Mindfulness at Work

Chris Andrew Little

BSc (Hons), BA (Hons)

A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at

The University of Queensland in 2016

School of Psychology

ii

Abstract Mindfulness broadly describes an open and receptive awareness of current experience that

involves the self-regulation of attention, keeping it focussed on the present moment in order to

develop greater awareness and recognition of mental events. Research has shown that dispositional

mindfulness is positively associated with measures of psychological well-being, including work-

related measures such as job satisfaction, work engagement, and work-family balance. Furthermore,

mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) delivered to employees have been found to decrease

perceived stress, burnout, and depression, and to improve life satisfaction, mood, and sleep quality.

The current project extends that body of research by investigating the effects of mindfulness on a

range of workplace outcomes that have previously received little empirical investigation, including

co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, and engagement and

thriving at work. The current research also proposed and investigated a number of mechanisms to

explain the effects of mindfulness on these workplace outcomes. Specifically, the proposal drew on

previous research suggesting that mindfulness leads to more adaptive functioning and greater self-

regulation by increasing cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect.

An initial cross-sectional study of 184 office workers found that dispositional mindfulness

was associated with all five workplace outcomes, and that the association with each was fully

mediated by one or more of the three proposed mechanisms. Specifically, mindfulness was

associated with co-worker relationship quality and thriving at work via positive reappraisal and

positive affect, whereas it was associated with innovative behaviours and less resistance to change

via cognitive flexibility alone. On the other hand, cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and

positive affect all mediated the association between mindfulness and work engagement.

A follow-up study found that a 4-week workplace MBI delivered to 131 employees,

including office workers, school teachers, cleaners, and senior executives, improved self-reports of

mindfulness, positive reappraisal, and negative affect. An additional novel finding was that the MBI

reduced dispositional resistance to change. The study also found an unexpected decrease in

innovative behaviours following the intervention, but this result may have been an artefact of the

measure that was used. No significant pre-post changes were found in the other measures.

The current project also investigated the mechanisms of change during the workplace MBI

by looking at the correlations between changes in different measures, and by analysing weekly

changes during the intervention. Results indicated that decreases in resistance to change correlated

with increases in mindfulness, suggesting that mindfulness may have mediated that improvement.

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In contrast, improvements in reappraisal and reductions in negative affect and innovative

behaviours were not correlated with changes in mindfulness. Furthermore, analyses of pre-post

changes reported by individual participants revealed that 40-64% of participants who showed a

significant improvement in an outcome measure other than mindfulness did not show a prior

improvement in mindfulness.

Similarly, while the weekly data revealed that mindfulness increased early in the

intervention, improvements in positive reappraisal and resistance to change occurred during the

same week. It is therefore unclear whether these changes were due to increases in mindfulness.

There were no sustained changes in the other measures, including cognitive flexibility, positive

affect, co-worker relationship quality, work engagement and thriving, suggesting that the increases

in mindfulness had little impact on these measures.

Analyses of weekly changes reported by individual participants showed that most

participants with an improvement in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, positive affect, or one of the

workplace outcomes, did not show a prior improvement in mindfulness. The only exception was

resistance to change, where a little over half of participants who reported a decrease in resistance to

change reported a prior improvement in mindfulness. On the other hand, the majority of participants

with improvements in mindfulness reported no significant improvement in other outcomes. So there

was very little overlap between increases in mindfulness and changes in other study outcomes.

Overall, the current research adds support for previous studies that have suggested that

MBIs may be a cost-effective way to improve well-being among employees. Furthermore, the

results suggest that by reducing resistance to change, training employees in mindfulness may have

some potential for helping them to cope with organisational change. However, one of the most

significant outcomes of the current research is that the findings raise the possibility that many of the

demonstrated salubrious effects of MBIs may be due to factors other than improvements in

mindfulness. The results suggest that more work is needed to disentangle the specific effects of

increasing mindfulness in the workplace from the other non-specific effects of MBIs. In addition,

the current findings that different individuals reported improvements in different outcomes during

the workplace MBI suggest that much work remains to be done in identifying which individuals in

which situations are most likely to benefit from mindfulness training, as well as which workplace

outcomes are most likely to be affected.

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Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published

or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly

stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis.

I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical

assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial

advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis

is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree

candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for

the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have

clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award.

I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University

Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be

made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of

embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School.

I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the

copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from

the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis.

v

Publications during candidature

No publications

Publications included in this thesis

No publications included

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Contributions by others to the thesis My PhD advisors, Dr Paul Harnett, Associate Professor John McLean and Dr Hannes

Zacher provided advice about the conception and design of the experimental work, and reviewed

the thesis. The mindfulness program used for research described in this thesis was a modified

version of an existing program used in the Psychology Clinic at The University of Queensland. A

debt of gratitude is therefore owed to the authors of that content who among others include Dr Paul

Harnett, Dr Koa Whittingham, and Jessie Koh. The mindfulness program was facilitated by

provisionally registered psychologists undertaking postgraduate training in clinical psychology. All

other technical work, data analysis, and writing are my own work.

Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another

degree

None

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Acknowledgements This thesis may have a single author, but it contains the unseen efforts of many others. In

particular, my PhD advisors Dr Paul Harnett, Dr Hannes Zacher, and Associate Professor John

McLean have all provided invaluable feedback and suggestions, as well as a great deal of patient

guidance throughout this project. Their guidance and support has been greatly appreciated. I am

also extremely grateful to my lovely wife Nan for the incredible support and understanding that she

has always provided, not to mention the regular massages to relieve the aches and pains from hours

at the computer. A special thank you also goes to my mother, who has always supported and

believed in me.

In addition to the help and support that I received while writing this thesis, there are others

that I would like to thank for their assistance with the research activities described herein. The

Queensland Department of Education and Training were very generous in allowing me to conduct

those activities on Departmental sites and for allowing Departmental staff to participate. I would

especially like to thank Brenda Lack from the Metropolitan Regional Office, who generously

promoted the mindfulness groups to a large number of metropolitan state schools. Finally, I would

like to thank the Provisional Psychologists from The University of Queensland Psychology Clinic

who did an amazing job facilitating all of the mindfulness groups. They include Yuan Cao, Charis

Chew, Liz Dell, David Hennessey, Christine Kaye, Kathleen Kjelsaas, Ashleigh Kunde, Jessica

Lewis, Clarissa Lui, Diana Neves, Carla Newcombe, Kiri Patton, Kate Powe, Flora Suh, and Rachel

Wade. Many of the study participants commented on how impressed they were with the

professionalism of the group facilitators.

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Keywords mindfulness, workplace, relationships, innovation, resistance to change, work engagement, thriving

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC)

ANZSRC code: 170106 Health, Clinical and Counselling Psychology, 50%

ANZSRC code: 170107 Industrial and Organisational Psychology 50%

Fields of Research (FoR) Classification 1701 Psychology 100%

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Table of Contents

Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. ii

Declaration by author ...................................................................................................................... iv

Publications during candidature ..................................................................................................... v

Contributions by others to the thesis.............................................................................................. vi

Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... vii

Keywords ........................................................................................................................................ viii

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ......................... viii

Fields of Research (FoR) Classification ....................................................................................... viii

List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. xiii

List of Figures .................................................................................................................................. xv

List of Abbreviations used in the thesis ....................................................................................... xvi

Chapter 1 - General Introduction.................................................................................................... 1

1.1 Mindfulness in the Workplace ................................................................................... 1

1.2 Mindfulness ................................................................................................................ 3

1.3 Mindfulness Mechanisms of Change ......................................................................... 6

1.3.1 Cognitive flexibility................................................................................... 6

1.3.2 Reappraisal .............................................................................................. 20

1.3.3 Positive affect .......................................................................................... 24

1.4 Potential Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace ............................................... 24

1.4.1 Co-worker relationship quality ................................................................ 24

1.4.2 Innovative behaviours and creativity ....................................................... 27

1.4.3 Resistance to change ................................................................................ 29

1.4.4 Work engagement .................................................................................... 31

1.4.5 Thriving at work ...................................................................................... 34

1.4.6 Summary of proposed benefits of mindfulness in the workplace ........... 35

1.5 Research Proposal .................................................................................................... 36

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Chapter 2 – Study of Dispositional Mindfulness in the Workplace ............................................ 38

2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 38

2.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 38

2.2.1 Participants and procedure ...................................................................... 38

2.2.2 Measures .................................................................................................. 40

2.3 Results ...................................................................................................................... 43

2.3.1 Analysis ................................................................................................... 43

2.3.2 Co-worker relationship quality ................................................................ 43

2.3.3 Innovative behaviours ............................................................................. 45

2.3.4 Resistance to change ................................................................................ 47

2.3.5 Work engagement .................................................................................... 48

2.3.6 Thriving at work ...................................................................................... 50

2.3.7 Summary.................................................................................................. 52

2.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 52

2.4.1 Dispositional mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality ............... 53

2.4.2 Dispositional mindfulness and innovative behaviours ............................ 54

2.4.3 Dispositional mindfulness and resistance to change ............................... 56

2.4.4 Dispositional mindfulness and work engagement ................................... 57

2.4.5 Dispositional mindfulness and thriving at work ...................................... 58

2.4.6 Limitations and future directions ............................................................. 59

2.4.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 60

Chapter 3 – Effects of a Mindfulness-based Intervention in the Workplace ............................ 61

3.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 61

3.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 61

3.2.1 Participants .............................................................................................. 61

3.2.2 Study intervention ................................................................................... 63

3.2.3 Measures .................................................................................................. 64

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3.3 Results ...................................................................................................................... 69

3.3.1 Participant flow and missing data ............................................................ 70

3.3.2 Pre-post changes in mindfulness ............................................................. 70

3.3.3 Pre-post changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and affect ............ 72

3.3.4 Effects of MBI on workplace measures .................................................. 72

3.3.5 2-Month Follow-up ................................................................................. 72

3.3.6 Associations between changes in mindfulness and other outcomes ....... 73

3.3.7 Impact of prior mindfulness practice ....................................................... 74

3.3.8 Home mindfulness practice ..................................................................... 76

3.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 76

3.4.1 Impact of MBI on mindfulness, reappraisal and negative affect ............. 76

3.4.2 Impact of MBI on cognitive flexibility ................................................... 77

3.4.3 Impact of MBI on positive affect ............................................................ 78

3.4.4 Impact of MBI on co-worker relationship quality ................................... 78

3.4.5 Impact of MBI on innovative behaviours ................................................ 79

3.4.6 Impact of MBI on resistance to change ................................................... 80

3.4.7 Impact of MBI on work engagement ....................................................... 81

3.4.8 Impact of MBI on thriving at work ......................................................... 81

3.4.9 Association between changes in mindfulness and other outcomes ......... 82

3.4.10 Impact of prior mindfulness practice ....................................................... 83

3.4.11 Impact of home mindfulness practice during the MBI ............................ 83

3.4.12 Limitations and future directions ............................................................. 84

3.4.13 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 85

Chapter 4 – Workplace MBI Mechanisms of Change ................................................................. 87

4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 87

4.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 88

4.3 Results ...................................................................................................................... 89

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4.3.1 Weekly changes in mindfulness, proposed mediators, and

workplace outcomes ....................................................................... 89

4.3.2 Comparison of weekly changes ............................................................... 93

4.3.3 Mechanisms of change in individual participants ................................... 93

4.3.4 Home mindfulness practice ................................................................... 102

4.4 Discussion .............................................................................................................. 102

4.4.1 Timing of changes in mindfulness ........................................................ 103

4.4.2 Timing of changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect ............................................................................................. 104

4.4.3 Timing of changes in workplace outcomes ........................................... 105

4.4.4 Mechanisms of change in individual participants ................................. 106

4.4.5 Home mindfulness practice ................................................................... 108

4.4.6 Limitations and future directions ........................................................... 108

4.4.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 110

Chapter 5 – General Discussion ................................................................................................... 111

5.5 Implications of the findings for the workplace ...................................................... 114

5.5.1 Attitudes to change ................................................................................ 114

5.5.2 Positive reappraisal, well-being and coping .......................................... 114

5.5.3 Co-worker relationship quality .............................................................. 115

5.5.4 Thriving at work .................................................................................... 116

5.6 Limitations and future studies ................................................................................ 116

5.7 Future research directions ...................................................................................... 117

5.8 Overall conclusion ................................................................................................. 120

References ...................................................................................................................................... 122

xiii

List of Tables Table 1.1 Characteristics of the studies cited in the current literature review ................................ 8

Table 2.1 Comparison of participants with and without prior mindfulness training .................... 39

Table 2.2 Comparison of participants with and without some prior mindfulness practice .......... 39

Table 2.3 Comparison of participants with and without a regular mindfulness practice .............. 40

Table 2.4 Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for co-

worker relationship quality analysis ...................................................................... 44

Table 2.5 Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for co-worker relationship quality

analysis .................................................................................................................. 44

Table 2.6 Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for

innovative behaviours analysis .............................................................................. 46

Table 2.7 Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for innovative behaviours analysis ...... 46

Table 2.8 Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for

resistance to change analysis ................................................................................. 47

Table 2.9 Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for resistance to change analysis ......... 48

Table 2.10 Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for work engagement analysis ........... 49

Table 2.11 Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for work

engagement analysis .............................................................................................. 49

Table 2.12 Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for thriving at work analysis ............. 51

Table 2.13 Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for

thriving at work ..................................................................................................... 51

Table 3.1 Structure of each session of the workplace mindfulness intervention .......................... 65

Table 3.2 Means and standard deviations for variables at pre-MBI, post-MBI and 2-month

follow-up. Pre-post and pre-follow-up paired-sample t tests and effect sizes

(n = 117) ................................................................................................................ 70

Table 3.3 Percentage of participants (n=117) showing a significant change following the

MBI using the Reliable Change Index (RCI) ........................................................ 71

Table 3.4 Correlations between average weekly mindfulness practice and pre-post changes

in other variables and between pre-post changes in mindfulness and pre-post

changes in other variables ...................................................................................... 73

Table 4.1 Weekly means and standard deviations for study variables ......................................... 90

Table 4.2 Weekly means and standard deviations for the FFMQ subscales................................. 91

Table 4.3 Explanation of categories used to describe the level of support found for

hypotheses ............................................................................................................. 95

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Table 4.4 The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness

during the MBI preceded increases in each of the proposed mechanisms of

change. ................................................................................................................... 96

Table 4.5 The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness

during the MBI preceded increases in each of the workplace outcomes. .............. 97

Table 4.6 The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness

during the MBI preceded increases in the mechanisms of change, which in

turn preceded improvements in the workplace outcomes...................................... 98

xv

List of Figures Figure 1.1 Hypothesized associations between mindfulness, mechanisms of change, and

workplace outcomes .............................................................................................. 27

Figure 2.1. Indirect effects of mindfulness on co-worker relationship quality through

cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect............................................. 45

Figure 2.2. Indirect effects of mindfulness on innovative behaviours through cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect ............................................................ 46

Figure 2.3. Indirect effects of mindfulness on resistance to change through cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect ............................................................ 48

Figure 2.4. Indirect effects of mindfulness on work engagement through cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect ............................................................ 50

Figure 2.5. Indirect effects of mindfulness on thriving at work through cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect .............................................................................. 51

Figure 2.6 Processes that mediated the association between mindfulness and each of the

workplace outcomes .............................................................................................. 53

Figure 3.1. Pre-post changes in mindfulness (FFMQ scores) for participants with a pre-

existing regular mindfulness practice (n=14) compared with those without a

pre-existing regular mindfulness practice (n=85) .................................................. 74

Figure 3.2. Significant Pre-Post change in cognitive flexibility for participants without a

pre-existing regular mindfulness practice (n=85) compared with no

significant change for those with a pre-existing regular mindfulness practice

(n=14) .................................................................................................................... 75

Figure 4.1. Comparison of timing of changes in the FFMQ subscales. Scores are

standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention score from the score for

each week and dividing the difference by the standard deviation for that

week ....................................................................................................................... 90

Figure 4.2. Comparison of timing of changes in innovative behaviours with changes in

other variables. Scores are standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention

score from the score for each week and dividing the difference by the

standard deviation for that week ............................................................................ 94

Figure 4.3. Comparison of timing of changes in resistance to change with changes in other

variables. Scores are standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention score

from the score for each week and dividing the difference by the standard

deviation for that week .......................................................................................... 94

xvi

List of Abbreviations used in the thesis

ACT Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

ANOVA Analysis of Variance

CABA Context-Appropriate Balanced Attention

CFS Cognitive Flexibility Scale

DBT Dialectical Behaviour Therapy

DET Department of Education and Training

DV Dependent Variable

ERQ Emotion Regulation Questionnaire

FFMQ Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire

FMRI Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

IV Independent Variable

KIMS Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills

MAAS Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale

MBCT Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy

MBI Mindfulness-Based Intervention

MBSR Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction

PANAS Positive And Negative Affect Scale

RCI Reliable Change Index

RCT Randomised Controlled Trial

UWES Utrecht Work Engagement Scale

1

Chapter 1 - General Introduction

1.1 Mindfulness in the Workplace

The importance of well-being within the workplace is well documented. High levels of

workplace stress have been associated with multiple pathologies, including cardiovascular disease

(Hemingway & Marmot, 1999), diabetes (Hu, Meigs, Li, Rifai, & Manson, 2004), depression and

anxiety (García-Bueno, Caso, & Leza, 2008), and obesity (Black, 2006). Stress levels that are

greater than normal are also associated with productivity losses, absenteeism, and increased staff

turnover (Michie & Williams, 2003; Wang et al., 2014). On the other hand, high levels of well-

being are associated with a range of positive effects in the workplace, such as more favourable

supervisor evaluations (Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994; Wright & Staw, 1999), higher pay (Diener,

Nickerson, Lucas, & Sandvik, 2002; Staw et al., 1994), and more prosocial and organisational

citizenship behaviours (Borman, Penner, Allen, & Motowidlo, 2001 (review); Williams & Shiaw,

1999). Cost-effective and convenient programs that can reduce stress and improve well-being

within the workplace are therefore of considerable importance. Workplace programs based on

mindfulness are one approach that has been gaining increasing interest from researchers and

employers (Escuriex & Labbé, 2011; Glomb, Duffy, Bono, & Yang, 2011; Reb & Choi, 2014;

Virgili, 2013).

Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) delivered to clinical and community populations

have been found to alleviate many forms of psychological distress, including self-reported anxiety

and depression (Anderson, Lau, Segal, & Bishop, 2007; Shapiro, Schwartz, & Bonner, 1998),

depressive relapse (Ma & Teasdale, 2004), anger (Anderson et al, 2007), worry (Keng, Smoski,

Robins, Ekblad, & Brantley, 2012), and perceived stress (Astin, 1997; Branstrom et al, 2010; Chang

et al, 2004; Nyklicek and Kuipers, 2008). They have also been found to improve positive affect

(Anderson et al, 2007, Branstrom et al, 2010; Nyklicek and Kuipers, 2008), empathy (Shapiro et al,

1998), life satisfaction (Grossman et al, 2010; Koszycki et al, 2007; Nyklicek and Kuipers, 2008;

Shapiro et al, 2005), and emotion regulation (Keng et al, 2012).

Studies investigating the impact of MBIs on psychosocial functioning within the workplace,

particularly within the healthcare sector, have also demonstrated positive effects (for review, see

Escuriex & Labbé, 2011). Randomised controlled trials (RCTs), mostly with wait-list control

groups, have found that workplace MBIs decrease perceived stress (Klatt, Buckworth, & Malarkey,

2009; Schenström, Rönnberg, & Bodlund, 2006; Shapiro, Astin, Bishop, & Cordova, 2005;

Wolever et al., 2012), anxiety and depression (Pipe et al., 2009), and burnout (Cohen-Katz, Wiley,

2

Capuano, Baker, & Shapiro, 2005; Mackenzie, Poulin, & Seidman-Carlson, 2006; Shapiro et al.,

2005); and improve life satisfaction (Mackenzie et al., 2006; Shapiro et al., 2005), mood and well-

being (Pipe et al., 2009; Schenström et al., 2006), sleep quality (Klatt et al., 2009; Wolever et al.,

2012), heart rate variability (Wolever et al., 2012), and self-compassion (Shapiro et al., 2005).

In addition, other studies have explored the association between dispositional mindfulness

and a range of workplace factors related to well-being. In a survey of psychologists, counsellors,

and social workers, O’Donovan and May (2007) found that mindfulness was positively correlated

with life satisfaction, positive affect, and job satisfaction, and negatively correlated with burnout.

Another study involving employees in service jobs found that mindfulness was negatively related to

emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction, and that both relationships were

mediated by surface acting (Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt, & Lang, 2012). Surface acting is an

emotion regulation strategy that involves maintaining a positive display despite experiencing

negative emotions, and is associated with job strain. Hülsheger and colleagues (2012) suggest that

mindfulness reduces the need for surface acting by altering the response to negative emotional cues

and thereby reducing the experience of negative emotions that then needed to be hidden. Another

study found that mindfulness was positively related to work-family balance among a sample of

working parents, and that sleep quality and vitality mediated that relationship (Allen & Kiburz,

2012). Mindfulness has also been found to be positively associated with work engagement, with

that relationship being mediated by authentic functioning (Leroy, Anseel, Dimitrova, & Sels, 2013).

While the demonstrated benefits of mindfulness in the workplace are promising, it is

possible to identify a wide range of potential benefits that have so far received little empirical

investigation. In order to motivate such research, Glomb and colleagues (2011) published a detailed

conceptual framework describing how mindfulness may enhance self-regulation of thoughts,

emotions, and behaviour across multiple workplace domains. They suggest that those improvements

in self-regulation lead to better communication with others, quicker recovery from negative events,

better use of social support, reduced negative emotions, and improved concentration. In an earlier

study based on interviews with eight managers with a regular mindfulness practice, Hunter and

McCormick (2008) also hypothesized a range of workplace benefits arising from mindfulness

practise, including improved coping with difficult situations, experiencing difficulties as challenges

rather than threats, being more adaptable at work, and having more positive interpersonal relations.

As described by Glomb and colleagues (2011), a review of the mindfulness literature

suggests that a central outcome of mindfulness is improved self-regulation of thoughts, emotions,

and behaviours (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Shapiro, Carlson, Astin, & Freedman, 2006). The current

3

research proposal draws on that research to investigate the impact of mindfulness on several

important workplace outcomes that are likely to be enhanced by increased self-regulation, including

interpersonal relations, creativity and innovative behaviours, work engagement, thriving, and

attitudes to change. It will also investigate the extent to which key cognitive and affective self-

regulatory processes may explain the association between mindfulness and those outcomes. This

chapter will initially discuss the definition and measurement of mindfulness, followed by a

discussion of key processes via which mindfulness is thought to improve self-regulation. In

particular, it will focus on how mindfulness may improve self-regulation by enhancing cognitive

flexibility and, drawing on Garland and colleagues (2009) mindful coping model, by enabling

positive reappraisal. In addition, drawing on Fredrickson’s (2001) broaden and build theory of

positive emotions, the potential for mindfulness to enhance employee performance and well-being

by increasing positive affect will be discussed. The impact of those key processes on each of the

above work outcomes will then be described, leading to specific hypotheses about their association

with mindfulness, as well as the potential for workplace MBIs to enhance them. Finally, three

studies will be proposed to test those hypotheses, potentially providing greater insight into the

impact of mindfulness in the workplace.

1.2 Mindfulness

A precise definition of mindfulness remains the subject of considerable debate. However, it

can be broadly described as an open and receptive awareness of current experience that involves the

self-regulation of attention, keeping it focussed on the present moment in order to develop greater

awareness and recognition of mental events (Bishop et al., 2004). Mindfulness practice involves

observing thoughts, feelings, sensations, and external events as they arise moment to moment,

without judgement or elaboration (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). The concept of mindfulness has its roots in

Eastern philosophical, particularly Buddhist traditions, with its cultivation having been described as

the heart of Buddhist meditation (Thera, 2005). According to Buddhist discourse, maintaining such

awareness leads to insight into the fundamental characteristics of all conscious mental states,

specifically that they are impermanent, they generate attachment or aversion that leads to suffering,

and they contain no enduring self (Grabovac, Lau, & Willett, 2011; Nyanaponika, 2010).

Development of such insight is said to ultimately lead to nibbana (awakening/enlightenment or

liberation from suffering) (Bodhi, 2006).

Mindfulness was popularised in the West by Jon Kabat-Zinn, who in 1979 developed the

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program to assist patients at the University of

Massachusetts Medical Centre to cope with chronic pain and illness (Kabat-Zinn, 1982, 2003). The

MBSR program is predominantly based on Buddhist principles and practices, but explicitly

4

excludes religious terminology and doctrine. Over the last three decades, the MBSR program has

been the subject of many studies and RCTs, which have demonstrated its effectiveness in reducing

psychological distress in a wide range of contexts (for reviews, see Eberth & Sedlmeier, 2012;

Gotink et al., 2015; Keng, Smoski, & Robins, 2011). A number of other interventions based on

mindfulness-related principles have also been developed over that time, including Mindfulness-

Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) designed for the treatment of depression and prevention of

depressive relapse (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT) for

the treatment of borderline personality disorder (Linehan, 1993), and Acceptance and Commitment

Therapy (ACT) for treating a range of mental health issues (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999).

While most contemporary MBIs incorporate mindfulness principles and practices that are drawn

from Buddhist discourse, their focus and objectives tends to be the reduction of stress and

psychological anguish, rather than the development of insight and enlightenment.

Among Western researchers, there remains considerable debate about how to define

mindfulness (Grossman & Van Dam, 2011; Williams & Kabat-Zinn, 2011), with it having been

variously described as a state, a trait, and an intervention (Davidson, 2010). There has also been

considerable debate about how to measure mindfulness (Baer, 2011; Grossman, 2008). A number of

self-report measures have been developed and to some extent psychometrically validated (Sauer et

al., 2013). Initially, these measures were designed for measuring the effects of meditation (Walach,

Buchheld, Buttenmüller, Kleinknecht, & Schmidt, 2006), but subsequent measures have focussed

on assessing naturally occurring variations in mindfulness in individuals without meditation

experience. The different measures differ somewhat in how they conceptualise mindfulness. The

Mindful Attention and Awareness Scale (MAAS), which is a widely used measure of dispositional

mindfulness, only assesses a single dimension of present-moment awareness (Brown & Ryan,

2003). Brown and Ryan initially included an acceptance dimension when developing the MAAS,

but found that it added no additional convergent, discriminant, or criterion validity. They concluded

that non-acceptance or resistance to the present moment involves cognitive elaboration, which

decreases present-moment awareness. They suggest that measuring present-moment awareness

alone therefore gives a complete measure of mindfulness, as it would necessarily be reduced by any

non-acceptance. In contrast, the Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills (KIMS) is based on a

broader conception of mindfulness and measures four components of being mindful in daily life:

observing experiences, acting with awareness, describing inner experiences, and accepting

experiences without judgement (Baer, Smith, & Allen, 2004). In a factor analysis of existing

mindfulness questionnaires, Baer and colleagues (2006) identified five clear dimensions. They

included the same four dimensions as the KIMS, plus non-reactivity to experiences. It has been

5

argued that this lack of consensus about the dimensions of mindfulness arises from a limited

understanding of the theoretical basis of the construct as described by Buddhist psychology, and

that the measures therefore have limited validity (Grossman, 2008). However, the varied

interpretations of mindfulness among Buddhist scholars, along with the fact that it is a

psychological function that has been described in different ways in a variety of other cultural

contexts, means that varied definitions and measures are probably inevitable. Furthermore, Sauer

and colleagues (2013) have suggested that the different theoretical approaches may actually aid in

developing a more complete understanding of all facets of mindfulness.

Mindfulness has attracted the interest of organisational researchers for a variety of reasons,

and their differing objectives have resulted in the construct being defined in different ways. Ellen

Langer describes mindfulness as a state of active awareness that involves drawing novel

distinctions, noticing new things, and considering information and events from multiple

perspectives (Langer, 1989; Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000). It is contrasted with mindless behaviour

that is rule and routine governed. Organisational studies have investigated this kind of mindfulness

in high-reliability organisations (Weick & Roberts, 1993; Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 1999) and

in relation to automatic and non-automatic information processing (Gioia & Sims, 1986;

Sandelands & Stablein, 1987).

A distinct body of research has investigated the effects of Kabat-Zinn’s MBSR program on

perceived stress and burnout among employees in high-stress occupations such as nursing and

teaching (For review, see Escuriex & Labbé, 2011). The MBSR program is based on Buddhist

mindfulness meditation concepts and practices, with mindfulness being defined by Kabatt-Zinn as

“paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally”

(Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p.4). This definition can be distinguished from Langer’s in that it involves

cultivating awareness of the processes of the mind without judging or interpreting them, rather than

the contents of the mind such as novel distinctions and interpretations. Kabat-Zinn’s definition of

mindfulness has also informed other organisational research. In a theoretical paper, Dane (2011)

considered the likely impacts of this kind of mindfulness on task performance, concluding that

focussing attention mindfully is likely to be beneficial when one has a high level of expertise and is

operating in a dynamic environment, but that it may be costly in a static environment or when one

lacks expertise. Studies of the associations between mindfulness and job satisfaction (Hülsheger et

al., 2012), work-family balance (Allen & Kiburz, 2012), and work engagement (Leroy et al., 2013)

have utilised the same conceptualisation of mindfulness as Kabat-Zinn. Mindfulness defined as

non-judgemental awareness of the present moment is the conceptualisation that will be used for the

current project.

6

1.3 Mindfulness Mechanisms of Change

A range of mechanisms have been proposed to explain the salubrious effects of mindfulness.

Some researchers have suggested that mindfulness improves cognitive control and flexibility,

thereby enabling more adaptive behaviour (Chiesa, Calati, & Serretti, 2011). Other research has

focussed on the processes via which mindfulness enhances emotion regulation, such as by enabling

individuals to “reperceive” or reappraise thoughts and emotions as momentary mental experiences

that can be observed objectively and without judgement (Garland et al., 2009; Shapiro et al., 2006).

Such reappraisal is thought to reduce automatic emotional reactivity to challenging events.

Mechanisms that specifically explain the beneficial effects of mindfulness in the workplace

have also been proposed. Glomb and others (2011) proposed three core processes via which

mindfulness enhances self-regulation in the workplace: decentring or decoupling of the self from

experiences and emotions, decreased use of automatic mental processes, and greater awareness of

physiological regulation. They further suggest those core processes facilitate a range of secondary

processes, including response flexibility, decreased rumination, empathy, emotion regulation,

increased self-determination and persistence, increased working memory, and more accurate

affective forecasting. Organisational researchers have also identified more authentic functioning

(Leroy et al., 2013), less surface acting (Hülsheger et al., 2012), and improved sleep quality and

vitality (Allen & Kiburz, 2012) as mechanisms via which mindfulness produces salutary effects in

the workplace.

While the processes and mechanisms proposed to underlie the effects of mindfulness are

many and varied, reviews of the literature suggest that a central outcome of mindfulness is more

adaptive functioning due to improved self-regulation of thoughts, emotions, and behaviours (Brown

& Ryan, 2003; Glomb et al., 2011; Shapiro et al., 2006). The current study will therefore focus on

three core mechanisms via which mindfulness is proposed to enhance self-regulation and adaptive

functioning: cognitive flexibility, emotion regulation via reappraisal, and positive affect. As will be

explained below, those three processes are particularly likely to influence the workplace outcomes

of interest. The methodology of the studies described below is shown in Table 1.1.

1.3.1 Cognitive flexibility

Cognitive flexibility is a self-regulatory capacity that has long been considered a central

component of intelligence, problem solving, and creativity (Colzato, Van Wouwe, Lavender, &

Hommel, 2006; Deak, 2000; Guilford, 1962; Reder & Schunn, 1999), and is also thought to be

important for coping with life’s difficulties (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010). Broadly, cognitive

flexibility describes the ability to switch cognitive sets in order to respond adaptively to changing

7

stimuli, and includes responding flexibly to external events as well as to internal thoughts,

emotions, and sensations. Multiple cognitive processes have been found to play a role in flexibility,

including inhibition, attention shifting, and working memory (for review, see Ionescu, 2012).

Mindfulness and cognitive flexibility. Mindfulness is particularly likely to enhance

cognitive flexibility by increasing attentional control. The Context-Appropriate Balanced Attention

(CABA) theory of self-regulation suggests that without top-down attentional control, attention will

automatically be directed to dominant bottom-up cues (MacCoon, Wallace, & Newman, 2004). For

example, for an incongruent trial on the classic Stroop task in which the word “red” is presented in

“green” ink, top-down attentional control is required to select the non-dominant ink colour (green)

instead of automatically reading the dominant word (red). Often the habitual dominant cue that is

elicited by thoughts, feelings, and sensations involves judgement, elaboration, or rumination. For

example, if the thought “I don’t know how to do this” arises when engaged in a difficult task then

the habitual dominant cue may be elaboration such as “I won’t get this done in time” or “my boss is

going to think I’m incompetent”. Such thoughts are likely to trigger further habitual cues, such as

anxiety or other thoughts. In contrast, mindfulness practise involves the persistent regulation of

attention by repeatedly directing it back to the non-dominant moment-by-moment experience.

Indeed, mindfulness training has been found to improve performance on the Stroop task (Jensen,

Vangkilde, Frokjaer, & Hasselbalch, 2012; Moore & Malinowski, 2009; but see Anderson et al.,

2007), suggesting that it increases the capacity to select non-dominant or less habitual cues, thereby

enabling greater response flexibility. By improving attention regulation, mindfulness may therefore

enable individuals to consider alternative responses to events, rather than just responding habitually.

In support of that, Wenk-Sormaz (2005) found that mindfulness-meditation participants produced

more unusual responses than controls on a word production task. Glomb and her colleagues (2011)

suggest that directing attention to moment-by-moment experience disrupts automatic thought

patterns and habits, as it involves more systematic rather than heuristic modes of processing.

Mindfulness may also increase cognitive flexibility by enhancing other aspects of cognitive

control (for review, see Chiesa et al., 2011). For example, mindfulness meditation improves

performance on verbal fluency tasks (Heeren, Van Broeck, & Philippot, 2009; Wenk-Sormaz, 2005;

Zeidan, Johnson, Diamond, David, & Goolkasian, 2010), which involve cognitive flexibility,

generativity, working memory, and response selection, inhibition, and initiation (Suchy, 2009).

Heeren et al (2009) found that mindfulness also improved performance on non-verbal cognitive

inhibition and cognitive flexibility tasks. Additionally, after mindfulness training, working memory

capacity was increased (Chambers, Lo, & Allen, 2008; Zeidan et al., 2010) and less affected by

high stress (Jha, Stanley, Kiyonaga, Wong, & Gelfand, 2010).

Tabl

e 1.

1

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Aikensn (201

4)Work en

gagemen

tCa

n an

 online workp

lace 

mindfulne

ss program

 decrease 

employ

ee stress while enh

ancing

 resiliency an

d well‐b

eing

?

89 employ

ees o

f a che

mical 

compa

ny (4

4 in 

mindfulne

ss in

terven

tion 

and 45

 wait‐list c

ontrols)

NR

NR

7‐wee

k on

line 

mindfulne

ss in

terven

tion 

versus wait‐list c

ontrol

FFMQ, P

SS, C

D‐RISC

, Shirom 

Vigo

ur Scale

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); regression 

analyses

Compa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the mindfulne

ss in

terven

tion show

ed 

significan

t pre‐post improv

emen

ts in

 vigo

ur, resilien

cy, and

 mindfulne

ss, and

 pre‐po

st decreases in

 perceived

 stress.

Allen & Kiburz (20

12)

Thriv

ing at work

How is trait m

indfulne

ss re

lated to 

work‐family balan

ce?

131 em

ploy

ees

42.2

62NA

MAA

S, work‐family balan

ce 

scale, PSQ

I, Vitality scale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

med

iatio

n an

alyses

Greater m

indfulne

ss was associated with

 more work‐family balan

ce, b

etter sleep

 qu

ality

, and

 more vitality. Sleep

 qua

lity 

and vitality med

iated the association 

betw

een mindfulne

ss and

 work‐family 

balance.

Amab

ile et a

l. (200

5)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsHo

w doe

s affe

ct re

late to

 creativity

 at work?

