Mindfulness at work (Glomb, Duffy et al, 2012) - Human Resources

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138THERESA M. GLOMB ET AL.As noted in the preceding text, when individuals become more aware of theirbodily states, they are more able to regulate their levels of physiologicalactivation and responses to negative thoughts and emotions. Consequently,unhealthy stress hormone production (i.e., cortisol) is reduced, allowingworking memory to function more effectively, which suggests that mindfulnessmay be especially important for effective performance in theworkplace when multiple demands or stress-inducing conditions prevail.Improved Accuracy in Affective ForecastingAffective forecasting refers to an individual’s ability to accurately predicttheir emotional responses to future events (Wilson & Gilbert, 2003). It hasbeen well established that people are generally poor at anticipating futureemotions; they are unable to accurately predict how they will feel followingemotionally charged events (Gilbert, Pinel, Wilson, Blumberg, & Wheatley,1998). They tend to predict they will be happier than they actually are afterpositive events and to predict that they will be unhappier than they actuallyare following negative events. Mindfulness may lead to improvements inaffective forecasting by reducing the impact bias (i.e., overestimating theemotional impact of a future event), because mindfulness allows people toconsider emotions and emotional experiences as separate from the self, andbecause it reduces automaticity of thought. In one study of a sample of 188young adults who forecasted their emotions for the weeks following the2008 presidential election, Emanuel, Updegraff, Kalmbach, and Ciesla(2010) found that trait mindfulness was associated with more moderateaffective forecasts and decreased impact bias.Errors in affective forecasting are important in the workplace becausethey introduce bias into decision-making processes when individualsoverweight their own or others’ reactions to future occurrences. Moreaccurate affective forecasting is expected not only to improve employeeperformance via improved decision making, but is also expected to improvewell-being because of greater alignment between expectations and reality,which eliminates the disappointment, negative emotions, and frustrationthat follow from unmet expectations.KEY WORK-RELATED BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESSOur central purpose in this manuscript was to link mindfulness andmindfulness-based processes to employees’ performance and well-being atwork. In examining the cognitive, emotional, and neurobiological processes
Mindfulness at Work 139linking mindfulness with improved self-regulatory capacity in the workplace,three central themes emerge. First, mindfulness is associated withfactors expected to influence relationship quality. Second, mindfulness islinked to processes indicative of resiliency. Third, mindfulness is linked withprocesses expected to improve task performance and decision making. Inthe following sections, we focus explicitly on the ways mindfulness andmindfulness-based practices lead to more positive relational functioning atwork, how they build resiliency, and how they improve task performanceand decision making. The three outcomes we focus on are inextricablylinked, but we discuss them independently because they represent distinctwork-related outcomes.Improved Social RelationshipsThere are two things I think that I’m really aware of how [mindfulness] helped me, andone of them is relationships. It’s that pause y I mean I can think of instances where Iwas having a disagreement with either a co-worker or a student, and just being able to,like, just come back to myself and realize y a lot of times what I actually realize isthey’re upset but I don’t think I have to be (laughter). And boy, that can be so helpful.Many times that either just settles it down or at least y at least I’m not all upset about it.I mean I certainly do get upset at times y there’s things that happen but y that’s onething with relationships that helps tremendously.– Mindfulness Meditator (Participant #1)A fundamental finding of social psychological research is that individualsthrive through positive social connections with others (Baumeister & Leary,1995). Positive social connections in a work setting are no exception. Agrowing body of work indicates that positive workplace relationships buildcritical resources that protect individuals from workplace stressors, andfoster employee thriving, communication, creativity, and citizenshipbehaviors (e.g., Dutton & Heaphy, 2003; Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002;Thau, Aquino, & Poortvliet, 2007). We submit that mindfulness willpromote these positive social connections.How does mindfulness foster positive social connections in the workplace?Many processes may contribute to improved workplace relationships,but we note the special importance of empathy and response flexibility, bothmarkers of the internal attunement associated with mindfulness in whichone is distinctly aware of one’s own physical and emotional signals, whichallows enhanced sensitivity to others’ signals without subsequent reactivity(Davidson, 2000; Siegel, 2007). Thus, individuals who practice mindfulnessshould be better poised to respond to colleagues with greater acceptance and
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