from this negative emotional reaction to change. In this study, we integrate social cognitive theory and research on mindfulness to unpack collective responses to change through a field study on 88 teams in a mortgage industry firm undergoing strategic change. We theorize that, when faced with ambiguous goals, team leaders low on mindful attention will lack the necessary cognitive capabilities to enact experimental behaviors—as they neither have clear external goals from senior managers nor internal dispositions to drive their attention into noticing novel information and eliciting unscripted experimental responses. In contrast, the experimental behaviors of team leaders who are high on mindful attention will not be affected by ambiguous goals—and the experimental behaviors of team leaders, in turn, will prompt greater experimental behaviors within their team, thereby lowering the team’s negative emotional reaction to change. Finding support for these hypotheses, our study contributes to research on dynamic managerial capabilities, collective responses to organizational change, and mindfulness.
... Most of the mindfulness studies were done among white-collar employees as their jobs involve various skills and interpersonal interaction (Wihler et al., 2022). The sample was composed of 193 white-collar employees working in İstanbul. ...
Amaç: Bilinçli farkındalık dikkatle ve olumlu bir tutumla ana odaklanmak olarak tanımlanmaktadır. Bilinçli farkındalık Budizm kökenli bir kavram olup Kabat-Zinn (2005) tarafından bilim dünyasına kazandırılmış ve psikoloji, işletme, sağlık bilimleri, rehberlik ve psikolojik danışmanlık gibi farklı alanlarda etkileri incelenmiştir. Bilinçli farkındalığın bireylerin tutum ve davranışlarında olumlu etkileri olduğu çok sayıda araştırma tarafından tespit edilmiştir. Bilinçli farkındalığın yeterince ilişkilendirilmediği bir konu da çatışma yönetimidir. Bu araştırmada bilinçli farkındalığın işbirlikçi çatışma yönetimi stillerine olan etkisinde duygusal zekânın aracı rolü incelenecektir.Yöntem: Araştırmada kolayda örneklem yöntemi ile kamu ve özel sektörde çalışan 193 beyaz yaka personelden veri toplanmıştır. Bulgular: Bilinçli farkındalık ile problem çözücü ve uzlaşmacı çatışma yönetim stilleri arasında anlamlı ilişkiler olduğu bulunmuştur. SPSS Process Macro eklentisi ile yapılan ara değişken analizi sonucunda duygusal zekanın aracı rolü olmadığı anlaşılmıştır. Sonuç: Bilinçli farkındalığın işbirlikçi çatışma stillerini yordadığı görülmüştür. Araştırmanın teorik katkıları tartışılmış ve uygulamacılara öneriler verilmiştir.
... Mindfulness can enable an individual to refocus (Slutsky et al., 2019) when taking a break (Chong et al., 2020), trying to disconnect from work (Toniolo-Barrios & Pitt, 2020) or overcoming the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic (Birk, 2021;Pattnaik & Jena, 2021). Such mindful abilities make it easier for individuals to apprehend urgent (Shapiro et al., 2006), numerous (Kudesia et al., 2022) or monotonous (Wihler et al., 2022) tasks. Mindfulness also increases cooperation and agility in decision-making processes (Reitz et al., 2020), particularly through constructive conflict management (Kay & Skarlicki, 2020). ...
Le présent article étudie les effets d’une intervention en leadership positif et pleine conscience sur les expériences, les traits et les comportements positifs des managers et de leurs salariés. Notre méthodologie de recherche repose sur une quasi-expérimentation avec des prétests et post-tests aléatoires effectués sur un groupe de contrôle spécifique : dans une entreprise pharmaceutique française, un groupe de 36 managers a participé à une intervention en psychologie positive (PPI) de 10 jours axée sur le leadership positif et la pleine conscience. Les données recueillies avant (T1) et après (T2) l’intervention montrent que les expériences et les comportements positifs ont augmenté, tandis que les traits positifs ont été renforcés chez les participants – mais pas parmi les membres du groupe de contrôle. Ces observations ont été recoupées avec les données recueillies au niveau des salariés. Plus précisément, les résultats indiquent qu’après l’intervention (T2), les managers ont ressenti plus d’empathie, de pleine conscience et de consonance tout en ressentant moins de stress. De même, à T2, les salariés ont confirmé que leurs managers ayant pris part à l’intervention étaient plus attentifs et affichaient une plus grande conscience collective. De plus, ces salariés ont perçu que leurs managers sensibilisés à la psychologie positive et à la pleine conscience faisaient preuve de davantage de justice procédurale et de vertus civiques organisationnelles. Les contributions théoriques, empiriques et managériales de cette étude sont également discutées.
Purpose
Drawing upon social information processing theory, this study investigates the correlation between self-serving leadership and employee expediency. It also explores the mediating effect of self-interest motivation and the moderating effect of trait mindfulness.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 147 part-time MBA students were enlisted to participate in a scenario experiment (Study 1), and 291 valid employee questionnaires were collected through a multiple-time point survey (Study 2). SPSS 23.0, MPLUS 8.0 and PROCESS programs were used to analyze the data and test the hypotheses.
