Making it Work (mindfully)
Summary: How does a mindfulness impact your experience at work? No surprise, mindfulness supports awareness of your environment, and creates a deeper sense of meaning – and helps you stay calm in those inevitably stressful workplace situations!
Mindfulness in the Workplace: An Exploratory Study
Donald W. McCormick, Jeremy Hunter
This paper examines the effects mindfulness meditation has on people’s work lives. In it, we present an analysis of interviews with eight managers and professionals who have a meditation practice. This exploratory study is designed to generate hypotheses about a new topic in the management research literature. Analysis of the interviews suggest that people who practice mindfulness may become more aware of their social and physical environment at work; become more accepting of their work situation; develop more modest, realistic, sustainable work goals; become more selfless at work; become less concerned with material acquisition and wealth; develop a more internal locus of evaluation; become more likely to derive meaning in life from sources other than just work; become better able to cope and remain calm in difficult work situations; become more likely to experience work difficulties as challenges than threats; enjoy their work more; become more adaptable at work; and develop more positive interpersonal relations at work.