222 em

ploy

ees 

(predo

minan

tly 

professio

nals) from

 7 

compa

nies

38.2

23NA

6‐ite

m se

lf‐repo

rt of m

ood at 

work, cod

er‐rated

 moo

d ba

sed 

on diary narrativ

e, cod

er‐rated

 da

ily creative thou

ght b

ased

 on

 diary narrativ

e, pee

r assessmen

ts of creativity

Daily event sa

mpling; time‐

lagged

 ana

lyses; 

qualita

tive an

alysis of daily 

diary na

rratives

Time‐lagged

 ana

lyses s

howed

 positive 

affect was an an

tecede

nt of creative 

thou

ght. Qua

litative an

alyses fo

und 

positive affect was a con

sequ

ence of 

crea

tive thou

ght e

vents

Ande

rson

 et a

l. (200

7)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does m

indfulne

ss in

volve sustaine

d attention, atten

tion sw

itching

, inhibitio

n of elabo

rativ

e processin

g an

d no

n‐directed

 atten

tion?

72 hea

lthy ad

ults (3

9 in 

interven

tion an

d 33

 wait‐

list c

ontrols)

37 and

 41

.7NR

8‐wee

k MBS

R course

Stroop

 parad

igm ‐ colour and

 seman

tic words, and

 positive 

and ne

gativ

e ad

jectives used

RCT, wait‐list c

ontrol

No im

prov

emen

ts in

 atten

tiona

l con

trol 

observed

 in M

BSR pa

rticipan

ts re

lativ

e to 

control group

Arch & Craske (200

6)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s a sh

ort 

mindfulne

ss practice ha

ve on 

emotiona

l rea

ctivity

?

60 university

 stud

ents

NR

6915

‐minute focussed

 brea

thing, worry 

indu

ction, unfocussed 

attention

10‐item

 M‐C, 1

‐item

 affe

ct 

scale, PAN

AS, n

umbe

r of 

negativ

e slide

s tha

t pa

rticipan

ts were willing to 

view

, hea

rt ra

te

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Co

mpa

red with

 the worry and

 unfocussed 

attention grou

ps, the

 focussed

 breathing

 grou

p repo

rted

 less negative affect and

 em

otiona

l volatility to

 emotiona

l slid

es

Baas et a

l. (200

8)Po

sitive affect

Wha

t is the

 relatio

nship be

twee

n moo

d an

d crea

tivity

?5,16

5 pa

rticipan

ts across 

63 in

depe

nden

t studies

NR

NR

NA

Multip

le m

easures o

f crea

tivity

, flexibility, flue

ncy 

and originality

Meta‐an

alysis

Crea

tivity

 was fo

und to be en

hanced

 most 

by positive m

ood states th

at are activating 

and ap

proa

ch‐orie

nted

 (e.g. h

appine

ss), 

rather th

an dea

ctivating an

d avoida

nce‐

oriented

 (e.g. relaxed

).

Baas et a

l. (201

4)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsDo

 partic

ular com

pone

nts o

f mindfulne

ss re

lated diffe

rently to

 crea

tivity

?

225 un

iversity stud

ents

2064

NA

KIMS, se

lf‐repo

rt cog

nitiv

e fle

xiblity

 scale, Creative 

Achievem

ent Q

uestionn

aire, 

Crea

tive idea

tion task

Several w

eeks betwee

n mea

sures o

f mindfulne

ss 

and crea

tivity

; regression 

analyses (regression an

d med

iatio

n)

Only ob

servation dimen

sion of 

mindfulne

ss predicted

 creativity

, with

 the 

assocatio

n be

ing med

iated by

 cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility

Barbosa et al. (201

3)Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

es partic

ipation in an MBS

R course re

duce anxiety and

 increa

se 

empa

thy am

ong grad

uate 

healthcare stud

ents?

28 gradu

ate he

althcare 

stud

ents (1

3 in M

BSR 

course and

 15 controls)

26.6 

and 

24.6

92 and

 93

8‐wee

k MBS

R course

BAI, JSPE

, MBI

non‐rand

omise

d pre‐ and

 po

sttest qua

si‐expe

rimen

tal d

esign with

 matched

 con

trol group

MBS

R pa

rticipan

ts sh

owed

 sign

ificantly 

less anxiety and

 greater empa

thy at wee

k 8 than

 con

trols, but only the redu

ction in 

anxiety remaine

d sig

nifican

tly differen

t from

 con

trols a

t wee

k 11

.

Cha

ract

eris

tics o

f the

stud

ies c

ited

in th

e cu

rren

t lite

ratu

re re

view

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

8

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Barling

 & M

acIntyre 

(199

3)Th

riving at work

How do role stressors influen

ce 

emotiona

l exhau

stion?

53 m

ilitary in

structors

30.8

9NA

Role ambigu

ity and

 con

flict 

scales, role ov

erload

 scale, 

emotiona

l exhau

stion subscale 

of M

BI, C

ES‐D, d

aily m

ood 

scale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey at e

nd 

of each da

y for 2

0 work 

days; regression an

alyses

Path ana

lyses fou

nd th

at only role 

overload

 had

 a dire

ct effe

ct on em

otiona

l exha

ustio

n. How

ever, role ov

erload

 and

 role ambigu

ity also

 effe

cted

 emotiona

l exha

ustio

n indirectly via m

ood, while ro

le 

conflict h

ad no effect on em

otiona

l exha

ustio

n.

Baron (199

0)Po

sitive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s positive affe

ct 

have on self‐efficacy, ta

sk 

performan

ce, n

egotiatio

n an

d conflict?

80 und

ergrad

uate stud

ents

NR

50Expo

sure to

 pleasan

t or 

neutral artificial sc

ent

Follo

wing a confrontationa

l ne

gotia

tion task, p

artic

ipan

ts 

rated ho

w th

ey wou

ld han

dle 

future con

flicts

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pa

rticipan

ts in

 the plea

sant‐scent 

cond

ition

 repo

rted

 they were less likely to

 ha

ndle fu

ture con

flicts throu

gh avo

idan

ce 

and compe

tition than

 those in th

e ne

utral 

scen

t con

ditio

n

Bled

ow et a

l. (201

1)Work en

gagemen

tDo

es work en

gagemen

t emerge 

from

 the dy

namic in

terplay of 

positive an

d ne

gativ

e affect?

55 so

ftware de

velope

rs34

.711

NA

PANAS

, UWES, m

ood scale, 

positive an

d ne

gativ

e work 

even

ts sc

ale

Diary stud

y with

 respon

ses 

collected

 twice a da

y ov

er 

9 working

 days

Negative affect and

 negative expe

riences 

in th

e morning

 were related to highe

r levels of work en

gagemen

t in the 

afternoo

n if a high

 level o

f positive m

ood 

was experienced

 in th

e interval betwee

n morning

 and

 afterno

on 

Brod

erick (200

5)Re

appraisal

Could mindfulne

ss re

duce dysph

oric 

moo

d more effectively than

 distraction?

177 un

dergradu

ate 

stud

ents

20.9

79Moo

d indu

ction by

 read

ing em

otiona

l statem

ents, rum

ination 

and distraction respon

se 

tasks, 8‐m

inute 

mindfulne

ss m

edita

tion

PANAS

, tho

ught listing

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pa

rticipan

ts in

 the med

itatio

n conidtion 

repo

rted

 sign

ificantly lo

wer levels of 

negativ

e moo

d than

 those in th

e rumination an

d distraction cond

ition

s

Brow

n & Ryan (200

3)Po

sitive affect, 

Thriv

ing at work

Does m

indfulne

ss predict day‐to‐da

y self‐regu

latio

n an

d well‐b

eing

?74

 employ

ed adu

lts 

(Sam

ple 1) and

 92 

unde

rgradu

ate stud

ents 

(Sam

ple 2)

37.6 

and 

19.5

55 and

 74

NA

MAA

S, affe

ct valen

ce sc

ale, 

state mindfulne

ss, ada

pted

 PLCS

, emotiona

l state sc

ale

Diary stud

ent w

ith daily 

sampling for 2

1 (Sam

ple 1) 

and 14

 (Sam

ple 2) days; 

Multi‐level m

odellin

g an

alyses

Trait m

indfulen

ss predicted

 more 

autono

mou

s activity

 and

 less unp

leasan

t affect. State m

indfulne

ss m

ore po

sitive 

affect and

 less unp

leasan

t affe

ct.

Canb

y et al. (201

4)Th

riving at work

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes a

 brie

f MBS

R course have on

 psycholog

ical 

distress, self‐c

ontrol, m

eta‐moo

d, 

and subjectiv

e vitality?

44 university

 stud

ents and

 faculty

 (19 in M

BSR grou

p an

d 25

 con

trols w

ho were 

unab

le to

 sign

 up in time)

21.1 

and 

21.4

84 and

 52

6‐wee

k ad

apted MBS

R interven

tion

BSI, GSI, M

AAS, SCS

, TMMS, 

Subjectiv

e Vitality Scale

Betw

een‐subjects (n

on‐

rand

om assignm

ent); 

regressio

n an

alyses

Compa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the MBS

R interven

tion repo

rted

 sign

ificant 

pre‐po

st in

crea

ses in subjectiv

e vitality, 

self‐control, an

d mindfulne

ss, and

 de

crea

ses in psycho

logical d

istress

Carm

eli &

 Spreitzer 

(200

9)Su

mmary

How do trust, conn

ectiv

ity and

 thriv

ing relate to

 inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rs in

 the workp

lace?

172 em

ploy

ees a

cross 

multip

le in

dustrie

s32

.751

NA

Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rs sc

ale, 

thriv

ing at work scale, 

conn

ectiv

ity sc

ale, trust in 

employ

er sc

ale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey at 2

 tim

e po

ints over 3

 wee

ks; 

SEM ana

lyses

Results of S

EM ana

lyses fou

nd th

at 

conn

ectiv

ity m

ediated the relatio

nship 

betw

een trust a

nd th

riving, and

 thriv

ing 

med

iated the association be

twee

n conn

ectiv

ty and

 inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rs

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

9

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Carm

ody et al. (200

9)Re

appraisal

Wha

t mecha

nism

s explain th

e salutory effe

cts o

f mindfulne

ss 

training

?

309 ad

ults in

 enrolled in 

MBS

R classes

49.5

688‐wee

k MBS

R course

FFMQ, EQ, SRS

, anxiety and

 de

pressio

n ite

ms o

f BSI

Pre‐po

st (n

o control 

grou

p); m

ediatio

n an

alyses

Mindfulne

ss and

 decen

tring bo

th sh

owed

 sig

nifican

t pre‐post intervention increa

ses, 

but increases in

 decen

tring were no

t fou

nd 

to m

ediate th

e im

prov

emen

ts in

 other 

outcom

es

Cham

bers et a

l. (200

84)

Cogn

itive flexibility

Wha

t impa

ct doe

s mindfulne

ss have 

on working

 mem

ory, su

staine

d attention an

d attention sw

itching

?

40 hea

lthy ad

ults (2

0 no

vice m

edita

tors in

 interven

tion an

d 20

 wait‐

list c

ontrols)

33.7 

and 

31.9

45 and

 55

10‐day m

edita

tion retrea

tDigit S

pan Ba

ckward (DSB

) subscale of W

AIS III to

 mea

sure working

 mem

ory an

d Internal Switc

hing

 Task to 

mea

sure su

staine

d attention 

and sw

itching

Wait‐list c

ontrol (n

on‐

rand

omise

d)Im

prov

emen

ts in

 working

 mem

ory an

d sustaine

d attention in m

indfulne

ss training

 grou

p relativ

e to con

trol group

Clark & Tarab

an (1

991)

Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

 peo

ple express a

nd re

act to 

emotions differen

tly in

 com

mun

al 

versus excha

nge relatio

nships?

183 un

dergradu

ate 

stud

ents

NR

NR

Relatio

nship man

ipulation 

(com

mun

al, excha

nge) 

crossed with

 emotion 

man

ipulation (hap

py, sad

, irrita

ble, no em

otion)

Ratin

gs of e

xperim

ent‐pa

rtne

r on

 9 dim

ensio

ns: agree

able, 

need

y, und

erstan

ding

, plea

sant, d

epen

dent, 

sympa

thetic, frie

ndly, self‐

reliant, and

 likable

Betw

een grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)No diffe

rences were foun

d be

twee

n commun

al and

 excha

nge cond

ition

s whe

n no

 emotion was expressed

, but whe

n ha

ppiness, sa

dness, or irrita

bility was 

expressed, liking

 was sign

ificantly greater 

whe

n a commun

al ra

ther th

an excha

nge 

relatio

nship was desire

d.

Coffe

y & Hartm

an (2

008)

Reap

praisal

Wha

t are th

e mecha

nism

s of a

ction 

in th

e inverse relatio

nship be

twee

n mindfulne

ss and

 psycholog

ical 

distress?

Two samples (1

97 and

 249

) of und

ergrad

uate 

psycho

logy stud

ents

18.9 

and 

18.8

64 and

 66

NA

MAA

S, re

pair subscale of 

TMMS, Linking

 Inventory, 

rumination subscale of R

RQ, 

BSI

Self‐repo

rt que

stionn

aires, 

SEM ana

lyses

Results sh

owed

 an inverse relatio

nship 

betw

een mindfulne

ss and

 psycholog

ical 

distress th

at was m

ediated by

 emotion 

regu

latio

n, non

‐attachm

ent, an

d rumination

Cohe

n‐Ka

tz et a

l. (200

5)Re

appraisal; work 

engagemen

tWha

t effe

cts d

oes a

 MBS

R prog

ram 

have on nu

rse stress and

 burno

ut?

27 nurses (14

 in M

BSR 

grou

p an

d 13

 in waitlist 

control)

4610

08‐wee

k MBS

R prog

ram

MAA

S, M

BIBe

twee

n‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Co

mpa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the MBS

R interven

tion repo

rted

 pre‐post 

decrea

ses in tw

o mea

sures o

f burno

ut: 

emotiona

l exhau

stion an

d lack of p

ersona

l accomplish

men

t

Corbeil et a

l. (199

9)Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

es a propo

sed stress ada

ptation 

mod

el explain in

terven

tion effects 

in a caregiving situa

tion?

87 Alzh

eimer su

fferers and

 87

 prim

ary caregivers

74.2 

and 

67.1

36 and

 77

12‐w

eek da

ily cog

nitiv

e stim

ulation interven

tion

Positive reap

praisal sub

scale 

of W

CS‐R, M

BPC, emotiona

l supp

ort sub

scale of SSQ

, MNSS

Repe

ated

 mea

sures 

desig

n; SEM

 ana

lyses

High

er stress was associated with

 lower 

caregiver‐pa

tient in

teraction satisfaction. 

However, p

ositive re

appraisal enh

anced 

and im

prov

ed sa

tisfaction with

 caregiver‐

patie

nt in

teractions.

Dane

 & Brummel (2

014)

Reap

praisal

Is m

indfulne

ss positively re

lated to 

job pe

rforman

ce and

 negatively 

related to tu

rnov

er in

tentions in

 a 

dyna

mic work en

vironm

ent?

98 re

stau

rant employ

ees

26.5

56NA

MAA

S, 17‐ite

m work 

engagemen

t scale, m

anager 

ratin

gs of job

 perform

ance, 4

‐ite

m tu

rnov

er in

tention scale

Self‐repo

rt and

 man

ager‐

repo

rt que

stionn

aires, 

regressio

n an

alyses

Results sh

owed

 that m

indfulne

ss was 

positively related to jo

b pe

rforman

ce, 

even

 after accou

nting for w

ork 

engagemen

t

De Dreu et al. (201

2)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does working

 mem

ory capa

city 

bene

fit creativity

?60

 und

ergrad

uate stud

ents

NR

70NA

Crea

tive idea

tion task, O

SPAN

, motivation scale, id

ea 

gene

ratio

n task

Regressio

n an

alyses

Working

 mem

ory capa

city was positively 

related to orig

inality

, infrequ

ency, fluen

cy, 

and pe

rsisten

ce but not to

 flexibility. 

However, cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility was 

positively related to flue

ncy, orig

inality

, an

d infreq

uency.

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

10

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Demerou

ti et al. (201

0)Work en

gagemen

t; Th

riving at work

How do the dimen

sions of b

urno

ut 

relate to

 those of work 

engagemen

t?

528 constructio

n em

ploy

ees

39.6

28.5

NA

MBI‐GS, OLBI, UWES

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

confirm

atory factor 

analyses

The iden

tification dimen

sions of b

urno

ut 

(cyn

icism

/dise

ngagem

ent) and

 work 

engagemen

t (de

dicatio

n) se

emed

 to be 

direct opp

osite

s, but th

e en

ergy 

dimen

sions (e

xhau

stion vs. vigou

r) se

emed

 to be high

ly re

lated, but distinct, 

constructs.

Dien

er et a

l. (200

2)Po

sitive affect

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes d

isposition

al 

affect have on

 long

‐term jo

b ou

tcom

es?

13,676

 adu

ltsNR

NR

NA

Chee

fulness a

nd paren

tal 

income mea

sured while at 

college; current in

come 

mea

sured 19

 yea

rs later

Self‐repo

rt su

rveys 1

9 years a

part; correlatio

nal 

analyses

Chee

rfulne

ss gen

erally had

 a positive, b

ut 

curviline

ar, associatio

n with

 current 

income, with

 income increa

sing more 

rapidly at lo

wer th

an at h

ighe

r chee

rfulne

ss

Erism

an & Roe

mer (2

010)

Reap

praisal

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes a

 brie

f mindfulne

ss in

terven

tion ha

ve on 

emotiona

l respo

nding to film

 clip

s?

30 adu

lts with

 abo

ve‐

average em

otion 

regu

latio

n

NR

NR

10‐m

inute mindfulne

ss 

practic

e; emotiona

l film

 clips

MAA

S, DER

S‐S, hea

rt‐rate an

d skin con

ductan

ce, TMS

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Th

e mindfulne

ss in

terven

tion prod

uced

 a 

significan

t increase in decen

tring 

compa

red with

 con

trols, but did not affe

ct 

repo

rted

 difficultie

s in em

otion regu

latio

n after v

iewing a distressing film clip

Farb et a

l. (201

0)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s mindfulne

ss 

training

 have on

 neu

ral rea

ctivity

 to 

sadn

ess p

rovo

catio

n?