Findings
Study 1 illustrated a positive correlation between self-serving leadership and employee expediency. It also identified self-interest motivation as a mediating factor in the correlation between self-serving leadership and expediency. Study 2 replicated the results obtained in Study 1 and expanded upon them by demonstrating that trait mindfulness moderates the association between self-serving leadership and self-interest motivation. Additionally, trait mindfulness moderates the indirect effect of self-serving leadership on expediency.
Practical implications
This research argues that organizations should take steps to prevent self-serving leadership in order to reduce employee expediency. Furthermore, it is advisable to provide ethics training to employees who exhibit high trait mindfulness, as they show increased sensitivity to self-serving leadership and are more likely to engage in unethical behavior.
Originality/value
This study expands the existing research on the ethical outcomes of self-serving leadership and contributes to a deeper understanding of the negative aspects of trait mindfulness.
Abstract
The objective of this study is to adapt the playful work design scale, as developed by Scharp et al. (2019), into Turkish. The concept of playful work design is a relatively novel one within the field of work design. It is based on the concept of play. The concept under examination is the employee's proactive approach to incorporating elements of play into work activities, without altering the fundamental nature of the work itself. This is done with the aim of making work activities enjoyable for all parties involved, or of designing their work in a more engaging and
enjoyable manner through the use of competition. The research was conducted using data obtained from 422 individuals employed in the public or private sectors in Şırnak province. The data were then coded for use in the SPSS and AMOS programs. Following exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, it was determined that the scale has a two-dimensional structure, with the original structure of designing fun and designing competition being confirmed. It was
thus established that the scale can be used to determine the level of playful work design of employees in business life in Turkey
z Bu çalışmada Scharp ve diğerleri (2019) tarafından geliştirilen oyun temelli iş tasarımı ölçeğinin Türkçe uyarlamasının yapılması amaçlanmıştır. Oyun temelli iş tasarımı, iş tasarımı konusunda geliştirilen oldukça yeni bir kavram olup temeli oyun kavramına dayanmaktadır. Söz konusu kavram, çalışanın proaktif bir yaklaşımla iş faaliyetlerinin ilgili olan herkes için eğlenceli olması amacıyla işin özünü değiştirmeden iş faaliyetlerine eğlenceyi katması veya kendi kendisiyle rekabet etmek suretiyle işini daha ilginç ve keyif verecek şekilde tasarlamasıdır. Araştırma Şırnak ilinde kamu veya özel sektörde çalışan 422 kişiden elde edilen verilerle yürütülmüştür. Elde edilen veriler SPSS ve AMOS programlarında kullanılmak üzere kodlanmıştır. Keşfedici ve doğrulayıcı faktör analizleri sonucunda ölçeğinin orijinal yapısındaki gibi eğlenceyi tasarlama ile rekabeti tasarlama olarak iki boyutlu yapıya sahip olduğu elde edilmiştir. Türkiye'deki iş yaşamında çalışanların oyun temelli iş tasarımı düzeyini belirlemede ölçeğin kullanılabileceği belirlenmiştir.
Bu çalışma, idari personellerde serbest zaman ilgileniminin iş tatmini üzerindeki etkisini ortaya çıkarmak amacıyla gerçekleştirilmiştir. Araştırmaya Kırıkkale Üniversitesi’nde çalışmakta olan 205 (137 erkek ve 68 kadın) idari personel katılmıştır. Çalışmada veri toplama aracı olarak katılımcılara kişisel bilgi formu (cinsiyet, medeni durum, yaş ve gelir), “Serbest Zaman İlgilenim Ölçeği (SZİÖ)” ve “Minnesota İş Tatmin Ölçeği” uygulanmıştır. Verilerin analiz sürecinde; katılımcıların demografik özelliklerine göre, serbest zaman ilgilenim ve iş tatmin düzeyleri arasındaki farklılıkları incelemek için t-Testi; değişkenler arası ilişkinin incelenmesi için Pearson korelasyon analizi ve son olarak basit doğrusal regresyon analizi yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın bulgularında, cinsiyet değişkenine göre SZİÖ ve sosyal ilişki alt boyutunda anlamlı farklılık tespit edilmiştir. Katılımcıların medeni durum değişkenine göre SZİÖ önem verme alt boyutunda anlamlı farklılık bulunmuştur. Katılımcıların yaş değişkeni ile SZİÖ ve iş tatmin ölçeği arasında pozitif yönde anlamlı ilişki bulunmuştur. Katılımcıların aile gelir değişkeni ile iş tatmini arasında pozitif yönde anlamlı ilişki tespit edilmiştir. Basit doğrusal regresyon analizi sonucunda; idari personellerde serbest zaman ilgileniminin iş tatminini pozitif yönde etkilediği tespit edilmiştir (R=0.47, R2=0.22). Buna göre; serbest zaman ilgilenim düzeyi, iş tatminindeki değişimin (varyansın) %22’sini açıklamaktadır. Bu sonuçlara göre; idari personelin serbest zaman ilgilenim düzeyinin gelişmesini sağlayacak etkinliklerin planlanması iş hayatlarına da olumlu etkisi olacaktır.
