4 minute read
Occupational mindfulness – 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.
Traditionally, 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.
What do we mean by psychological capital? This aspect of human capital 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.
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, 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).
2. Occupational mindfulness also predicts the efficiency of the employees because awareness of the context helps them to make better decisions. For example, the adoption of a holistic view can help managers to use the resources in the right direction to get optimal benefits.
3. Occupational mindfulness also determines the possibilities for creativity. Mindful professionals tend to perform the task with attention and awareness that discourage automation. This conscious intention enables options for doing the job differently. In this way, there are more chances for creativity, hence finding innovative approaches that could save the company money.
Occupational mindfulness can be developed through targeted training programmes. These programmes can be customised according to the task that the employees perform. Generic exercises might include:
• Activities that focus on mindfully conducting everyday tasks. Mind wandering is one of the common reasons for mistakes and accidents in the workplace, so supporting staff to focus on one task at a time is vital.
• Mindful ways of communication and decision-making. Attention to, and awareness of, the repetitive and unattended way of doing things can help people to understand the concept of mindfulness and develop an ability to be more mindful when making decisions or communicating with others.
• Becoming aware of our body movement through everyday work activities. By asking the participants to self-reflect and notice what is happening with their bodies when moving through their day-to-day activities, this can be a useful mechanism to understanding mindfulness.
By contrast, some organisations adopt meditative mindfulness as a solution to workplace health problems, rather than as a tool for growing psychological capital. These programmes are designed to address issues such as stress and anxiety and emphasise the consistent practice of meditation and mindfulness techniques such as breathing awareness, walking meditation and body scanning.
The contemporary work life is hectic. However, employees often struggle to develop a routine of practising meditation or mindfulness. Meditative mindfulness as a solution to the problem becomes a problem in itself for people when they can’t establish a routine for practising meditation. In this regard, the training programmes focusing on occupational mindfulness as a way of doing, rather than meditative mindfulness as a regular practice, can be more effective in the organisational context.
To stand out in the modern competitive work environment, I believe that organisations are required to focus on strengthening the psychological capital that predicts the organisational performance, rather than focusing on fixing workplace weaknesses. Incorporating mindfulness as psychological capital in the organisation through training of professionals can be challenging, but it can act as a potential predictor of the organisational performance in the long run.
Bibliography Brady, S, O'connor, N, Burgermeister, D, & Hanson, P (2012). The impact of mindfulness meditation in promoting a culture of safety on an acute psychiatric unit. Perspectives in psychiatric care, 48(3), 129-137.
Luthans, F, Luthans, K W, & Luthans, B C (2004). Positive psychological capital: Beyond human and social capital. Business Horizons 47(1): 45–50.
Wahab Shahbaz is a PhD student at Massey University, Auckland. Wahab’s primary research focus is on the application of mindfulness in organisations, particularly in the academic sector. Wahab focuses on the role of context that can facilitate or hinder the application of mindfulness in organisations. An understanding of the context can help organisational leaders and mindfulness trainers to incorporate mindfulness effectively in organisations and obtain optimal organisational benefits of mindfulness. E: w.shahbaz@massey.ac.nz