36 partic

ipan

ts re

cruited 

on enrolmen

t in an

 MBS

R prog

ram

NR

NR

8‐wee

k MBS

R course; sad

 film clip

sBD

I‐II, BA

I, SC

L‐90

‐RRC

T, wait‐list c

ontrol

Mindfulne

ss training

 partic

ipan

ts re

ported

 eq

uivalent levels of sa

dness to wait‐list 

controls after v

iewing a sad film clip

, but 

show

ed less activation in cortic

al m

idlin

e area

s of the

 brain th

at are associated with

 self‐referential p

rocessing. 

Feldman

, Greeson

, & 

Senv

ille, 201

0Re

appraisal

Wha

t are th

e effects o

f mindful 

brea

thing, progressiv

e muscle 

relaxatio

n, and

 loving

‐kindn

ess 

med

itatio

n on

 decen

tring an

d ne

gativ

e reactio

ns to

 repe

titive 

thou

ghts?

190 female un

dergradu

ate 

stud

ents with

out 

med

itatio

n expe

rience

19.8

100

15‐m

inute stress‐

man

agem

ent e

xercise

s (m

indful breathing

, PMR, 

LKM)

Repe

titive thou

ght 

questio

nnaire, d

ecen

tring 

subscale of T

MS, PAN

AS

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)In com

parison

 with

 PMR an

d LKM, o

nly 

mindfulne

ss training

 increa

sed de

centrin

g. 

There was also

 a negative correlation 

betw

een de

centrin

g an

d a ne

gativ

e reactio

n to th

ough

ts.

Folkman

 (199

7)Re

appraisal

Wha

t cop

ing processes a

re 

associated

 with

 positive 

psycho

logical states in the context 

of in

tense distress?

86 HIV+ an

d 16

7 HIV‐ 

caregiving

 partners o

f men

 with

 AIDS, 61 HIV+

 men

 in 

prim

ary relatio

nships with

 he

althy pa

rtne

rs

NR

0NA

CES‐D, positive re

appraisal and

 religious/spritu

al beliefs 

subscales o

f Ways o

f Cop

ing 

scale, Bradb

urn Affect Balan

ce 

scale

Long

itudina

l; be

twee

n‐grou

ps (n

on‐ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); regression 

analyses

Man

y caregivers were foun

d to actively 

cope

 with

 the prolon

ged stress of a

 dying

 pa

rtne

r throu

gh th

e use of positive 

reap

praisal, an

d those who

 repo

rted

 grea

ter u

se of p

ositive re

appraisal 

expe

rienced

 more po

sitive affect prio

r to 

and follo

wing the de

ath of th

eir p

artner

Forgas (1

998)

Positive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s moo

d ha

ve on 

nego

tiatio

n an

d ba

rgaining

 strategies?

72 university

 stud

ents

NR

50Po

sitive an

d ne

gativ

e moo

ds in

duced with

 false

‐feed

back te

chniqu

e

Que

stionn

aire m

easurin

g ba

rgaining

 strategy, d

eal‐

making, and

 expected an

d repo

rted

 outcomes

Betw

een subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Co

mpa

red with

 con

trols, both go

od and

 ba

d moo

ds had

 a m

ood‐cong

ruen

t effe

ct 

on negotiatio

n strategies and

 outcomes

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

11

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Fred

rickson

 et a

l. (200

8)Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

 daily experiences of p

ositive 

emotions com

poun

d ov

er time to 

build

 con

sequ

entia

l persona

l resources?

139 working

 adu

lts (6

7 in 

LKM group

 and

 72 in 

waitlist con

trol group

)

4165

7‐wee

k LKM training

 course

mDE

S, DRM

 to m

easure time‐

varying em

otion expe

riences, 

Dyad

ic Adjustm

ent S

cale, 

psycho

logical w

ell‐b

eing

 scale 

(includ

ing 7‐ite

ms m

easurin

g po

sitive relatio

ns with

 others)

SEM m

odellin

gCo

mpa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the LKM group

 show

ed in

crea

ses o

ver 

time in daily experiences of p

ositive 

emotions, w

hich, in turn, p

rodu

ced 

increa

ses in a wide rang

e of persona

l resources (e.g., increased

 mindfulne

ss, 

purpose in life, social sup

port, d

ecreased

 illne

ss sy

mptom

s).

Fresco et a

l. (200

7)Re

appraisal

Is th

e de

centrin

g subscale of the

 Expe

riences Que

stionn

aire a valid 

mea

sure of d

ecen

tring?

61 university

 stud

ents

19.8

56NA

EQ‐decen

tring factor, A

AQ, 

ruminative respon

ses s

ubscale 

of RSQ

, ERQ

, BDI‐II, M

ASQ

regressio

n an

alyses

The conv

ergent and

 disc

riminan

t validity

 of th

e de

centrin

g factor was sh

own by

 a 

negativ

e association with

 mea

sures o

f de

pressio

n symptom

s, dep

ressive 

rumination, experiential avo

idan

ce, and

 em

otion regu

latio

n, and

 positive 

association with

 positive re

appraisal

Garland

 et a

l. (201

1)Re

appraisal

Does positive re

appraisal m

ediate 

the stress‐red

uctiv

e effects o

f mindfulne

ss?

339 pa

rticipan

ts in

 an 8‐

wee

k MSPM program

45.7

NR

8‐wee

k Mindfulne

ss‐

based Stress and

 Pain 

Man

agem

ent p

rogram

 

FFMQ, P

SS, p

ostiv

e reap

praisal 

and catastroph

ising

 subscales 

of CER

Q

Pre‐po

st (n

o control 

grou

p); m

ediatio

n an

alyses

Pre‐po

st in

terven

tion increa

ses in 

mindfulne

ss were associated

 with

 increa

ses in po

sitive reap

praisal, an

d the 

Garland

 et a

l. (201

5)Re

appraisal

Does th

e state an

d practic

e of 

mindfulne

ss enh

ance cog

nitiv

e reap

praisal?

44 unv

ersity stud

ents

24.4

8213

‐minute indu

ctions of 

either m

indfulne

ss, 

supp

ression, or m

ind‐

wan

derin

g

TMS, FFM

Q, rea

ppraisa

l subscale of E

RQBe

twee

n‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); SEM

 ana

lyses

Participan

ts in

 the mindfulne

ss training

 grou

p repo

rted

 sign

ificantly greater state 

mindfulne

ss th

an th

e supp

ression an

d mind‐wan

derin

g grou

ps. The

 indirect 

effect betwee

n mindfulne

ss training

 and

 reap

praisal w

as m

ediated by

 state 

mindfulne

ss.

Gen

g (201

4)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsWha

t effe

cts d

o em

otiona

l lab

or 

have on fron

tline

 employ

ee 

crea

tivity

?

416 fron

tline

 restau

rant 

employ

ees

29.9

53NA

7‐ite

m su

rface/de

ep acting 

scale; 7‐item

 employ

ee 

crea

tivity

 scale mod

ified

 for 

fron

tline

 employ

ees

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

correlationa

l ana

lyses 

using SEM

Surface actin

g was negatively related to, 

and de

ep acting was positively re

lated to 

fron

tline

 employ

ee creativity

Geo

rge (199

0)Interpersona

l relatio

nsAre characteristic

 levels of affe

ct 

related to th

e affective tone

 with

in 

grou

ps, and

 is th

e grou

p affective 

tone

 related to prosocial beh

aviour?

26 workgroup

s com

posed 

of 254

 salespeo

ple

NR

NR

NA

Negative an

d po

sitive scales of 

MPQ

, JAS

, 10‐ite

m customer 

service be

haviou

r scale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

regressio

n an

alyses

Individu

al affe

ct was con

sistent with

in 

grou

ps, and

 positive and

 negative 

affectivity

 with

in group

s were associated

 with

 affe

ctive tone

 of the

 group

s, which 

was in

 turn associated with

 prosocial 

beha

viou

r.

Giann

otta et a

l. (201

1)Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

es children's inh

ibito

ry con

trol 

influ

ence coo

perativ

e be

haviou

r?25

0 child

ren (8‐12 years 

old)

9.8

47NA

Stroop

 task, p

airs of stude

nts 

did a pu

zzle ta

sk while 

observed

 coo

perativ

e be

haviou

rs were coun

ted

regressio

n an

alyses usin

g SEM

Similar levels o

f coo

perativ

e be

haviou

rs 

observed

 in in

teraction pa

rtne

rs, and

 were 

pred

icted by

 each child

's ow

n inhibitory 

control and

 the inhibitory con

trol of the

 pa

rtne

r.

Gilu

k (200

9)Th

riving at work

How doe

s mindfulne

ss re

late to

 the 

Big Five persona

lity traits?

Meta‐an

alysis of 29 stud

ies 

(895

‐330

9 pa

rticipan

ts 

depe

nding on

 outcome 

mea

sure)

NR

NR

NA

Self‐repo

rt m

easures o

f mindfulne

ss, n

eurotic

ism, 

extraversio

n, ope

nness to 

expe

rience, agree

ablene

ss, 

and conscien

tiousne

ss

Meta‐an

alysis

All five pe

rson

ality

 traits sh

owed

 a 

relatio

nship with

 mindfulne

ss, w

ith th

e strong

est relationships being

 with

 ne

uroticism

 and

 con

scientiousne

ss

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

12

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Gilu

k (201

1)Interpersona

l relatio

nsDo

es M

BSR facilitate work 

outcom

es th

roug

h expe

rienced

 affect and

 high qu

ality

 relatio

nships?

99 adu

lts (2

9 in 

MBS

R/MBC

T grou

p an

d 59

 controls)

NR

NR

8‐wee

k MBS

R/MBC

T prog

ram

FFMQ, P

ANAS

, relationship 

quality

 scale rated by

 co‐

workers

Betw

een‐subjects (n

on‐

rand

om assignm

ent); 

regressio

n an

alyses

Compa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the mindfulne

ss training

 program

 repo

rted

 im

prov

emen

ts in

 mindfulne

ss and

 affe

ct, 

but n

ot in

 co‐worker relationship qu

ality

Gross & Jo

hn (2

003)

Reap

praisal, 

Interpersona

l relatio

ns

Do in

dividu

als d

iffer in

 their u

se of 

emotion regu

latio

n strategies, and

 do

 these diffe

rences have 

implications fo

r well‐b

eing

 and

 social re

latio

nships?

Four sa

mples (7

91, 3

36, 

240, 116

) of u

ndergrad

uate 

stud

ents 

20, 2

0, 

20 and

 18

67, 6

3, 

50 and

 64

NA

Self‐repo

rted

 sharing of 

emotions, A

AS, ratings of 

feelings of closene

ss, p

eer 

liking scale

regressio

n an

alyses

Reap

praisal w

as positively, and

 supp

ression ne

gativ

ely, re

lated to sh

aring 

emotions. R

eapp

raise

rs also

 had

 closer 

relatio

nships, as rated

 by pe

ers.

Hargus et a

l. (201

0)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes m

indfulne

ss have 

on m

eta‐aw

aren

ess a

nd sp

ecificity 

of describing prod

romal sy

mptom

s in su

icidal dep

ression?

27 dep

ressed

 adu

lts (1

4 in 

MBC

T grou

p an

d 13

 TAU

)41

.967

MBC

T or TAU

BDI‐II, Re

SSI, ad

apted version 

of M

ACAM

Betw

een‐subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

tOnly pa

rticipan

ts in

 the MBC

T grou

p show

ed pre‐post intervention increa

ses in 

meta‐aw

aren

ess (de

centrin

g), and

 pre‐

post differen

ces s

pecificity

 of m

emory

Harnett e

t al. (201

0)Po

sitive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s a sh

ort‐term

 mindfulne

ss th

erap

y prog

ram have 

on m

easures o

f psycholog

ical 

55 adu

lts38

69Th

ree 2‐ho

ur group

 mindfulne

ss se

ssions

DASS, M

AAS, PAN

AS, Life

 Satisfaction Scale

Pre‐po

st (n

o control 

grou

p)Re

sults sh

owed

 sign

ificant in

crea

ses in 

positive affect and

 life sa

tisfaction an

d de

crea

ses in psycho

logical d

istresss

Heeren

 et a

l. (200

9)Co

gnitive flexibility

Wha

t executiv

e processes e

xplain 

the effects o

f mindfulne

ss on 

autobiog

raph

ical m

emory 

specificity?

36 adu

lts (1

8 in 

mindfulne

ss group

 and

 18 

matched

 con

trols)

54.3

83Mod

ified

 8‐w

eek MBC

T course

AMT, Haylin

g Task, Trail 

Making Te

st, G

oStop 

Paradigm

, Verba

l fluen

cy ta

sks

Qua

si‐expe

rimen

tal 

(matched

 con

trol group

); pre‐po

st

Improv

emen

ts in

 autob

iograp

hical 

mem

ory specificity, d

ecreased

 ov

ergene

rality, and

 improv

ed cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility capa

city and

 cap

acity

 to in

hibit 

cogn

itive prepo

tent re

spon

ses in 

mindfulne

ss group

 relativ

e to con

trol 

grou

p

Hend

rawan

 et a

l. (201

2)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does executiv

e functio

ning

 predict 

subjectiv

e an

d ph

ysiological stress 

reactiv

ity?

32 hea

lthy un

iversity 

stud

ents

19.3

NR

Trier S

ocial Stress T

est

Japa

nese letter flue

ncy test, 

mod

ified

 Stroo

p word‐colour 

task, W

CST, Trie

r Social Stress 

Test, STA

I, Salivory cortiso

l test

Analysis of correlatio

n be

twee

n executive 

functio

ning

 on on

e occasio

n an

d stress 

reactiv

ity on an

othe

r occasio

n

Letter flue

ncy pred

icted subjectiv

e an

d ph

ysiological stress rea

ctivity

Hirt et a

l. (199

6)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsIs th

e relatio

nship am

ong moo

d, 

processin

g go

als a

nd ta

sk 

performan

ce m

ediated by

 intrinsic

 interest?

194 un

iversity stud

ents

NR

64Re

ading moo

d‐indu

cing

 statem

ents; tim

e to stop

, en

joy, and

 con

trol 

instructions fo

r gene

ratin

g respon

ses

Moo

d qu

estio

nnaire, n

umbe

r of similarities a

nd differen

ces  

betw

een televisio

n characters 

listed by

 partic

ipan

ts

Compa

rison

 of results fo

r three expe

rimen

tal group

s with

 rand

om assignm

ent

Whe

n using an

 enjoy

men

t‐ba

sed stop

 rule, 

happ

y pa

rticipan

ts sp

ent m

ore tim

e an

d gene

rated more respon

ses tha

n othe

r pa

rticipan

ts, b

ut whe

n using a 

performan

ce‐based

 stop

 rule, the

y spen

t less time an

d gene

rated fewer re

spon

ses.

Hülsh

eger et a

l. (201

2)Re

appraisal

Does m

indfulne

ss re

duce emotiona

l exha

ustio

n an

d im

prov

e job 

satisfaction?

219 em

ploy

ees a

cross 

multip

le organ

isatio

ns39

.983

NA

MAA

S, su

rface actin

g subscale 

of ELS, m

omen

tary jo

b satisfication ratin

g, emotiona

l exha

ustio

n qu

estio

n

Diary stud

y with

 respon

ses 

collected

 twice a da

y ov

er 

5 working

 days; M

ultilevel 

SEM ana

lyses

State an

d trait m

indfulne

ss were related to 

emotiona

l exhau

stion an

d job satisfaction 

on a daily basis, with

 surface actin

g med

iatin

g that associatio

n

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

13

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Hunter and

 McCormick 

(200

8)Interpersona

l relatio

nsWha

t effe

cts d

oes m

indfulne

ss 

practic

e ha

ve on pe

ople's lives?

8 man

agers a

nd 

professio

nals

NR

NR

NA

Interviews

Qua

litative an

alysis of 

interviews u

sing Atlas.ti

Analyses su

ggest p

racticing mindfulne

ss 

may im

prov

e external awaren

ess a

t work, 

acceptan

ce of w

ork situa

tion, in

ternal 

locus o

f evaluation, cop

ing with

 difficult 

work situa

tions, ada

ptab

ility at w

ork, and

 interpersona

l relations at w

ork

Huston

 et a

l. (201

1)Re

appraisal; 

Interpersona

l relatio

ns

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes tea

ching 

mindfulne

ss during commun

ication 

training

 have on

 positive re

appraisal 

and reactiv

ity in

 daily 

commun

ication?

44 university

 stud

ents 

enrolled in a 

commun

ication course (2

0 in m

indfulne

ss group

 and

 24

 in con

trol group

)

19.2

50Co

llege com

mun

ication 

course th

at in

corporated

 mindfulne

ss con

cepts a

nd 

practic

es

FFMQ, p

ositive re

appraisal, 

refocus o

n plan

ning

, catastroph

ising

, and

 blame 

othe

rs su

bscales o

f CER

Q

Betw

een grou

ps (n

on‐

rand

om assignm

ent); SEM

 an

alyses

Increa

ses in po

sitive reap

praisal w

ere 

observed

 in both grou

ps, b

ut only 

mindfulne

ss group

 show

ed in

crea

ses in 

mindfulne

ss and

 redu

ctions in

 negative 

reactiv

ity in

 com

mun

ication.

Isen

 & Levin (1

972)

Interpersona

l relatio

nsWha

t effe

cts d

oes p

ositive affe

ct 

have on he

lpfulness to othe

rs?

41 adu

lts who

 mad

e a call 

from

 a designa

ted pu

blic 

teleph

one

NR

59Co

in ra

ndom

ly left in

 coin 

slot o

f pub

lic te

leph

one 

for h

alf o

f the

 trials

Whe

ther partic

ipan

ts helpe

d a 

female confed

erate who

 drop

ped a folder fu

ll of pap

ers

Betw

een grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pa

rticipan

ts who

 foun

d the coin were 

more likely to help, su

ggestin

g that a goo

d moo

d increa

ses h

elping

 beh

aviour

Isen

 & Ree

ve (2

005)

Positive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s positive affe

ct 

have on intrinsic

 and

 extrin

sic 

motivation?

60 und

ergrad

uate 

psycho

logy stud

ents

NR

60Po

sitive or neu

tral affe

ct 

man

ipulation

Intrinsic

 motivation mea

sured 

via 8‐ite

m que

stionn

aire and

 by

 recording tim

e spen

t on a 

Betw

een subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pe

ople in

 the po

sitive‐affect con

ditio

n spen

t more tim

e than

 con

trols o

n the 

intrinsic

ally m

otivating task, and

 repo

rted

 

Isen

 et a

l. (198

7)Po

sitive affect; 

Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsWha

t effe

ct doe

s positive affe

ct 

have on crea

tive prob

lem so

lving?