Using social information processing theory, this study aims to examine the relationships among an abusive work environment, mindfulness, employee well-being, and turnover intentions. This study was conducted based on a quantitative survey of employees working in the lodging industry in the United States. The findings reveal the joint impacts of abusive supervision, abusive coworker treatment, and mindfulness on employee well-being and turnover intention. Specifically, the results show that mindfulness exacerbates the relation between abusive behaviors and employee well-being, providing evidence of a moderated mediation effect in the relationship between abusive supervision/coworker treatment and turnover intentions through employee well-being. This research contributes to the literature and theory by demonstrating the potential dark side of employees’ mindfulness.
The relation of objective work conditions (work underload, repetitive or varied work) and subjective monotony to job satisfaction, psychological distress, and sickness absence was examined in 1,278 male and female workers. Subjective monotony was moderately related to the objective work conditions. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the effects on all outcomes were partially mediated by subjective monotony and were also directly related to repetitive work and work underload. Job satisfaction and psychological distress were mainly related to subjective monotony, whereas sickness absence was equally related to the work conditions and subjective monotony. The highest impact was observed for short-cycle repetitive work. Testing sex interactions revealed that sickness absence was related to the work conditions in women but not in men. The findings highlight the significance of noting the actual work conditions in predicting employee outcomes.
The mindfulness at work literature lacks a multifaceted measure of mindfulness that is applicable in the work context. Building on predominantly clinically‐oriented, multifaceted mindfulness measures, we aimed to develop and validate such a measure and to provide first insights into differential validities of mindfulness subfacets for work outcomes. Data from 6 work samples (overall n = 4,725) provided support that (a) a 4‐factor structure representing the subfacets of Describing, Nonreactivity, Nonjudging, and Act with Awareness replicates across samples; (b) subfacets and overall scale have good internal consistency and retest‐reliability; (c) the measure demonstrates convergent and discriminant validity; d) it demonstrates criterion‐related validity for well‐being, motivational, and interpersonal work outcomes; e) the Mindfulness@Work Scale explains variance in outcome variables above a unidimensional measures of mindfulness supporting its incremental validity. Furthermore, relative weights and incremental validity analyses revealed differential validities of subfacets of the Mindfulness@Work Scale in relation to positive psychological states vs. psychological distress. Overall, findings suggest that the Mindfulness@Work Scale has good psychometric properties and that a differentiation of subfacets provides novel insights into the role of mindfulness for work outcomes. The scale also has practical value as it may allow tracking changes in mindfulness facets following mindfulness training programs.
A state of mindfulness is characterized by focused, nonjudgmental awareness of the present moment. The current research experimentally investigated how state mindfulness influences task motivation and performance, using multiple meditation inductions, comparison conditions, tasks, and participant samples. Mindfulness inductions, relative to comparison conditions, reduced motivation to tackle mundane tasks (Experiments 1-4) and pleasant tasks (Experiment 2). Decreased future focus and decreased arousal serially mediated the demotivating effect of mindfulness (Experiments 3 and 4). In contrast to changes in motivation, inducing a state of mindfulness did not affect task performance, as seen in all experiments but one (Experiments 2-5). Meta-analyses of motivation and performance experiments, including unreported findings (i.e., the file drawer), supported these conclusions. Experiment 5’s serial mediation showed that mindfulness enabled people to detach from stressors, which improved task focus. When combined with mindfulness’s demotivating effects, these results help explain why mindfulness does not alter performance.
The dangers of mindless behaviors remain better defined than their remedies. Even as mindfulness becomes increasingly prevalent, we lack clarity on three key questions: What is mindfulness? How does mindfulness training operate? And why might mindfulness matter for organizations? In this article, I introduce a new conceptualization of mindfulness called metacognitive practice. Metacognitive practice is so-named because it blends insights from metacognition and practice theory to answer these three key questions. First, when seen as metacognitive practice, mindfulness is not a single mode of information processing to be applied in all situations. Instead, mindfulness is a metacognitive process by which people adjust their mode of information processing to their current situation. Second, this metacognitive process is made possible by three specific beliefs that supersede lay beliefs about human information processing. A core function of mindfulness training is thus to provide a context that cultivates these beliefs. And third, when these beliefs are put into practice, people gain greater agency in how they respond to situations. This matters for organizations because as people interrelate their individual actions into a collective response, metacognitive practice can get embedded in amplifying processes that transform the organization—or in fragmentation processes that threaten it.
