OCCUPATIONAL MINDFULNESS SHAHBAZ WAHAB
– an organisational strength
Traditionally, when looking at organisational performance, we tend to look at it from the perspective of ‘skill level’ and ‘expertise’. Wahab Shahbaz, from Massey University, suggests there is another way of measuring organisational performance that may be more reliable, and potentially a better predictor of workforce capability.
T
raditionally, organisational performance is linked to the skills and experience of its employees. More and more frequently, however, leaders are beginning to look at the ‘psychological capital’ of the organisation and how this can play an equally important role in the overall success of an organisation.
Leaders are beginning to look at the ‘psychological capital’ of the organisation and how this can play an important role in the overall success of an organisation. What do we mean by psychological capital? This aspect of human capital 18
HUMAN RESOURCES
SPRING 2019
involves the employee’s mental strength in terms of hope, confidence, resilience and optimism. An organisation with hopeful employees tends to perform well in adverse and challenging situations compared with the organisation with staff who are not as optimistic (Luthans et al, 2004). Hence, psychological capital can provide an organisation with a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Psychology capital is the employee’s mental strength in terms of hope, confidence, resilience and optimism. An essential part of psychological capital is mindfulness. Mindfulness is defined as a state of attention to, and awareness of, the present moment. It is an innate ability of an individual that varies within and between individuals.
Mindfulness is defined as a state of attention to, and awareness of, the present moment. Mindfulness, as psychological capital, is called occupational mindfulness.
Occupational mindfulness determines how attentive and aware employees are within an organisation. Through my research at Massey University, I have been looking at how occupational mindfulness can predict organisational performance. Alongside this, I want to understand how leaders can incorporate occupational mindfulness into the workplace to obtain optimal corporate performance. Potentially, occupational mindfulness can predict the organisation’s performance in three ways. 1. Occupational mindfulness reduces the risk of accidents. Mindful employees tend to perform their tasks with attention and awareness that decreases the rate of mistakes and errors. For example, if the medical staff in a hospital are conducting their work mindfully, there are fewer medication errors. In contrast, the absence of mind can have extreme consequences in a hospital setting (Brady, O’Connor, Burgermeister and Hanson, 2012).
Occupational mindfulness reduces the risk of accidents.