65 university

 stud

ents

NR

NR

Positive affect in

duced 

with

 5 m

inutes of a

 comed

y film

Duncker's can

dle task; w

ord‐

plea

santne

ss ra

ting task to

 check affect m

anipulation

Betw

een subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pa

rticipan

ts in

 the po

sitive‐affect con

ditio

n prod

uced

 sign

ificantly m

ore solutio

ns to

 the cand

le ta

sk th

an con

trol partic

ipan

ts

Isen

 et a

l. (198

5)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsWha

t effe

ct doe

s positive affe

ct 

have on the un

ique

ness and

 diversity

 of w

ord associations?

190 un

iversity stud

ents

NR

NR

Positive affect in

duced 

with

 eith

er com

edy film 

or free

 gift; p

ositive, 

neutral and

 negative word‐

lists fo

r partic

ipan

ts to

 prov

ide word associations 

to

Five add

ition

al partic

ipan

ts 

completed

 7‐point sc

ale of 

how th

e moo

d man

ipulation 

mad

e them

 feel; M

ean 

numbe

r of u

nusual word‐

associations gen

erated

Rand

om assignm

ent to 

one of 12 expe

rimen

tal 

cond

ition

s (4 affect 

cond

ition

s x 3 word‐type

 cond

ition

s)

Participan

ts in

 the po

sitive‐affect con

ditio

n gave m

ore un

usua

l word associations; 

Associates to

 positive words were also 

more un

usua

l tha

n those to other words.

Jensen

 et a

l. (201

2)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does atten

tiona

l effo

rt explain 

improv

emen

ts in

 atten

tiona

l pe

rforman

ce due

 to m

indfulne

ss 

training

?

48 hea

lthy ad

ults (1

6 in 

MBS

R grou

p, 16 no

n‐mindfulne

ss stress 

redu

ction (NMSR

), 16

 controls)

NR

628‐wee

k MBS

R or 8‐w

eek 

NMSR

 cou

rse or in

activ

e control w

ith/w

ithou

t fin

ancial in

centive for task 

performan

ce

DART

, STA

N, Stroo

p task, d

2 test of a

tten

tion, Com

biTV

A, 

MAA

S, sa

liva cortiso

l sam

pling

Betw

een‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Selective attention, con

scious perception, 

and working

 mem

ory capa

city im

prov

ed 

significan

tly m

ore for the

 MBS

R grou

p than

 for a

ny other group

.

Jha et al. (201

0)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does m

indfulne

ss training

 protect 

WMC against stress?

2 military coh

orts (3

1 in 

mindfulne

ss group

 and

 17 

in con

trol group

) during 

high

‐stress p

re‐dep

loym

ent 

and a civilian control group

 (n=1

2)

30, 2

5 an

d 34

0, 0 and

 NR

8‐wee

k MMFT cou

rse 

(based

 on MBS

R course)

Ospan

 (mea

sure of w

orking

 mem

ory capa

city)

Conv

enience sample (non

‐rand

omise

d); p

re‐post; 

betw

een‐grou

ps

WMC remaine

d stab

le over tim

e in civilian

 controls, but decreased

 in m

ilitary 

controls. In

 mindfulne

ss group

, WMC 

decrea

sed ov

er time in th

ose with

 low 

mindfulne

ss practice, but in

crea

sed in 

those with

 high mindfulne

ss practice

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

14

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Judg

e et al. (199

9)Re

sistance to cha

nge

Are man

agerial respo

nses to

 organisatio

nal cha

nge influ

enced by

 disposition

al traits?

514 man

agers a

cross 6

 organisatio

ns41

.89

NA

Internality

 scale, gen

eralise

d self‐efficacy scale, se

lf‐esteem

 scale, PAN

AS, o

penn

ess to 

expe

rience subscale of N

EO‐

FFI, tolerance of ambigu

ity 

scales, risk

 aversion scale, 

coping

 with

 organ

isatio

nal 

chan

ge sc

ale

regressio

n an

alyses

Ope

nness to chan

ge was positively 

associated

 with

 factors relating to Positive 

Self‐Co

ncep

t (i.e

. locus of con

trol, 

gene

ralised

 self‐efficacy, se

lf‐esteem

,  an

d po

sitive affectivity

) and

 Risk

 Toleran

ce (i.e. 

open

ness to

 experience, to

lerance of 

ambigu

ity, and

 risk aversion).

Kumar et a

l. (200

8)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes a

n expo

sure‐

based cogn

itive th

erap

y for 

depressio

n ha

ve on de

pressio

n, 

mindfulne

ss and

 emotion 

regu

latio

n?

33 dep

ressed

 adu

lts36

.866

20‐24 sessions of E

BCT

BDI‐II, MHR

SD, C

AMS, AAQ

, rumination subscale of R

SQPre‐po

st (n

o control 

grou

p); h

ierarchical linea

r mod

eling (HLM

)

Participan

ts re

ported

 sign

ificant in

crea

ses 

in m

indfulne

ss over the

 cou

rse of 

trea

tmen

t, with

 HLM

 revealing 

mindfulne

ss in

crea

ses w

ere associated

 with

 a line

ar decrease in dep

ression 

mea

sures. M

indfulne

ss in

crea

ses w

ere also 

correlated

 with

 decreases in

 avo

idan

ce 

and rumination.

Lau et al. (200

6)Re

appraisal

Deos th

e TM

S show

 criterion an

d increm

ental validity

 in a group

 of 

participan

ts in

 an 8‐wee

k MBS

R prog

ram?

99 adu

lts partic

ipating in 

MBS

R prog

rams

46.7

67.5

8‐wee

k MBR

S prog

ram

TMS, PSS, B

SIPre‐po

st (n

o control 

grou

p); R

egression 

analyses

Results sh

owed

 pre‐post intervention 

increa

ses in bo

th th

e curio

sity an

d de

centrin

g dimen

sions of the

 TMS, and

 that decen

tring scores predicted

 im

prov

emen

ts in

 clin

ical outcomes.

Leroy et al. (201

3)Work en

gagemen

tDo

es authe

ntic fu

nctio

ning

 explain 

the association be

twee

n mindfulne

ss and

 work en

gagemen

t?

90 employ

ees (76

 in 

midfulness g

roup

s and

 14 

wait‐list c

ontrols)

4275

8‐wee

k MBS

R prog

ram

MAA

S, authe

ntic fu

nctio

ning

 inde

x, work en

gagemen

t scale

Wait‐list c

ontrol (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); SEM

 ana

lyses

Results sh

owed

 a positive associatio

n be

twee

n mindfulne

ss and

 work 

engagemen

t tha

t was m

ediated by

 au

then

tic fu

nctio

ning

, partia

lly whe

n mea

sured cross‐sectiona

lly and

 fully fo

r chan

ges in en

gagemen

t following 

mindfulne

ss training

Lutz et a

l. (201

4)Re

appraisal

Wha

t are th

e ne

urob

iological 

correlates of a

 short m

indfulne

ss 

instruction du

ring em

otiona

l arou

sal?

49 hea

lthy ad

ults (2

6 in 

mindfulne

ss group

 and

 23 

controls)

3065

Brief m

indfulne

ss practice 

while und

ergo

ing FM

RI 

scan

fMRI data

Betw

een‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Co

mpa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the mindfulne

ss group

 show

ed in

crea

sed 

activ

iatio

n in prefron

tal regions and

 redu

ced activ

ation in emotion‐processin

g region

s (am

ygda

la, p

arah

ippo

campa

l gyrus) whe

n expe

cting ne

gativ

e pictures

Mad

jar e

t al. (200

2)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsWha

t effe

ct doe

s employ

er su

pport 

for c

reativity

 have on

 creative 

performan

ce, and

 to wha

t exten

t is 

this med

iated by

 employ

ee m

ood 

states?

265 em

ploy

ees a

cross 

three organisatio

ns in

 the 

Bulgarian kn

itwea

r ind

ustry

38.5

97NA

Supp

ort for creativity

 from

 supe

rviso

rs and

 co‐workers 

scale (7‐item

s) and

 from

 friend

s and

 family (7

‐item

s),  

JAS, CPS, 3

‐item

 creative 

performan

ce sc

ale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

correlationa

l ana

lyses

Work an

d no

n‐work supp

ort for creativity

 ea

ch in

depe

nden

tly affe

cted

 creative 

performan

ce, w

ith positive m

ood 

med

iatin

g these associations

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

15

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Malinow

ski &

 Lim

 (201

5)Work en

gagemen

tWha

t is the

 relatio

nship be

twee

n disposition

al m

indfulne

ss, w

ork 

engagemen

t, an

d well‐b

eing

?

299 full‐tim

e em

ploy

ees

40.1

59NA

FFMQ, U

WES, W

EMWBS

, PCQ

, JAWS

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; SEM

 an

alyses

Self‐repo

rted

 mindfulne

ss predicted

 work 

engagemen

t, with

 this relatio

nship be

ing 

med

iated by

 positive affe

ct and

 psycho

logical cap

ital

Maloo

ly et a

l. (201

3)Co

gnitive flexibility

Is su

ccessful re

appraisal related

 to 

affective fle

xibility (ability to flexibly 

attend

 to and

 dise

ngage from

 em

otiona

l stim

uli)?

160 psycho

logy stud

ents

19.3

53NA

Affective sw

itching

 task th

at 

invo

lved

 switc

hing

 betwee

n processin

g affective an

d ne

utral p

rope

rties o

f em

otiona

l stim

ulus, 

reap

praisal m

easured with

 sadn

ess ratings fo

llowing sad 

film clip

 and

 reap

praisal 

instructions

Analysis of associatio

n be

twee

n affective 

flexibility (le

ss sw

itch 

costs) and

 reap

praisal

Greater affe

ctive fle

xibility pred

icted 

reap

praisal ability in re

spon

se to

 sad film 

clip

Mod

inos et a

l. (201

0)Re

appraisal

Are individu

al differen

ces in 

disposition

al m

indfulne

ss associated 

with

 brain activity

 during reap

praisal 

of negative em

otion?

18 hea

lthy ad

ults

21.1

39View

ing ne

utral and

 ne

gativ

e pictures, and

 reap

praisin

g ne

gativ

e pictures

KIMS, fM

RI data

regressio

n an

alyses

High

er levels of disp

osition

al m

indfulne

ss 

were associated

 with

 more activ

ation in 

the do

rsom

edial p

refron

tal cortex whe

n reap

praisin

g ne

gativ

e im

ages. The

se 

neural re

gion

s und

erly re

appraisal.

Moo

re & M

alinow

ski 

(200

9)Co

gnitive flexibility

Is m

edita

tion an

d self‐repo

rted

 mindfulne

ss associated with

 cogn

itive flexibility?

25 Bud

dhist m

edita

tors 

and 25

 non

‐med

itators

28 and

 27

.552

 and

 52

NA

KIMS, Stroo

p task, d

2‐concen

tration an

d en

durance 

test

regressio

n an

alyses; 

betw

een‐grou

p (non

‐rand

omise

d)

Attentiona

l perform

ance and

 cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility were po

sitively associated

 with

 med

itatio

n practic

e an

d self‐repo

rted

 mindfulne

ss. M

edita

tors perform

ed 

significan

tly better tha

n no

n‐med

itators 

on all mea

sures o

f atten

tion

Nyklíček & Kuijpers (20

08)

Positive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s a M

BSR 

interven

tion ha

ve on psycho

logical 

well‐b

eing

 and

 qua

lity of life?

60 adu

lts43

.667

8‐wee

k MBS

R course

PSS, M

Q, G

MS, W

HOQoL‐Bref, 

MAA

S, KIM

SBe

twee

n subjects (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Co

mpa

red with

 con

trols, partic

ipan

ts in

 the MBS

R interven

tion show

ed re

ductions 

in perceived

 stress and

 vita

l exhau

stion 

and increa

ses in po

sitive affect, q

uality of 

life, and

 mindfulne

ss

Oreg (200

3)Re

sistance to cha

nge

Will th

ose who

 are disp

osition

ally 

resis

tant to

 cha

nge react m

ore 

negativ

ely an

d repo

rt in

crea

sed 

stress and

 redu

ced motivation an

d ab

ility to

 work du

ring organisatio

nal 

chan

ge?

48 university

 staff a

nd 

grad

uate stud

ents 

unde

rgoing

 office 

relocatio

n

4058

NA

RTC, Que

stionn

aire m

easurin

g affective respon

ses to the 

mov

e an

d vario

us aspects of 

functio

ning

 at w

ork

regressio

n an

alyses

There was a sign

ificant associatio

n be

twee

n RT

C scores and

 outcome 

mea

sures, with

 partic

ipan

ts who

 were 

disposition

ally re

sistant to

 cha

nge 

repo

rting more distress and

 an increa

sed 

difficulty

 to work effectively.

Ortne

r et a

l. (200

7)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s mindfulne

ss 

med

itatio

n ha

ve on attentiona

l control d

uring em

otiona

l interferen

ce?

68 adu

lts (2

1 in 

mindfulne

ss m

edita

tion 

grou

p, 23 in re

laxatio

n med

itatio

 group

, and

 24 

waitlist con

trols)

2376

7‐wee

k course in

 mindfulne

ss‐m

edita

tion 

or re

laxatio

n med

itatio

n; 

emotiona

l interference 

task (v

iewing plea

sant and

 un

plea

sant im

ages)

PRT, TMS, M

AAS, SPW

B, 

PANAS

, rea

ction tim

e to 

auditory to

nes d

uring 

emotiona

l interference; sk

in 

cond

uctance

Betw

een‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); regression 

analyses

Mindfulne

ss and

 relaxatio

n med

itatio

n bo

th re

duced skin con

ductan

ce re

spon

ses 

to negative im

ages, b

ut only mindfulne

ss 

med

itatio

n redu

ced em

otiona

l interferen

ce from

 unp

leasan

t pictures

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

16

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Pelled & Xin (1

999)

Positive affect

Wha

t effe

ct doe

s moo

d ha

ve on 

employ

ee with

draw

al beh

aviour?

148 em

ploy

ees in an

 electron

ics firm

40.7

27NA

PANAS

, facet‐free

 job 

satisfaction scale, com

pany

 records o

f absen

teeism

, supe

rviso

r rep

orts of turno

ver

regressio

n an

alyses of d

ata 

collected

 at two tim

e po

ints 5 m

onths a

part

Positive affect associated with

 less 

subseq

uent absen

teeism

, while negative 

affect associated with

 more ab

sentee

ism 

and turnov

er

Reb & Narayan

an (2

014)

Interpersona

l relatio

nsWha

t effe

ct doe

s mindful atten

tion 

have on ne

gotia

tion ou

tcom

es?

114 un

dergradu

ate 

stud

ents

21.4

70Mindful ra

isin ea

ting 

exercise versus raisin

 taste testing

Value of bargaining surplus 

claimed

 during a price 

nego

tiatio

n; 5‐item

 state 

mindfulne

ss (a

dapted

 from

 MAA

S)

Expe

rimen

tal (rand

om 

assig

nmen

t; be

twee

n‐subjects ana

lysis

Participan

ts in

 the mindful atten

tion grou

p ou

tperform

ed con

trols in the ne

gotia

tions 

by claim

ing more of th

e ba

rgaining

 surplus

Robins et a

l. (201

2)Re

appraisal

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes a

 MBS

R prog

ram 

have on em

otiona

l experience an

d expressio

n?

56 adu

lts (2

8 in M

BSR 

grou

p an

d 28

 waitlist 

controls)

46.3

848‐wee

k MBS

R course

FFMQ, C

FQ, D

ERS, ACS

, RRS

, PSWQ, SAE

S, SCS

, M‐C

Betw

een‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)MBS

R pa

rticipan

ts re

ported

 sign

ificantly 

grea

ter increases in

 mindfulne

ss and

 self‐

compa

ssion, and

 greater decreases in

 difficulties re

gulatin

g em

otion, fe

ar of 

emotion, and

 supp

ression of ang

er

Ryan

 & Frede

rick (199

7)Th

riving at work

How doe

s sub

jective vitality relate 

to m

easures o

f psychog

ical distress 

and well‐b

eing

?

Two samples (1

51 and

 190

) of university

 stud

ents and

 a 

sample of 376

 adu

lts

NR

62, 6

4 an

d 64

NA

Subjectiv

e vitality scale, RAN

D, 

SCL, CES‐D, TMAS

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

regressio

n an

alyses

Subjectiv

e vitality was negatively 

correlated

 with

 multip

le in

dices o

f psycho

logical d

istress, including

 the RA

ND, 

TMAS

, and

 CES‐D

Shap

iro et a

l. (199

8)Interpersona

l relatio

nsWha

t effe

cts d

oes a

n 8‐wee

k MBS

R course have on

 the psycho

logical 

well‐b

eing

 of p

remed

ical and

 med

ical stud

ents?

73 premed

ical and

 med

ical 

stud

ents (3

6 in M

BSR 

grou

p an

d 37

 in waitlist 

control group

)

NR

568‐wee

k MBS

R course

Adap

ted 42

‐item

 versio

n of 

the EC

RS, SCL‐90‐R, STA

I, INSPIRIT

Wait‐list c

ontrol (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t); b

etwee

n‐grou

ps ana

lyses

Participan

ts in

 the MBR

S interven

tion 

repo

rted

 increa

sed scores fo

r empa

thy 

and spiritual experiences, and

 redu

ced 

psycho

logical d

istress and

 anxiety 

follo

wing the interven

tion compa

red with

 waitlist con

trols

Siu et al. (201

4)Work en

gagemen

tDo

es in

trinsic

 motivation explain the 

relatio

nship be

twee

n psycho

logical 

capital and

 stud

y en

gagemen

t?

100 un

iversity stud

ents

NR

NR

NA

PCQ, U

WES m

odified

 to 

mea

sure stud

y en

gagemen

t, WPI

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey with

 respon

ses c

ollected

 at 2

 tim

e po

ints; m

ediatio

n an

alyses

Intrinsic

 motivation pa

rtially m

ediated the 

association be

twee

n psycho

logical cap

ital 

and stud

y en

gagemen

t

Smith

 et a

l. (200

8)Th

riving at work

How do the effects o

f MBS

R an

d cogn

itive‐beh

avioural stress 

redu

ction (CBS

R) com

pare?