Purpose
Researchers have long recognized that employee expectations play an important role in determining their levels of motivation. However, less is known about the relationship between newcomers’ expectations about their job and intrinsic motivation. Even more, there is limited empirical research on the underlying mechanisms that explain this relationship. Given the recent resurgence of interest concerning the construct of work-related boredom and drawing on several theoretical frameworks, the purpose of this paper is to address this gap by examining the mediating role of work-related boredom in the linkage between newcomers’ expectations and intrinsic motivation.
Design/methodology/approach
The current study utilized a snowball approach in order to garner a diverse sample of newcomers. To examine the present hypotheses, bootstrapping analysis and Sobel test were used.
Findings
The results showed that unmet expectations enhance work-related boredom which in turn affects intrinsic motivation.
Research limitations/implications
Given the cross-sectional and mono-source design of the study, the results may suffer from causality and common method variance issues.
Originality/value
The present study provides novel insights into the psychological mediating mechanisms that explain the relationship between newcomers’ expectations about their job and their intrinsic motivation.
Mindfulness in the workplace has emerged as a legitimate and growing area of organizational scholarship. The present research examined the role of employee emotional exhaustion in mediating the relationship of mindfulness with turnover intentions and task performance. Drawing on theory and empirical research on both organizational behavior and mindfulness, we predicted that more mindful employees would show lower turnover intentions and higher task performance and that these relationships would be mediated by emotional exhaustion. We tested these hypotheses in two field studies in an Indian context. Study 1 was a field study of call center employees of a multinational organization, an industry in which turnover rates are very high. This study found that mindfulness was associated with lower turnover intentions and less emotional exhaustion, and that emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between mindfulness and turnover intentions. Study 2 replicated these results in a sample of employees based in major Indian cities and drawn from different industries. In addition, it showed that mindfulness was positively related to supervisor-rated task performance, with emotional exhaustion again playing a mediating role. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our findings, as well as future research directions.
We consider how the literatures on organizational mindfulness and mindful organizing are relevant to research on organizational change and learning. We start with the tension between mindful and less mindful approaches, such as those that emphasize organizational routines, to change and learning. We posit that organizational routines are essential to mindfulness, but that this role is not elaborated in the mindfulness literature. Thus, we argue that further dialogue between these approaches is necessary and introduce a conceptual model with three dimensions to facilitate the conversation: (1) the periodicity with which learning occurs (i.e., rarely or often), (2) the extensiveness of the object of learning (i.e., local or global), and (3) the degree of cognitive intensity in the learning process (i.e., inert or reflective). The model explores how the different contexts or landscapes that organizations are embedded in influence their capacity for mindfulness, mindful organizing, and change.
In recent years, research on mindfulness has grown rapidly in organizational psychology and organizational behavior. Specifically, two bodies of research have emerged: One focuses on the intrapsychic processes of individual mind-fulness and the other on the social processes of collective mindfulness. In this review we provide a pioneering, cross-level review of mindfulness in organizations and find that mindfulness is neither mysterious nor mystical, but rather can be reliably and validly measured, linked to an array of individual and organizational outcomes, and induced through meditative and nonmeditative practices and processes at the individual and collective levels. Our analysis of the combined literatures further reveals that although each literature is impressive, there is a significant need for multilevel mindfulness research that simultaneously examines individual and collective mindfulness and broadens its conception of context. This research agenda provides a more robust understanding of the antecedents, processes, and consequences of individual and collective mindfulness as well as more definitive evidence maximizing mindfulness and its benefits in practice.
Contemporary scholarship on mindfulness casts it as a form of purely nonevaluative engagement with experience. Yet, traditionally mindfulness was not intended to operate in a vacuum of dispassionate observation, but was seen as facilitative of eudaimonic mental states. In spite of this historical context, modern psychological research has neglected to ask the question of how the practice of mindfulness affects downstream emotion regulatory processes to impact the sense of meaning in life. To fill this lacuna, here we describe the mindfulness-to-meaning theory, from which we derive a novel process model of mindful positive emotion regulation informed by affective science, in which mindfulness is proposed to introduce flexibility in the generation of cognitive appraisals by enhancing interoceptive attention, thereby expanding the scope of cognition to facilitate reappraisal of adversity and savoring of positive experience. This process is proposed to culminate in a deepened capacity for meaning-making and greater engagement with life.
Objective:
We review historical and more recent efforts in boredom research and related fields. A framework is presented that organizes the various facets of boredom, particularly in supervisory control settings, and research gaps and future potential areas for study are highlighted.
Background:
Given the ubiquity of boredom across a wide spectrum of work environments-exacerbated by increasingly automated systems that remove humans from direct, physical system interaction and possibly increasing tedium in the workplace-there is a need not only to better understand the multiple facets of boredom in work environments but to develop targeted mitigation strategies.
Method:
To better understand the relationships between the various influences and outcomes of boredom, a systems-based framework, called the Boredom Influence Diagram, is proposed that describes various elements of boredom and their interrelationships.
Results:
Boredom is closely related to vigilance, attention management, and task performance. This review highlights the need to develop more naturalistic experiments that reflect the characteristics of a boring work environment.
Conclusion:
With the increase in automation, boredom in the workplace will likely become a more prevalent issue for motivation and retention. In addition, developing continuous measures of boredom based on physiological signals is critical.
Application:
Personnel selection and improvements in system and task design can potentially mitigate boredom. However, more work is needed to develop and evaluate other potential interventions.
Mindfulness research activity is surging within organizational science. Emerging evidence across multiple fields suggests that mindfulness is fundamentally connected to many aspects of workplace functioning, but this knowledge base has not been systematically integrated to date. This review coalesces the burgeoning body of mindfulness scholarship into a framework to guide mainstream management research investigating a broad range of constructs. The framework identifies how mindfulness influences attention, with downstream effects on functional domains of cognition, emotion, behavior, and physiology. Ultimately these domains impact key workplace outcomes, including performance, relationships, and well-being. Consideration of the evidence on mindfulness at work stimulates important questions and challenges key assumptions within management science, generating an agenda for future research.
In recent years the concept of mindfulness has become increasingly popular, and with good reason. A growing body of research indicates that mindfulness provides a number of physical, psychological, and even performance benefits. As a result, some organizations have started offering mindfulness programs to their employees. But despite growing interest, mindfulness has received little attention from the industrial–organizational community. In this article, we provide an overview of what mindfulness is, where the concept came from, how it has been utilized and studied to date, and what its application in the work setting is. We also propose new directions for researchers and practitioners.
In recent years, research on mindfulness has burgeoned across several lines of scholarship. Nevertheless, very little empirical research has investigated mindfulness from a workplace perspective. In the study reported here, we address this oversight by examining workplace mindfulness – the degree to which individuals are mindful in their work setting. We hypothesize that, in a dynamic work environment, workplace mindfulness is positively related to job performance and negatively related to turnover intention, and that these relationships account for variance beyond the effects of constructs occupying a similar conceptual space – namely, the constituent dimensions of work engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption). Testing these claims in a dynamic service industry context, we find support for a positive relationship between workplace mindfulness and job performance that holds even when accounting for all three work engagement dimensions. We also find support for a negative relationship between workplace mindfulness and turnover intention, though this relationship becomes insignificant when accounting for the dimensions of work engagement. We consider the theoretical and practical implications of these findings and highlight a number of avenues for conducting research on mindfulness in the workplace.
Contemporary mindfulness has grown through innumerable secular and clinical programs. This rapid growth has raised two main concerns from the Buddhist community: the accuracy of the teachings and the impact of not explicitly including ethics as part of the teachings. Specific concerns include a potential weakening of the concept of Right Mindfulness and, as a corollary, misunderstanding the intent mindfulness as being a technique for symptomatic relief. With respect to the absence of explicit ethics in the teachings, concerns are expressed that this omission risks misappropriating mindfulness practices so that they do more harm than good. This article explores the main criticisms expressed by Traditional Mindfulness community and assesses the validity of these criticisms. The dialogue between traditional and contemporary mindfulness practitioners is an opportunity to examine the conceptual integrity of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) with respect to what comprises Right Mindfulness, assess whether MBIs include the factors that can extend them beyond symptomatic relief, and reflect on the issues related to teaching ethics as part of an MBI program. Because ethics is viewed in Traditional Mindfulness as a foundation for a meditative practice, it is explored in detail for its potential contribution to MBIs.
In this research, we examined the role of mindfulness for recovery from work using a daily diary design (N = 121; 5 days; 3 measurement occasions per day). The first goal of the study was to investigate the relationship of mindfulness with sleep quality and the mediating role of psychological detachment from a day-level perspective. A second goal was to extend the process perspective in recovery research beyond the day level and consider systematic change trajectories in recovery variables over the course of the work week and the role of mindfulness in these trajectories. Results regarding day-level relationships confirmed that mindfulness experienced during work was related to subsequent sleep quality, and this relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work in the evening. Furthermore, an investigation of the role of mindfulness in recovery change trajectories supported the idea that psychological detachment trajectories increase over the work week for individuals low on mindfulness while there was no systematic mean-level change for individuals high on mindfulness. In contrast, sleep quality followed a linear increase from Monday to Friday for all individuals, irrespective of their levels of trait mindfulness. Practical and theoretical implications for the mindfulness and the recovery literature are discussed in conclusion.
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 in facilitating or hindering mindfulness at the workplace. The results further suggest that employee awareness and absent-mindedness are different constructs that have distinct nomological networks. Implications and future directions are discussed.