50 adu

lts (3

6 in M

BSR 

grou

p an

d 14

 in CBS

R grou

p)

44.9

808‐wee

k MBS

R versus 8‐

wee

k CB

SR in

terven

tions

BES, BDI‐II, self‐rep

ort o

f daily 

energy levels, M

AAS, se

lf‐repo

rted

 pain level, PSS, SPW

B

Betw

een‐subjects (n

on‐

rand

om assignm

ent); 

regressio

n an

alyses

MBS

R pa

rticipan

ts had

 better o

utcomes 

across all varia

bles th

an CBS

R pa

rticipan

ts, 

includ

ing mindfulne

ss, ene

rgy, pain, and

 a 

tren

d for b

inge eating

Staw

 et a

l. (199

4)Po

sitive affect

Does positive affe

ct have favo

urab

le 

outcom

es at w

ork in te

rms o

f supe

rviso

r evaluation an

d co‐

worde

r sup

port?

272 em

ploy

ees a

cross 

three organisatio

ns37

.644

NA

Positive em

otions at w

ork 

mea

sured at time 1 with

 12‐

item se

lf‐repo

rt and

 3 item

s from

 traine

d ob

servers; 

supe

rviso

r evaluations and

 pay 

at time 2

regressio

n an

alyses of d

ata 

collected

 at two tim

e po

ints 18 to 20 mon

ths 

apart

Employ

ees w

ho had

 positive emotion on

 the job ha

d more favo

rable supe

rviso

r evalua

tions and

 highe

r pay 18 mon

ths 

later

Steven

s (20

09)

Interpersona

l relatio

nsIs so

cial problem

‐solving

 in children 

associated

 with

 cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility?

82 stud

ents aged 4.5 to 6 

years

NR

49WAL

LY, FIST

Hierarchial regresssio

n an

alyses

Results in

dicated a sig

nifican

t associatio

n be

twee

n cogn

itive flexibility and

 social 

prob

lem‐solving

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

17

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Su et a

l. (201

2)Co

gnitive flexibility

How is cog

nitiv

e fle

xibility related to 

mea

sures o

f affe

ctive, cog

nitiv

e, and

 be

haviou

ral resistan

ce to

 cha

nge?

419 em

ploy

ees w

ho had

 previously experienced

 organisatio

nal cha

nge

NR

55NA

CFS, SRIS, RTC

regressio

n an

alyses usin

g SEM

Cogn

itive flexibility was negatively related 

to affe

ctive, cog

nitiv

e  and

 beh

avioural 

resis

tance to cha

nge

Teasda

le et a

l. (200

2)Re

appraisal

Is re

duced meta‐cogn

itive 

awaren

ess a

ssociated with

 vu

lnerab

ility to

 dep

ression, and

 wou

ld cog

nitiv

e therap

y an

d MBC

T redu

ce dep

ressive relapse by

 increa

sing meta‐cogn

itive 

awaren

ess?

100 pa

tients in remiss

ion 

or in

 recovery from

 major 

depressio

n

NR

NR

8‐wee

k MBC

T versus TAU

BDI, MAC

AM, H

RSD

Betw

een‐grou

ps (ran

dom 

assig

nmen

t)Pa

rticipan

ts in

 the MBC

T grou

p show

ed an 

increa

se in

 meta‐cogn

itive awaren

ess a

nd 

were less likely th

an th

ose receiving TA

U 

to re

lapse to m

ajor dep

ression

Vako

la & Nikolao

u (200

5)Su

mmary

Wha

t is the

 role of e

mploy

ees' 

stress and

 com

mitm

ent o

n attitud

es 

towards organ

isatio

nal cha

nge?

292 em

ploy

ees a

cross 

multip

le organ

isatio

nsNR

58NA

ASSET, ACQ

, employ

ee 

satisfaction ratin

g an

d turnov

er in

tentions

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

regressio

n an

alyses

There was a negative correlation be

twee

n occupa

tiona

l stressors, p

artic

ularly bad

 word relatio

nships, and

 attitu

des to 

chan

ge, w

ith stressed

 individu

als s

howing 

less com

mitm

ent a

nd greater re

sistance to 

organisatio

nal cha

nges

van Oyen Witv

liet, Kn

oll 

et al. (201

0)Interpersona

l relatio

nsWha

t effe

cts d

o rumination an

d tw

o diffe

rent re

appraisal strategies h

ave 

on re

spon

ses to pa

st in

terpersona

l offenses?

71 und

ergrad

uate 

psycho

logy stud

ents

18.9

54Offe

nse rumination, 

compa

ssion‐focussed

 reap

praisal, be

nefit‐

focussed

 reap

praisal

Subjectiv

e em

otions and

 expe

riences ra

tings, ana

lyses 

of written respon

ses, fa

cial 

muscle activ

ity and

 HRV

Repe

ated

 mea

sures w

ithin‐

subjects, cou

nterba

lanced

; Bo

th re

appraisal strategies w

ere more 

psycho

logically and

 phy

siologically 

bene

ficial tha

n en

gaging

 in offe

nse 

rumination.

Vartan

ian (200

9)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsDo

es flexibility in

 atten

tiona

l focus 

affect creative prob

lem so

lving?

104 male un

dergradu

ate 

stud

ents

NR

0NA

RAT, Alte

rnate Uses T

est, CP

S, 

Reactio

n tim

e tasks including

 Hick Task an

d Co

ncep

t Ve

rification Task, N

egative 

Prim

ing task, G

loba

l Preced

ence Task

Correlationa

l ana

lyses 

betw

een results of p

aper 

and pe

ncil tests a

nd 

reactio

n tim

e tasks

Crea

tive po

tential and

 reactio

n tim

e were 

negativ

ely correlated

 on Hick and

 Con

cept‐

Verification tasks, which do no

t inv

olve 

interferen

ce, b

ut positively correlated on

 Negative Prim

ing an

d Globa

l Precede

nce 

tasks, which re

quire

 inhibitio

n of 

interferen

ce. 

Wan

berg and

 Ban

as 

(200

0)Re

sistance to cha

nge

How well d

o certain individu

al 

diffe

rences and

 con

text‐spe

cific 

factors p

redict employ

ee ope

nness 

towards a se

t of w

orkp

lace 

chan

ges?

130 em

ploy

ees u

ndergo

ing 

organisatio

nal restructure

46.5

75NA

Self‐Esteem

 Scale, LOT, 

Mastery Scale, m

easures o

f chan

ge in

form

ation, 

participation, and

 persona

l im

pact; o

penn

ess to 

organisatio

nal cha

nge scale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey at 3

 tim

e po

ints over 1

4 mon

ths; re

gressio

n an

alyses

Chan

ge accep

tance was predicted

 by 

Person

al re

silience (a com

posite of se

lf‐esteem

, optim

ism, and

 perceived

 con

trol), 

while ope

nness to the chan

ges w

as 

pred

icted by

 three context‐specific 

varia

bles (information received

 abo

ut th

e chan

ges, se

lf‐efficacy for c

oping with

 the 

chan

ges, and

 partic

ipation in th

e chan

ge 

decisio

n process)

Watson (198

8)Po

sitive affect

How are positive and

 negative affect 

related to hea

lth com

plaints, 

perceived stress, and

 time spen

t socialising

 and

 exercising

?

80 und

ergrad

uate 

psycho

logy stud

ents

NR

57NA

Daily se

lf‐repo

rt fo

r 49 dy

as of 

moo

d, phy

sical com

plaints, 

perceived stress, n

umbe

r of 

hours s

pent with

 friend

s, and

 whe

ther or n

ot th

ey had

 exercised

regressio

n an

alyses

Social activity

 and

 exercise

 were more 

strong

ly correlated with

 positive affe

ct, 

whe

reas percieve stress was highly related 

to negative affect

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

(con

tinue

d on

nex

t pag

e)

18

Stud

yRe

levant se

ction/s o

f curren

t lite

rature 

review

Research que

stion

Participan

tsMea

n age

% 

female

Interven

tion / 

expe

rimen

tal 

man

ipulation

Relevant m

easures

Desig

n an

d an

alysis

Gen

eral find

ings

Wen

k‐So

rmaz (2

005)

Cogn

itive flexibility

Does m

edita

tion lead

 to a re

duction 

in hab

itual re

spon

ding

?90

 und

ergrad

uate stud

ents

NR

6320

‐minute mindfulne

ss 

med

itatio

n session

Word prod

uctio

n task 

(gen

erating typical and

 atyp

ical category respon

ses)

pre‐po

st; b

etwee

n grou

ps 

(ran

dom assignm

ent)

Med

itatio

n pa

rticipan

ts produ

ced less 

typical respo

nses in

 all cond

ition

s of the

 expe

rimen

t tha

n control p

artic

ipan

ts

Williams &

 Shiaw

 (199

9)Po

sitive affect

Wha

t effe

cts d

oes m

ood ha

ve on 

employ

ee organ

isatio

nal citizenship 

beha

viou

r inten

tions?

139 em

ploy

ees a

cross a

 varie

ty of ind

ustries

2858

NA

State affect m

easured with

 faces s

cale; T

rait affect 

mea

sured with

 PAN

AS; O

CB 

scale; 18‐ite

m OCB

 intentions 

scale

Self‐repo

rt su

rvey; 

regressio

n an

alyses; 

hierarchical re

gressio

n an

alyses

Curren

t positive affe

ct sign

fican

tly 

pred

icted  employ

ee's specific OCB

 intentions after con

trollin

g for h

istorical 

OCB

s, dem

ograph

ics, and

 disp

osition

al 

affectivity

Wrig

ht & Staw (1

999)

Positive affect

How do mea

sures o

f affe

ct re

late to

 supe

rviso

ry perform

ance 

evalua

tions?

53 pub

lic se

ctor employ

ees

45.3

28NA

PANAS

, 8‐item

 affe

ctive 

disposition

 scale, su

perviso

r ratin

gs of p

erform

ance

long

itudina

l (da

ta 

collected

 at 4

 time po

ints 

over 4 yea

rs); regressio

n an

alyses

Disposition

al, b

ut not state, positive affe

ct 

pred

icted supe

rviso

r ratings of 

performan

ce

Zabe

lina an

d Ro

binson

 (201

0)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsIs creativity

 associated with

 more 

flexible cogn

itive con

trol?

50 und

ergrad

uate stud

ents

19.1

52NA

Abbreviated TTCT

, CAQ

, Stroop

 task

regressio

n an

alyses

Crea

tivity

 was not associated with

 ability 

to override cogn

itive con

flicts o

n incong

ruen

t (relativ

e to con

grue

nt) S

troo

p trials, but was associated with

 greater 

cogn

itive con

trol m

odulation from

 trial to 

trial.

Zabe

lina et al. (201

1)Inno

vativ

e be

haviou

rsHo

w are neu

rotic

ism and

 state an

d trait m

indfulne

ss associated with

 crea

tive elab

oration?

81 und

ergrad

uate stud

ents

20.5

4810

‐minute brea

th‐

mon

itorin

g mindfulne

ss 

med

itatio

n

10‐item

 neu

rotic

ism sc

ale, 

FFMQ, A

TTA, 

regressio

n an

alyses and

 be

twee

n‐subjects ana

lysis

 (ran

dom assignm

ent to 

mindfulne

ss or c

ontrol 

cond

ition

s)

Crea

tive elab

oration was associated 

negativ

ely with

 neu

rotic

ism and

 positively 

with

 trait m

indfulne

ss. Ind

ucing 

mindfulne

ss fa

cilitated

 creative 

elab

oration, but only at high levels of 

neuroticism

.

Zeidan

 et a

l. (201

0)Co

gnitive flexibility

Does m

indfulne

ss m

edita

tion 

training

 affe

ct cog

nitio

n?49

 university

 stud

ents (2

4 in m

edita

tion grou

p an

d 25

 in con

trol group

)

22 and

 23

63 and

 56

4 sessions of m

indfulne

ss 

med

itatio

n practic

e; 

controls listene

d to an 

audiob

ook

Controlled Oral W

ord 

Association Te

st, Sym

bol D

igit 

Mod

alities Test, digit spa

n (W

AIS‐R), n

‐back task

pre‐po

st; b

etwee

n grou

ps 

(ran

dom assignm

ent)

Mindfulne

ss m

edita

tion pa

rticipan

ts, b

ut 

not c

ontrols, sh

owed

 sign

ificant 

improv

emen

ts in

 sustaine

d attention, 

executive processin

g efficiency an

d verbal 

fluen

cy 

Tabl

e 1.

1 (c

ontin

ued)

AAQ=Ac

ceptan

cean

dAc

tionQue

stionn

aire;A

AS=Attachmen

tAv

oida

nceScale;

ACQ=Attitud

esto

Chan

geQue

stionn

aire;A

CS=AffectiveCo

ntrolScale;A

MT=Au

tobiog

raph

ical

Mem

oryTe

st;A

SSET

=Mea

sure

ofmultip

leoccupa

tiona

lstressors;A

TTA=Ab

breviatedTo

rran

ceTe

stforA

dults;B

AI=Bu

rnsAn

xietyInventory;

BAI=

Beck

AnxietyInventory;

BDI=

Beck

Depressio

nInventory;

BDI‐II=

Beck

Depressio

nInventory‐S

econ

dEd

ition

;BES

=Bing

eEatin

gScale;

BSI=

BriefS

ymptom

Inventory;

CAMS=Co

gnitive

andAffectiveMindfulne

ssScale;

CAQ=

Crea

tiveAc

hievem

entQue

stionn

aire;C

D‐RISC

=Co

nnor‐DavidsonRe

siliencescale;

CERQ

=Co

gnitive

EmotionRe

gulatio

nQue

sionn

aire;C

ES‐D

=Ce

ntersforEp

idem

iologicalS

tudies‐D

epressionmea

sure;C

FQ=Co

gnitive

Failu

resQue

stionn

aire;C

FS=Co

gnitive

Flexibility

Scale;

CombiTV

A=Th

eory

ofVisual

Attentiontest;CP

S=Crea

tivePe

rson

ality

Scale;

DAAS

=De

pressio

n,An

xietyan

dStress

Scales;DA

RT=Du

alAttentionRe

spon

seTask;DE

RS=Difficulties

inEm

otionRe

gulatio

n;DE

RS‐S

=StateDifficulties

inEm

otionRe

gulatio

n;DR

M=Da

yRe

constructio

nMetho

d;EB

CT=Expo

sure‐Based

Cogn

itive

Therap

yford

epression;

ECRS

=Em

pathyCo

nstructR

atingScale;

ELS=Em

otiona

lLab

ourScale;

EQ=Expe

riences

Que

stionn

aire;E

RQ=Em

otionRe

gulatio

nQue

stionn

aire;F

FMQ=Five

Factor

Mindfulne

ssQue

stionn

aire;

FIST

=Flexible

Item

SelectionTask;fMRI

=Fu

nctio

nalM

agne

ticRe

sona

nceIm

aging;

GMS=Globa

lMoo

dScale;

GSI

=Globa

lSeverity

Inde

x;HR

SD=Interview

mea

sure

ofde

pressiv

esymptom

s;HR

V=He

artR

ateVa

riability;

INSPIRIT

=Inde

xof

Core

Spiritual

Expe

riences;JAS

=Job

Affect

Scale;

JAWS=Job‐relatedAffectiveWell‐b

eing

Scale;

JSPE

=Jeffe

rson

Scaleof

PhysicianEm

pathy;

KIMS=Ke

ntucky

Inventoryof

Mindfulne

ssSkills;LKM

=Loving

Kind

ness

Med

itatio

n;MAA

S=Mindful

Attentionan

dAw

aren

essScale;

MAC

AM=Mea

sure

ofAw

aren

essan

dCo

ping

inAu

tobiog

raph

ical

Mem

ory;

MAS

Q=Moo

dan

dAn

xietySymptom

Que

stionn

aire

‐Sho

rtFo

rm;M

BCT=Mindfulne

ss‐Based

Cogn

itive

Therap

y;MBI

=Maslach

Burnou

tInventory;

MBI‐GS=Maslach

Burnou

tInventory‐G

eneral

Survey;M

BPC=Mem

oryan

dBe

haviou

rProb

lemsCh

ecklist;M

BSR=Mindfulne

ss‐Based

Stress

Redu

ction;

M‐C

=Marlow‐Crowne

Social

Desirab

ility

Scale;

mDE

S=Mod

ified

Diffe

rentialE

motions

Scale;

MHR

SD=Mod

ified

Hamilton

Ratin

gScaleforD

epression;

MMFT

=Mindfulne

ss‐Based

MindFitnessTraining

;MNSS

=Marita

lNee

dsSatisfactionScale;

MPQ

=Multid

imen

siona

lPersona

lityQue

stionn

aire;M

Q=Maastric

htQue

stionn

aire

;MSPM

=Mindfulne

ss‐based

Stress

andPa

inMan

agem

entProg

ram;N

A=Not

Applicab

le;N

EO‐FFI

=NEO

‐Five‐Factor

Inventory;

NR=Not

Repo

rted

;OCB

=Organ

isatio

nalC

itizenshipBe

haviou

rs;O

LBI=

Olden

burg

Burnou

tInv

entory;P

ANAS

=Po

sitivean

dNegativeAffect

Scale;

PCQ=Psycho

logicalC

apita

lScale;P

LCS=Pe

rceivedLocusof

Causality

Scale;

PMR=Prog

ressiveMuscleRe

laxatio

n;PR

T=PictureRa

tingTask;P

SQI=

Pittsburgh

Slee

pQua

lityInde

x;PSS=Pe

rceivedStress

Scale;

PSWQ=Pe

nnStateWorry

Que

stionn

aire;R

AND=He

alth

InsuranceMen

talH

ealth

Que

stionn

aire;R

AT=Re

moteAssociates

Test;R

eSSI=Re

lapseSign

atureof

Suicidality

Interview;R

RQ=Ru

mination‐Re

flectionQue

stionn

aire;R

SQ=Re

spon

seStyles

Que

stionn

aire;R

TC=Re

sistanceto

ChageScale;

SAES

=Sp

ielbergerA

nger

Expressio

nScale;

SCL‐90

=Ho

pkinsS

ymptom

Checklist

90;SCL‐90‐R=Symptom

Checklist

90Re

vised;

SCS=Self‐Co

mpa

ssionScale;

SCS=BriefS

elfC

ontrol

Scale;

SEM

=StructuralEq

uatio

nMod

ellin

g;SPWB=Scales

ofPsycho

logicalW

ell‐B

eing

;SRIS=Self‐Re

flectionan

dInsig

htScale;

SRS=Self‐Re

flectionScale;

SSQ=So

cialSu

pportQ

uestionn

aire;S

TAI=

StateTraitA

nxiety

Inventory;

STAN

=Sp

atialand

Tempo

ralA

tten

tionNetwork;TA

U=Trea

tmen

tAsUsual;T

MAS

=Taylor

Man

ifest

AnxietyScale;

TMMS=TraitM

eta‐Moo

dScale;

TMS=To

rontoMindfulne

ssScale;

TTCT

=To

rran

ceTe

stof

Crea

tiveTh

inking

;UWES

=Utrecht

WorkEn

gagemen

tScale;W

AIS‐R=WechslerA

dultIntelligenceScale‐Re

vised;

WAL

LY=Wally'sSo

cialProb

lem‐Solving

DetectiveTe

st;W

CS‐R

=Waysof

Coping

Scale‐R

evise

d;WCS

T=Wisc

onsin

Card

SortingTe

st;W

EBWBS

=Warwick‐Ed

inbu

rghMen

talW

ell‐B

eing

Scale;

WHO

QoL‐Bref=

World

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20

Along with regulating attention by directing it towards present-moment experience,

mindfulness involves an attitude of acceptance and openness to experience (Bishop et al., 2004).

Mindfulness may therefore also enhance flexibility by enabling individuals to engage with

emotional experiences as they arise and to then let them pass. The ability to attend to and then

disengage from the emotional aspects of an experience is a cognitive control process that has been

defined as ‘affective flexibility’ and has been shown to be associated with a greater ability to use

reappraisal to down-regulate emotions in response to a sad film clip (Malooly, Genet, & Siemer,

2013). While the impact of mindfulness on affective flexibility has not yet been investigated

specifically, it seems likely that some of the salubrious effects of mindfulness training stem from

developing a greater ability to respond flexibly to emotional experiences.

Cognitive flexibility in the workplace. While more research is needed to determine

whether it is changes in mindfulness specifically that explain improvements in the processes

underlying cognitive flexibility following mindfulness training (eg. Jensen et al., 2012), preliminary

evidence suggests mindfulness may enhance cognitive flexibility by improving attention regulation,

cognitive inhibition, and working memory. Such improvements are likely to have many benefits in

the workplace including enhancing problem solving, planning, and reasoning abilities. Furthermore,

cognitive flexibility is associated with greater creativity (De Dreu, Nijstad, Baas, Wolsink, &

Roskes, 2012; Nijstad, De Dreu, Rietzschel, & Baas, 2010), and less resistance to organisational

change (Su, Chung, & Su, 2012), and is also expected to help individuals cope with difficulties and

challenges in the workplace by reducing stress reactivity (Hendrawan, Yamakawa, Kimura,

Murakami, & Ohira, 2012) and enabling adaptive responses to emotional experiences (Malooly et

al., 2013).

1.3.2 Reappraisal

Emotion regulation is an important self-regulatory capacity that has consistently been shown

to be facilitated by mindfulness meditation (Chambers, Gullone, & Allen, 2009 (review); Kumar,

Feldman, & Hayes, 2008; Lutz et al., 2014). For example, brief mindfulness training has been

shown to facilitate recovery from dysphoric mood (Broderick, 2005), and to reduce emotional

reactivity after viewing emotionally-negative images (Arch & Craske, 2006; Ortner, Kilner, &

Zelazo, 2007). Other studies have found that dispositional mindfulness is related to emotion

regulation (Coffey & Hartman, 2008; Robins, Keng, Ekblad, & Brantley, 2012), and that regulation

of negative emotions mediates the association between mindfulness and both reduced psychological

distress and increased well-being (Coffey, Hartman, & Fredrickson, 2010).

21

According to the mindful coping model proposed by Garland, Gaylord, and Park (2009),

positive reappraisal is a key process via which mindfulness facilitates better emotion regulation and

coping. Based on this model, it will be proposed here that mindfulness is likely to have beneficial

effects in the workplace by improving the self-regulation of emotions due to a greater capacity for

positive reappraisal.

Appraisal theories of emotion. Appraisal theories suggest that emotions are not triggered

directly by events, but rather by an individual’s appraisal of events (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The

transactional stress model proposed by Lazarus posits that an event initially elicits a primary

appraisal of the meaning and significance of that event. If an event is appraised as harmful or

threatening to one’s well-being or to one’s goals and commitments, a stress response is activated

along with the experience of psychological distress. The primary appraisal of potential harm or

threat triggers a secondary appraisal of one’s resources and coping options. When they are

appraised as being inadequate, prolonged stress activation and psychological distress ensues.

However, appraisal of events is a dynamic process with initial appraisals being subject to

change in response to environmental changes and in response to one’s own reactions to an event.

For example, when a snake in one’s path while walking in the countryside is subsequently

determined to be a fallen tree branch, a stimulus that was initially appraised as a threat is

reappraised as harmless. Of course, the reverse can also occur when a stimulus appraised as

harmless subsequently turns out to be a threat. Consequently, as pointed out by Garland et al (2009;

p.38), a “stress reaction is potentially intensified or attenuated by reappraisals.”

Defining positive reappraisal. Positive reappraisal is a form of meaning-based coping in

which an event that is initially appraised as potentially harmful or threatening is subsequently

reappraised as benign or beneficial. For example, receiving a diagnosis of heart disease may be

reappraised as an opportunity to develop a healthier lifestyle or to spend more time with family.

Positive reappraisal involves reinterpreting the meaning or significance of an event in order help

regulate the emotional response to it. In other words, it is an emotion-focussed rather than problem-

focussed coping strategy.

Research has shown that people often interpret stressful events as being beneficial or

providing opportunities for personal growth, even when the event itself does not have a beneficial

resolution. For example, a study of individuals caring for a partner who was dying from AIDS

found that many of them actively coped with the prolonged stress by giving positive meaning to

events (Folkman, 1997). Furthermore, the carers who reported greater use of positive reappraisals

experienced more positive affect prior to and following the death of their partner. Similarly, positive

22

reappraisal has been found to reduce the amount of distress experienced by people suffering from a

number of serious health problems, including myocardial infarction (Santavirta, Kettunen, &

Solovieva, 2001), breast cancer (Manne et al., 2004), and traumatic brain injury (Moore &

Stambrook, 1992).

Mindfulness and positive reappraisal. Positive reappraisal involves stepping back from

an initial stress appraisal in order to reinterpret an event in a more positive way. Garland and

colleagues’ (2009) mindful coping model proposes that mindfulness facilitates that process, as it

involves adopting a meta-cognitive state in which perceptions, thoughts, and feelings are observed

as momentary mental events that may not accurately reflect reality or the self. In other words,

mindfulness involves directing attention to the processes of the mind rather than the contents. It has

been proposed that this decentring, or “reperceiving” thoughts and emotions as separate from the

self, reduces emotional reactivity to initial appraisals, as well as to the mental events that are

triggered by those appraisals, (Glomb et al., 2011; Shapiro et al., 2006) and thereby enables more

adaptive or considered responses such as positive reappraisal. That is, the meta-cognitive state of

mindfulness enables an individual to disengage from an initial stress appraisal, to inhibit evaluative

semantic and self-referential interpretations of that appraisal, and consequently to be able to

reappraise the event as benign or positive.

Several studies have provided support for the mechanisms proposed by the mindful coping

model. First, studies have found increases in decentring following an MBI (Carmody, Baer, Lykins,

& Olendzki, 2009; Lau et al., 2006), and after brief mindfulness training (Erisman & Roemer,

2010). Furthermore, a recent study comparing brief mindfulness meditation with progressive

muscle relaxation and with loving-kindness meditation found that only the mindfulness practise

increased decentring (Feldman, Greeson, & Senville, 2010). That study also found a negative

correlation between decentring and a negative reaction to thoughts, supporting the proposal that

decentring reduces emotional reactivity. In addition, meta-awareness (decentring) increased in

depressed participants after completing an MBI (Hargus, Crane, Barnhofer, & Williams, 2010), and

increases in meta-awareness after mindfulness training were associated with reduced relapse into

depression (Teasdale et al., 2002). Davidson (2010) posited that such effects may be due to

mindfulness practise leading to reduced connectivity between emotion and self-relevant processes

in the brain. In line with this, Farb and colleagues (2010) found that MBI participants reported

equivalent levels of sadness to wait-list controls after viewing a sad film clip, but showed less

activation in cortical midline areas of the brain that are associated with self-referential processing.

23

The mindful coping model proposes that the mindfulness mode of decentring enables

individuals to shift from stress appraisals to positive reappraisals. In support of that, a study by

Fresco and colleagues (2007) aimed at validating a self-report measure of decentring, the

Experiences Questionnaire-Decentring factor, found a significant correlation (r=0.25, p<.05)

between decentring and the reappraisal items from the Emotional Regulation Questionnaire. Those

results suggest that decentring and positive reappraisal are distinct but interrelated constructs.

Other studies have specifically investigated the link between mindfulness and reappraisal. In

a functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) task that involved reappraising negative scenes,

Modinos, Ormel and Aleman (2010) found that self-reported dispositional mindfulness predicted

activity in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which is the neural region underlying reappraisal.

Furthermore, this prefrontal activity was inversely correlated with amygdala activation in response

to the negative images, providing further evidence that it was involved in inhibiting the emotional

response. The results of that study suggest that dispositional mindfulness may modulate neural

systems underlying reappraisal of negative stimuli. Another study investigating the effects of

undergoing an 8-week MBI found that increases in positive reappraisal mediated the stress-

reductive effects of increases in self-reported mindfulness that occurred during the intervention

(Garland, Gaylord, & Fredrickson, 2011). Finally, a recent study also found that state mindfulness

predicted the effect of a 1 week mindfulness-training task on cognitive reappraisal (Garland,

Hanley, Farb, & Froeliger, 2015).

Positive reappraisal in the workplace. By facilitating the emotion-regulation strategy of

positive reappraisal, mindfulness is likely to have a number of salutary effects in the workplace.

First, it is likely to reduce work strain and emotional exhaustion by reducing the need for less

adaptive emotion-regulation strategies, such as surface acting. Surface acting is an emotion

regulation strategy that involves maintaining a positive display despite experiencing negative

emotions. By enabling negative or unpleasant events to be reappraised as acceptable momentary

experiences, mindfulness is expected to reduce the need for surface acting. In support of that, a

recent workplace study found that mindfulness was associated with less surface acting, which was

in turn associated with reduced emotional exhaustion and greater job satisfaction (Hülsheger et al.,

2012).

Studies have also found that positive reappraisal improves interpersonal relations (Gross &

John, 2003; Huston, Garland, & Farb, 2011), and is associated with greater work engagement

(Schulz, 2008, as cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248). Furthermore, many of the salubrious

effects of MBIs that have been conducted in the workplace, including reduced emotional exhaustion

24

and burnout (Cohen-Katz et al., 2005; Hülsheger et al., 2012), less perceived stress (Schenström et

al., 2006; Shapiro et al., 2005), and improved job performance (Dane & Brummel, 2014), may be

partially due to an enhanced capacity for positive reappraisal.

1.3.3 Positive affect

Positive affect has been associated with dispositional mindfulness (Brown & Ryan, 2003;

O'Donovan & May, 2007), and has been found to increase following mindfulness-based

interventions (Harnett et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008). Fredrickson’s broaden and build

theory proposes that positive affect broadens people’s thought-action repertories enabling them to

build lasting social, intellectual, physical, and psychological resources (Fredrickson, 2001). Indeed,

positive affect has been associated with a range of favourable workplace outcomes (for review, see

Lyubomirsky, King, & Diener, 2005), including enhanced cognitive functioning and problem-

solving (Ashby, Isen, & Turken, 1999; Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987), increased creativity

(Baas, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2008), increased intrinsic motivation (Isen & Reeve, 2005), more

favourable supervisor evaluations (Staw et al., 1994; Wright & Staw, 1999), higher pay (Diener et

al., 2002; Staw et al., 1994), and reduced absenteeism (Pelled & Xin, 1999). Positive emotions are

also associated with enhanced interpersonal relations, including increased sociability (Lucas, 2001;

Watson, 1988), improved negotiation and conflict resolution (Baron, 1990; Forgas, 1998), and more

prosocial and organisational citizenship behaviours (Borman et al., 2001; Williams & Shiaw, 1999).

Mindfulness may therefore indirectly affect many favourable workplace outcomes by increasing

positive affect.

1.4 Potential Benefits of Mindfulness in the Workplace

As described above, mindfulness is associated with attentional and cognitive flexibility,

positive reappraisal of stressful and challenging experiences, and higher levels of positive affect. By

enhancing those processes, mindfulness is expected to have an impact on a number of workplace

outcomes. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that mindfulness will be positively related to

co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, work engagement, and thriving at work, and

negatively related to resistance to change. Furthermore, those relationships are expected to be

mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect.

1.4.1 Co-worker relationship quality

It has been suggested that “work relationships have come to form the very foundation of

organisations and the contemporary embodiment of how most work gets accomplished” (Ferris et

al., 2009, p.1379). Co-worker relations are associated with feeling safe to express one’s true self at

work, which in turn is associated with work engagement (May, Gilson, & Harter, 2004). Work

25

relationships also have an impact on citizenship performance (Settoon & Mossholder, 2002),

attitudes towards organisational change (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005), and adaptation to change (Huy,

2002), and are associated with job and life satisfaction (Simon, Judge, & Halvorsen-Ganepola,

2010).

There are a number of reasons to think that mindfulness is likely to influence the quality of

relationships with co-workers. A qualitative study by Hunter and McCormick (2008) found that

managers and professionals who practice mindfulness reported that it improved multiple aspects of

interpersonal relations in the workplace, including experiencing more flow and ease in interpersonal

interactions, feeling more loving and compassionate, and being less inclined to blame others. Many

of these effects may be explained by improvements in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal and positive

affect.

Many authors have argued that mindfulness decreases automatic mental processes and

thereby enables individuals to respond to events in a self-determined and flexible way (Brown &

Ryan, 2003; Glomb et al., 2011; Shapiro et al., 2006). Ferris and colleagues (2009, p.1390) have in

turn suggested that flexibility “is a critical quality of healthy relationships” as it facilitates

compromise and negotiation. Indeed, a recent study found that practicing mindfulness prior to

negotiating led to better negotiation outcomes relative to a control condition (Reb & Narayanan,

2014). Furthermore, one of the professionals who participated in the qualitative study by Hunter and

McCormick (2008; p.26) reported that “mindfulness made him more open to compromise… when

things went wrong, he was not antagonistic – calm, not yelling”. Other research has shown that

cognitive flexibility mediates the effect of age on interpersonal perspective taking (Mazurowski,

2002) and is associated with social competence and cooperative behaviours in children (Ciairano,

Bonino, & Miceli, 2006; Giannotta, Burk, & Ciairano, 2011; Stevens, 2009). Lesion studies also

suggest that cognitive flexibility is associated with empathy (Grattan, Bloomer, Archambault, &

Eslinger, 1994), which is increased by mindfulness (Barbosa et al., 2013; Shapiro et al., 1998).

Mindfulness is therefore expected to improve co-worker relationship quality by increasing cognitive

flexibility.

It has also been argued that emotions are a central feature of relationships, and play a major

role in social interactions in the workplace (Felps, Mitchell, & Byington, 2006; Morris & Keltner,

2000). Mindfulness is associated with using positive reappraisal to improve emotion regulation,

which is likely to have an impact on interpersonal relations. In particular, mindfulness involves

reappraising negative events as transient and non-threatening, accepting their occurrence rather

than automatically reacting with defensiveness or hostility. Thus a criticism from a supervisor or

26

co-worker is reappraised as being an expression of that individual’s state of mind at that moment in

time, rather than automatically being interpreted as an enduring statement of fact about oneself.

Studies have indeed found that reappraisal improves interpersonal relations (Gross & John, 2003)

and communication satisfaction (Corbeil, Quayhagen, & Quayhagen, 1999). One study found that

when responding to past interpersonal offences reappraisal decreased negative emotions and

physiological arousal and led to increases in positive communication and improvements in heart-

rate variability (vanOyen Witvliet, Knoll, Hinman, & DeYoung, 2010). Another study comparing

mindful communication training with non-mindful communication training found that mindfulness

increased reappraisal and reduced reactivity, which in turn reduced blaming of others (Huston et al.,

2011). Mindfulness is therefore expected to also improve interpersonal relations in the workplace

via reappraisal.

Finally, mindfulness is also associated with more positive emotions, which have in turn been

associated with liking in relationships (Clark & Taraban, 1991), greater supervisor and co-worker

support (Staw et al., 1994), being more helpful (Isen & Levin, 1972), and with improved customer

service (George, 1990). Furthermore, a study of a workplace intervention involving loving-kindness

meditation found that increases in positive affect during the intervention led to subsequent increases

in positive relations with others (Fredrickson, Cohn, Coffey, Pek, & Finkel, 2008). In a large meta-

analysis of the well-being literature, Lyubomirsky et al (2005, p.823) stated that “one of the most

robust findings” was that happiness is associated with better social relationships. On the other hand,

negative emotions have been associated with less liking (Clark & Taraban, 1991), more conflict

with co-workers (Van Katwyk, Fox, Spector, & Kelloway, 2000), and less prosocial behaviour in

groups (George, 1990). Consequently, mindfulness is also expected to have a beneficial impact on

social relations in the workplace by increasing positive emotions.

Given the evidence described above, it is worth noting that Giluk (2011) somewhat

surprisingly found that an MBI did not improve ratings by multiple co-workers of the quality of

their relationship with study participants. However, in discussing limitations of that study Giluk

(2011) suggests that aggregating ratings from multiple co-workers may have been questionable, as

relationships may not all be affected in the same way by behaviour changes in the study participant.

Of course, that does raise the question as to why mindfulness might enhance some relationships, but

not others. However, an alternative explanation for Giluk’s (2011) results is that subtle changes in

interpersonal behaviour following mindfulness training may take longer than a few weeks to have a

noticeable impact on pre-existing relationships. More research is therefore needed to examine the

impact of mindfulness training on co-worker relationships. For example, practising mindfulness

may improve how one perceives the quality of relationships with co-workers before, or even in the

27

absence of, any perceived change by those co-workers. The current study will therefore focus on the

impact of mindfulness training on co-worker relationship quality as perceived by those receiving

the training.