People with high level of trait mindfulness are more likely to maintain an open and present-focused awareness and attention. Whereas a positive link between trait mindfulness and well-being has been established, its influence on real-world performance has not been fully addressed. In Study 1, we validated the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) in a Chinese sample (N = 294) and found that a two-dimensional solution (a presence factor and an acceptance factor) best fit the data. In Study 2, using this validated scale, we directly investigated the influence of trait mindfulness on task and safety performance. In a sample of 136 Chinese nuclear power plant operators, it was found that trait mindfulness interacted with task complexity to influence performance. For high-complexity-task holders (the control room operators), the presence factor was positively related to their task and safety performance; for the low-complexity-task holders (the field operators), the presence factor had no influence on safety performance but a negative influence on task performance. The acceptance factor did not have any meaningful influences. These results suggest that the benefit of being mindful outweighs its cost for complex but not simple tasks. Implications are discussed.
The literature is replete with evidence that the stress inherent in health care negatively impacts health care professionals, leading to increased depression, decreased job satisfaction, and psychological distress. In an attempt to address this, the current study examined the effects of a short-term stress management program, mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), on health care professionals. Results from this prospective randomized controlled pilot study suggest that an 8-week MBSR intervention may be effective for reducing stress and increasing quality of life and self-compassion in health care professionals. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.
The association between psychological and physiological stress responses was examined in 20 male workers at an assembly line. Each worker was studied during a 2 h period on two consecutive days in their normal job and, in order to obtain physiological baseline values, during a corresponding paid 2 h period off the job on the third day. Self-reports of work demands, mood, etc., measurements of catecholamine and cortisol excretion and of systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate were obtained at the end of each of the three 2 h periods. Work induced a significant elevation in almost all psychological and physiological measurements. Levels were consistently lower in workers reporting a ‘good’ workday compared to those reporting a ‘normal’ or a ‘bad’ day. Correlations between self-reports and physiological values showed that catecholamine and cortisol responses, respectively, tended to be associated selectively with different psychological conditions, catecholamine values being associated with feelings of time pressure and pressure by demands, cortisol values with irritation, tenseness and tiredness. The results show that perceived stress at an assembly line is consistently reflected in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine functions of the workers.
A topology of complex tasks is derived from four fundamental task attributes; and implications for both basic and applied research are examined.
Mindfulness as depicted by Levinthal and Rerup (2006) involves encoding ambiguous outcomes in ways that influence learning, and encoding stimuli in ways that match context with a repertoire of routines. We add to Levinthal and Rerup's conjectures by examining Western and Eastern versions of mindfulness and how they function as a process of knowing an object. In our expanded view, encoding becomes less central. What becomes more central are activities such as altering the codes, differentiating the codes, introspecting the coding process itself, and, most of all, reducing the overall dependence on coding and codes. Consequently, we shift from Levinthal and Rerup's contrast between mindful and less mindful to a contrast between conceptual and less conceptual. When people move away from conceptuality and encoding, outcomes are affected more by the quality than by the quantity of attention.
Given that the ability to attend to a task without distraction underlies performance in a wide variety of contexts, training one's ability to stay on task should result in a similarly broad enhancement of performance. In a randomized controlled investigation, we examined whether a 2-week mindfulness-training course would decrease mind wandering and improve cognitive performance. Mindfulness training improved both GRE reading-comprehension scores and working memory capacity while simultaneously reducing the occurrence of distracting thoughts during completion of the GRE and the measure of working memory. Improvements in performance following mindfulness training were mediated by reduced mind wandering among participants who were prone to distraction at pretesting. Our results suggest that cultivating mindfulness is an effective and efficient technique for improving cognitive function, with wide-reaching consequences.
Workplace cyberloafing (personal use of the internet during working hours) has been recognized as a form of counterproductive work behavior (CWB) that can harm organizations. In this study, we take an opposing view and argue that cyberloafing can serve a potentially positive function in that it can help employees cope with workplace boredom. We describe a study of the cyberloafing behavior and the experienced underload and boredom of 463 university employees with diverse occupations. Results supported the direct relationships between underload and boredom, and boredom and cyberloafing. The indirect underload-boredom-cyberloafing relationship was also significant. Underload was not correlated with CWB, and the boredom-cyberloafing relationship was significantly stronger than the boredom-CWB relationship. Moreover, comparing competing models supported the suggested direction of the underload-boredom-cyberloafing process, as alternative directions did not fit the data. Together, these findings support the conceptualization of cyberloafing as a boredom coping mechanism rather than a form of CWB and highlight the importance of investigating the impact of underload and boredom on employee behaviors.
Popular and academic press alike have concluded that mindfulness significantly benefits healthy individuals as well as those suffering from physical and psychological problems. Workplace interventions, clinical therapies, and popular self-help programs aimed at enhancing mindfulness abound, and research has demonstrated the efficacy of such mindfulness interventions in enhancing mindful states. It is of importance to note that research also suggests the average frequency with which individuals experience states of mindfulness varies from person to person, underscoring the existence of a dispositional tendency toward mindfulness—trait mindfulness. We meta-analytically cumulate the results of 270 independent studies (N = 58,592 adults from nonclinical samples) of trait mindfulness in order to explore its personal and professional correlates. Results suggest the benefits of trait mindfulness extend to both personal and professional domains. With regards to personal benefits, trait mindfulness was found to be positively correlated with confidence (ρ = .39), mental health (ρ = .38), emotional regulation (ρ = .40), and life satisfaction (ρ = .36), and negatively correlated with perceived life stress (ρ = –.43), negative emotions (ρ = –.40), anxiety (ρ = –.34), and depression (ρ = –.38). Professionally, results suggest trait mindfulness may benefit job satisfaction (ρ = .29), performance (ρ = .34), and interpersonal relations (ρ = .31), while also reducing burnout (ρ = –.48) and work withdrawal (ρ = –.17). Meta-analytic regressions also suggest trait mindfulness adds incremental predictive variance over more traditional predictors of employee burnout and work performance.
Supporting one's family is a major reason why many people work, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of family motivation. Drawing on theories of prosocial motivation and action identification, we propose that family motivation increases job performance by enhancing energy and reducing stress, and it is especially important when intrinsic motivation is lacking. Survey and diary data collected across multiple time points in a Mexican maquiladora generally support our model. Specifically, we find that family motivation enhances job performance when intrinsic motivation is low—in part by providing energy, but not by reducing stress. We conclude that supporting a family provides a powerful source of motivation that can boost performance in the workplace, offering meaningful implications for research on motivation and the dynamics of work and family engagement.
Supporting one's family is a major reason why many people work, yet surprisingly little research has examined the implications of family motivation. Drawing on theories of prosocial motivation and action identification, we propose that family motivation increases job performance by enhancing energy and reducing stress, and it is especially important when intrinsic motivation is lacking. Survey and diary data collected across multiple time points in a Mexican maquiladora generally support our model. Specifically, we find that family motivation enhances job performance when intrinsic motivation is low - in part by providing energy, but not by reducing stress. We conclude that supporting a family provides a powerful source of motivation that can boost performance in the workplace, offering meaningful implications for research on motivation and the dynamics of work and family engagement.
Mindfulness techniques, having long played an important role in contemplative traditions around the world, are now recognized as having the potential to transform workplaces. As interest in the role of mindfulness in organizational settings continues to increase, this timely book fills a gap in the literature by providing an overview of the latest theoretical and empirical research on workplace mindfulness. It brings together world-leading scholars to explore the foundations, key discussions, diversity of approaches and applications of mindfulness in organizations. It acts as a catalyst for future research on the topic by suggesting research directions and stimulating organizational researchers to embark on new projects involving mindfulness. Furthermore, it provides valuable ideas for implementing mindfulness programs in organizations, for teaching mindfulness in business contexts, and for coaching with mindfulness. This must-read book will appeal to researchers and professionals in the fields of organizational behavior, organizational psychology and employee well-being.
The role of social and situational influences in the performance-rating process has received relatively little research attention yet merits increased attention. Although there has been acknowledgment of the role of social and situational factors in shaping rater cognition and evaluation, research has typically proceeded in a piecemeal fashion, isolating a single variable at a time. Such an approach fails to recognize that performance rating is a process with multiple social and situational facets that need to be considered simultaneously. In the present study, we tested a model of the performance-rating process, employing several social and situational variables that have been infrequently investigated and typically not in conjunction with one another. Results indicated support for the overall model and specific links within it. Implications of the results for performance-rating research are discussed. There is perhaps not a more important human resources system in organizations than performance evaluation. Supervisors' ratings of subordinates' performance represent critical decisions that are key influences on a variety of subsequent human resources actions and outcomes. Indeed, this pivotal role of performance evaluation has promoted systematic efforts to develop a more informed understanding of the performance-rating process. Landy and Farr (1980) issued a call for research investigating the cognitive processes underlying performance appraisal decisions. Although the process focus has generated considerable research concerning various components of performance-rating decisions, more comprehensive investigations incorporating several of those components has been lacking. Furthermore, process-oriented research has been limited by its reliance on laboratory studies (DeNisi & Williams, 1988). Whereas the cognitive processes involved in performance-rating decisions can be well illuminated in laboratory studies, the "quiet" nature of laboratory studies often does not match the "noisy" context in which performance-rating decisions are actually embedded (Lord & Maher, 1989).
Due to its potential to concurrently improve work-related wellbeing (WRW) and job performance, occupational stakeholders are becoming increasingly interested in the applications of meditation. The present study conducted the first randomized controlled trial to assess the effects of meditation on outcomes relating to both WRW and job performance. Office-based middle-hierarchy managers (n = 152) received an eight-week meditation intervention (Meditation Awareness Training; MAT) or an active control intervention. MAT participants demonstrated significant and sustainable improvements (with strong effect sizes) over control-group participants in levels of work-related stress, job satisfaction, psychological distress, and employer-rated job performance. There are a number of novel implications: (i) meditation can effectuate a perceptual shift in how employees experience their work and psychological environment and may thus constitute a cost-effective WRW intervention, (ii) meditation-based (i.e., present-moment-focussed) working styles may be more effective than goal-based (i.e., future-orientated) working styles, and (iii) meditation may reduce the separation made by employees between their own interests and those of the organizations they work for.
Background
Mindfulness-based therapies have been shown to be effective in treating depression and reducing cognitive biases. Anxiety sensitivity is one cognitive bias that may play a role in the association between mindfulness and depressive symptoms. It refers to an enhanced sensitivity toward symptoms of anxiety, with a belief that these are harmful. Currently, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning the association between mindfulness, depression, and anxiety sensitivity. The aim of this study was to examine the role of genetic and environmental factors in trait mindfulness, and its genetic and environmental overlap with depressive symptoms and anxiety sensitivity.Methods
Over 2,100 16-year-old twins from a population-based study rated their mindfulness, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity.ResultsTwin modeling analyses revealed that mindfulness is 32% heritable and 66% due to nonshared environmental factors, with no significant influence of shared environment. Genetic influences explained over half of the moderate phenotypic associations between low mindfulness, depressive symptoms, and anxiety sensitivity. About two-thirds of genetic influences and almost all nonshared environmental influences on mindfulness were independent of depression and anxiety sensitivity.Conclusions
This is the first study to show that both genes and environment play an important role in the etiology of mindfulness in adolescence. Future research should identify the specific environmental factors that influence trait mindfulness during development to inform targeted treatment and resilience interventions. Shared genetic liability underpinning the co-occurrence of low mindfulness, depression, and anxiety sensitivity suggests that the biological pathways shared between these traits should also be examined.
Organizational theory and research has increased attention to the determinants and consequences of attention in organizations. Attention is not, however, a unitary concept but is used differently in various metatheories: the behavioral theory of the firm, managerial cognition, issue selling, attention-based view, and ecology. At the level of the brain, neuroscientists have identified three varieties of attention: selective attention, executive attention, and vigilance. Attention is shaped by both top-down (i.e., schema-driven) and bottom-up (i.e., stimulus-driven) processes. Inspired by neuroscience research, I classify and compare three varieties of attention studied in organization science: attentional perspective (top-down), attentional engagement (combining top-down and bottom-up executive attention and vigilance), and attentional selection (the outcome of attentional processes). Based on research findings, I develop five propositions on how the varieties of attention in organization provide a theoretical alternative to theories of structural determinism or strategic choice, with a particular focus on the role of attention in explaining organizational adaptation and change.
Although the concept of mindfulness has attracted scholarly attention across multiple disciplines, research on mindfulness in the field of management remains limited. In particular, little research in this field has examined the nature of mindfulness and whether it relates to task performance in organizational and occupational settings. Filling these gaps, the present article delineates mindfulness by (a) defining it as a state of consciousness in which attention is focused on present-moment phenomena occurring both externally and internally, (b) comparing it to a range of other attention-related concepts, and (c) developing theory concerning the factors that determine when mindfulness is beneficial versus costly from a task performance standpoint.
Although quasi-experiments can facilitate causal inferences by combining good internal validity with high external validity, organizational scholars underutilize them. In this article, the authors aim to encourage the novel use of quasi-experimentation by identifying five of its key benefits: (a) strengthening causal inference when random assignment and controlled manipulation are not possible or ethical; (b) building better theories of time and temporal progression; (c) minimizing ethical dilemmas of harm, inequity, paternalism, and deception; (d) facilitating collaboration with practitioners; and (e) using context to explain conflicting findings. We offer advice and illustrative examples to guide future research, and provide recommendations for gaining access to organizations to open doors for collaborating on quasi-experiments.
Little is known about temporal trends in the intensification of work in America, or its determinants. This study analyzed two representative samples of the American labor force, and found that the pace of work increased significantly between 1977 and 1997. In a decomposition analysis, two-thirds of the increase in work intensification was attributable to objective economic changes, in particular job complexity and the length of work schedules. Future research should further explore the role of technology in quickening the pace of work, but not ignore the possibility that the demands of family life also affect perceptions of work intensification.
Past studies in U.S. work organizations have supported a model derived from self-determination theory in which autonomy-supportive work climates predict satisfaction of the intrinsic needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness, which in turn predict task motivation and psychological adjustment on the job. To test this model cross-culturally, the authors studied employees of state-owned companies in Bulgaria, a country that has traditionally had a central-planning economy, a totalitarian political system, and collectivist values. A sample from a privately owned American corporation was used for comparison purposes. Results using structural equation modeling suggested that the model fit the data from each country, that the constructs were equivalent across countries, and that some paths of the structural model fit equivalently for the two countries but that county moderated the other paths.