Hypothesis 1: Mindfulness will be positively associated with the perceived quality of co-

worker relationships by those in whom mindfulness is being measured. Furthermore, as shown in

Figure 1.1, that association will be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect.

1.4.2 Innovative behaviours and creativity

Global competition and technological change have increased the need for innovation within

organisations. Having been defined as “the successful implementation of creative ideas” (Amabile,

Conti, Coon, Lazenby, & et al., 1996, p.1155), innovation is underpinned by creativity, making

creativity a subject of considerable interest to organisational researchers (Klijn & Tomic, 2010;

Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993). Creativity is commonly defined as the production of ideas

that are both novel and useful (Amabile, 1983; Hennessey & Amabile, 2010; Newell, Shaw, &

Simon, 1962), and has been associated with a large number of individual and situational factors

including personality, cognitive processes, attitudes, work climate, and group interactions (for

review, see Hennessey & Amabile, 2010). Innovative behaviours, which involve the sharing and

implementation of new ideas in addition to their creation, are also influenced by a range of factors

including individual differences, motivation, job characteristics, and contextual influences

(Hammond, Neff, Farr, Schwall, & Zhao, 2011).

Mindfulness • Cognitive flexibility • Reappraisal • Positive affect

Resistance to change

Innovative behaviours

Co-worker relationship quality

Work engagement

Thriving at work

Figure 1.1 Hypothesized associations between mindfulness, mechanisms of change, and

workplace outcomes

28

Innovation involves a multi-stage process. The first stage is the generation of ideas and

different ways of resolving a problem. The second stage involves gathering support for the initiative

from other people, and the third stage is the implementation of the innovation. Mindfulness is likely

to influence the first stage of innovation by increasing cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility is

widely regarded as important to creativity and innovation (Georgsdottir, Lubart, & Getz, 2003;

Nijstad et al., 2010; Runco & Okuda, 1991), as it enables an individual to step back from automatic

habitual thoughts and behaviours in order to consider novel or different ideas. For example,

Zabelina and Robinson (2010) showed that flexibility in cognitive control increased creativity,

while Vartanian, Martindale and Kwiatkowski (2007) reported that flexibility in attention facilitated

creative problem solving. Furthermore, Wenk-Sormaz (2005) reported that a 20-minute mindfulness

meditation decreased habitual responding, as measured by the Stroop task, and led to participants

generating more unusual responses than controls on a word production task. Another study by Baas,

Nevicka, & Ten Velden (2014) found that the mindfulness skill of observation was positively

related to self-reported creative achievement and creative behaviours, and that those associations

were mediated by cognitive flexibility. Mindfulness is therefore expected to enhance the idea

generation stage of innovative behaviours by increasing cognitive flexibility.

Mindfulness is also expected to influence innovative behaviours through increases in

positive reappraisal and consequent improvements in emotion regulation. For example, Geng

(2014) found that surface acting reduced creativity in frontline employees, whereas deep acting had

a positive impact on frontline employee creativity. Surface acting is an emotion regulation strategy

that involves maintaining a positive display despite experiencing negative emotions, and is

associated with job strain. In contrast, deep acting involves reappraising environmental cues in a

way that prevents negative emotions arising in the first place. Mindfulness is likely to increase deep

acting and reduce the need for surface acting, as it involves reappraising negative or unpleasant

events as acceptable momentary experiences rather than automatically reacting with aversion.

Indeed, a recent study found that mindfulness was associated with less surface acting which was in

turn associated with reduced emotional exhaustion and greater job satisfaction (Hülsheger et al.,

2012). Mindfulness is therefore expected to facilitate innovative behaviours by enabling individuals

to reappraise events less negatively and thereby reduce the stress associated with surface acting.

Additionally, that increased ability to reappraise events may assist with gathering support for an

innovation and with implementing it. Innovative behaviours involve risk. Supervisors and co-

workers may be critical of the innovation or resistant to change, and if the proposed innovation is

implemented it may not be as successful or effective as anticipated. Consequently, the processes of

proposing an innovation and then implementing it may provoke anxiety and self-doubts.

29

Mindfulness is expected to enable individuals to cope better with those experiences by reappraising

the self-doubts and other anxiety-provoking thoughts as transient mental events rather than facts.

Mindful individuals may also be able to cope better with co-workers’ scepticism and resistance to

their innovative behaviours via increased awareness of the fear and uncertainty that underlies such

responses rather than taking it personally.

Finally, extant research on the link between mood and creativity suggests that mindfulness

may also influence innovative behaviours by increasing positive affect. A considerable body of

research has suggested a link between positive affect and creativity (For review, see Baas et al.,

2008). Positive affect has been shown to enable more flexible and divergent thinking and enhanced

problem solving (eg., Hirt, Melton, McDonald, & Harackiewicz, 1996; Isen et al., 1987; Isen,

Johnson, Mertz, & Robinson, 1985). Several studies have also found that positive affect enhances

creativity in the workplace. For example, in a diary study of 222 employees in seven companies

Amabile, Barsade, Mueller, & Staw (2005) found a positive linear relationship between positive

affect and creativity. They also found that positive affect preceded creative thought. Another study

found that positive affect mediated the impact that the support employees received for creativity had

on creative performance (Madjar, Oldham, & Pratt, 2002). In addition, positive affect has been

shown to foster intrinsic motivation (Isen & Reeve, 2005), which is thought to be important for

creativity (Amabile, 1988; Amabile et al., 1996; Shalley, Zhou, & Oldham, 2004) and which was

found in a meta-analysis of predictors of innovation at work by Hammond and colleagues (2011) to

be associated with innovative behaviours. Intrinsic motivation is the motivation to engage in a task

out of interest or enjoyment rather than as a means to another reward. Mindfulness is likely to

increase intrinsic motivation by increasing positive affect, and also by fostering greater engagement

in present-moment tasks rather than merely completing them as a means to an end. Overall, by

enhancing positive affect mindfulness is expected to enhance a number of processes associated with

creative and innovative behaviours in the workplace.

Hypothesis 2: Mindfulness will be positively associated with innovative behaviours, and as

shown in Figure 1.1, that association will be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and

positive affect.

1.4.3 Resistance to change

As organisations adapt to greater global competition and constantly changing technology,

employees increasingly have to cope with organisational change and more fluid job roles (Frese,

2008). Organisational change can be a major stressor and is often associated with reduced well-

being, job loss, and interpersonal conflict (Ashford, 1988; Schweiger & Denisi, 1991). Furthermore,

30

employees’ openness to change is associated with a range of positive work outcomes, including

more job satisfaction, less work irritation, and lower intentions to quit (Wanberg & Banas, 2000), as

well as whether change initiatives achieve the intended aims (Choi, 2011). On the other hand,

employees who are resistant to change experience more distress and work less effectively when

organisational change occurs (Oreg, 2003).

Researchers have therefore sought to understand the factors that influence whether

individuals will be open to organisational change or whether they will resist it, and how well

individuals will cope with change when it occurs. While attitudes towards particular changes are

largely influenced by contextual factors and employees’ specific attitudes toward those changes (for

review, see Choi, 2011), research has found that attitudes towards change can also be influenced by

dispositional factors. For example, Judge, Thoresen, Pucik, and Welbourne (1999) reported that

openness to change is associated with factors relating to Positive Self-Concept (i.e. locus of control,

generalised self-efficacy, self-esteem, and positive affectivity) and Risk Tolerance (i.e. openness to

experience, tolerance of ambiguity, and risk aversion). Similarly, Wanberg and Banas (2000) found

that self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control predicted openness to change. On the other hand,

Oreg (2003) reported that resistance to change was defined by routine seeking, emotional

reactivity, short-term focus, and cognitive rigidity.

There are a number of reasons to expect mindfulness to also have an impact on people’s

attitude towards change. Buddhist mindfulness practices were developed specifically to cultivate a

greater awareness and acceptance of the impermanence of all phenomena in order to reduce the

suffering that is caused by attachment to those phenomena (Thera, 2005). As mindfulness involves

observing the experience of each moment without judgement or reaction and then just allowing it to

pass, it is expected to increase awareness of the moment-by-moment experience of life as being one

of constant change. That may in turn lead to less resistance to change. Furthermore, by increasing

cognitive flexibility, and positive reappraisal and positive affect, mindfulness is likely to reduce the

cognitive rigidity and emotional reactivity that characterises resistance to change.

Mindfulness enhances cognitive flexibility (Heeren et al., 2009; Moore & Malinowski,

2009), presumably by disrupting automatic or habitual responses. Individuals who are able to

respond flexibly to events would be expected to be able to adapt to changes more easily, and

consequently may be less resistant to them. In fact, a recent study found that cognitive flexibility

was indeed negatively related to affective, cognitive, and behavioural resistance to organisational

change (Su et al., 2012). Mindfulness is therefore expected to be associated with resistance to

change partially via its impact on cognitive flexibility.

31

Mindfulness is also expected to influence attitudes towards change by increasing the use of

reappraisal. Reappraisal is an emotion regulation strategy that increases resilience in the face of

high stress (Folkman, 1997). By increasing the use of reappraisal, mindfulness may enable better

coping with the stress associated with organisational change. In particular, reappraisal is expected to

reduce negative emotional reactions to change, and to consequently be associated with less

resistance to change.

Finally, mindfulness may also influence attitudes to change by increasing positive affect.

According to Fredrickson’s (2001) Broaden and Build theory, positive emotions facilitate broad-

minded coping by enabling flexible and creative thinking. Broad-minded coping is a form of

psychological resilience that is characterised by being able to think of different ways to respond to a

problem. So by increasing positive affect, mindfulness is expected to enhance people’s ability to

cope with changes, and consequently to be less resistant to them. In support of that, positive affect

has been shown to be associated with openness to change (Judge et al., 1999).

Hypothesis 3: Mindfulness will be negatively associated with resistance to change.

Furthermore, as shown in Figure 1.1, that association will be mediated by cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect.

1.4.4 Work engagement

Work engagement has been defined as a “positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that

is characterised by vigour, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, &

Bakker, 2002, p.74). Vigour describes experiencing high levels of energy and mental resilience

while working, whereas dedication refers to being highly involved in one’s work with a sense of

enthusiasm, significance and challenge. Absorption describes being fully and happily engrossed in

one’s work, whereby time passes quickly. Work engagement is thought to be a relatively stable

indicator of occupational well-being, and has been shown to predict job performance and client

satisfaction (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008). In a review of work engagement, Bakker et

al (2008, p.187) report that it is “best predicted by job resources (e.g., autonomy, supervisory

coaching, performance feedback) and personal resources (e.g., optimism, self-efficacy, self-

esteem).”

A number of studies have suggested that mindfulness is also likely to influence work

engagement. For example, a randomised control trial of an 8-week MBSR program for nurses found

that following the program the treatment group reported significant reductions relative to waitlist

controls in emotional exhaustion (Cohen-Katz et al., 2005), which has a strong negative correlation

with the vigour dimension of engagement (Demerouti, Mostert, & Bakker, 2010). Another study of

32

219 employees from a range of organisations in the Netherlands found that trait mindfulness was

negatively associated with emotional exhaustion (Hülsheger et al., 2012). In a follow-up study of

employees holding a broad range of jobs in Germany, Hülsheger (2012) also found that a 2-week

mindfulness self-training course decreased emotional exhaustion relative to a waitlist control group.

While the results of these studies suggest that mindfulness may influence the vigour dimension of

engagement by decreasing exhaustion, it is worth noting that despite the strong negative correlation

between vigour and emotional exhaustion, they are not direct opposites (Demerouti et al., 2010).

Furthermore, a report by an individual of low levels of emotional exhaustion does not necessarily

mean they would report high levels of vigour.

However, recent studies have also specifically investigated the relationship between

mindfulness and aspects of work engagement. An RCT of a 7-week workplace mindfulness study

conducted by Aikens (2014) found that the treatment significantly increased vigour, which is one of

the core dimensions of engagement. Another study of employees found a positive association

between mindfulness and work engagement that was mediated by authentic functioning, partially

when measured cross-sectionally and fully for changes in engagement following mindfulness

training (Leroy et al., 2013). The authors suggested that greater internal awareness arising from

higher levels of mindfulness increases the tendency to act in accordance with one’s true values,

which in turn leads to greater work engagement.

While Leroy and colleagues (2013) found that the construct of authentic functioning

mediated the change in work engagement following mindfulness training, the fundamental

cognitive and affective processes that underlie the association between mindfulness and

engagement are still unclear. Cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect are all

expected to influence work engagement, and are therefore likely to partially mediate the association

between mindfulness and engagement. To be fully engaged in one’s work, it is necessary to be able

to sustain one’s attention on the task at hand and to be able to respond flexibly to challenges and

difficulties that arise. If an individual has difficulty responding flexibly to challenges he or she is

likely to experience distress when such challenges arise which may lead to decreased engagement.

By increasing attention regulation and awareness of external and internal events while maintaining

an open and accepting attitude to those events, mindfulness decreases automatic and often

unconscious reactions to difficulties and is thereby expected to enable greater response flexibility.

Cognitive flexibility is therefore expected to partially mediate the relationship between mindfulness

and work engagement.

33

The personal resources optimism, self-efficacy, and self-esteem are also associated with

work engagement, presumably by enhancing people’s ability to regulate their emotional response to

difficulties and setbacks that occur at work and thereby enhancing their ability to cope and remain

engaged. Emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal can be effective coping mechanisms

(Folkman, 1997) that enable people to remain engaged when problems and challenges arise. For

example, a diary study of 140 employees from a range of occupations found that reappraisal

reported at lunchtime predicted work engagement reported at the end of the day (Schulz, 2008, as

cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248). Mindfulness involves bringing awareness to negative or

stressful events, and any negative thoughts and emotions that they trigger, with an attitude of

acceptance and non-judgement. In other words, mindfulness involves reappraising negative external

and internal events as transient and benign, which may reduce the tendency to engage in avoidant

behaviours or to be distracted by rumination and worry (Kumar et al., 2008). Mindfulness is

therefore expected to enable greater work engagement by increasing the use of positive reappraisal.

Positive emotions are also an integral part of the work engagement construct. Work

engagement has been defined as an affective-motivational state characterised by vigour, dedication,

and absorption, constructs that are closely related to markers of positive affect in the Positive

Affectivity scale of the PANAS (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988) such as attentive, alert,

enthusiastic, inspired, proud, determined, energised, and strong. While there is clearly some

conceptual overlap between positive affect and work engagement (Macey & Schneider, 2008), they

can be discriminated. First, work engagement is specific to a work context, whereas positive affect

also relates to non-work contexts. Second, work engagement also involves motivational and

behavioural components in addition to an affective component (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Macey

& Schneider, 2008). Nevertheless, higher levels of positive affect are clearly likely to be related to

higher levels of work engagement. In fact, a diary study of office workers found daily positive

affect positively related to work engagement (Schulz, 2008, as cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010),

while another diary study found that negative affect and negative experiences in the morning were

related to higher levels of work engagement in the afternoon if a high level of positive mood was

experienced in the interval between morning and afternoon (Bledow, Schmitt, Frese, & Kühnel,

2011). The authors of the latter study posit that work engagement results from a shift from negative

to positive affect. Finally, positive affect has also been shown to foster intrinsic motivation for

engagement in interesting and enjoyable tasks without detracting from engagement in less enjoyable

tasks (Isen & Reeve, 2005). Intrinsic motivation in turn was found to be positively associated with

study engagement (as measured with a modified work engagement scale; Siu, Bakker, & Jiang,

2014). Given the strong association between positive affect and work engagement, mindfulness is

34

expected to enhance engagement via positive affect. That is supported by a recent cross-sectional

study of 299 adults in full-time employment that found that positive affect partially mediated the

relationship between trait mindfulness and work engagement (Malinowski & Lim, 2015).

Hypothesis 4: Mindfulness will be positively associated with work engagement, and as

shown in Figure 1.1, that association will be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and

positive affect.

1.4.5 Thriving at work

Contrasted with languishing, or being stuck in a rut, thriving at work is defined as a

psychological state characterised by feelings of vitality and a sense of learning or making progress

in one’s self-development (Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005). Both vitality

and learning are considered to be essential components of thriving. The construct is grounded in

both hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives on psychological functioning and development (Ryan &

Deci, 2001; Waterman, 1993). Vitality captures the hedonic dimension by describing a pleasurable

state of mind, whereas learning captures the eudaimonic dimension relating to self-development and

realising one’s full potential as a human being (Spreitzer et al., 2005). It is the combination of both

the positive state of vitality and a sense of learning and self-development that distinguishes thriving

from other measures such as flourishing and subjective well-being. Thriving has been argued to

increase functioning and adaptability at work (Spreitzer et al., 2005), and has been associated with

task performance and organisational citizenship behaviours (Porath, Spreitzer, & Gibson, 2007), as

well as with innovative behaviours (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009).

As thriving involves growth or progress which is characterised by learning, it is likely to be

enhanced by flexibility. An individual who is adaptable and able to respond flexibly to

opportunities for growth is more likely to respond favourably and with vitality to new experiences

and responsibilities in the workplace. For example, cognitive flexibility is negatively related to

resistance to organisational change (Su et al., 2012), suggesting that flexible individuals are more

open to changes and new experiences. On the other hand, less flexible individuals are likely to

experience greater stress when given new responsibilities and are faced with learning new tasks.

While those individuals may still be learning in those circumstances, they may be less likely to do

so with a sense of vitality. Mindfulness is associated with cognitive flexibility (eg. Moore &

Malinowski, 2009) and openness to experience (Giluk, 2009), and is therefore expected to enhance

thriving by enabling a more adaptable and favourable response to opportunities for learning and

growth in the workplace.

35

Mindfulness is also likely to have an impact on the affective dimension of thriving, which is

vitality. Firstly, by focussing attention on present-moment experience, mindfulness brings greater

clarity and vividness to that experience (Brown & Ryan, 2003), which may lead to feeling more

alive and energised. Indeed, dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with vitality (Allen &

Kiburz, 2012; Brown & Ryan, 2003) and an MBI has been shown to increase subjective vitality

(Canby, Cameron, Calhoun, & Buchanan, 2014). It is possible that mindfulness increases vitality at

least partially by increasing reappraisal. Having to cope with experiences that one appraises as

stressful or beyond one’s coping resources contributes to emotional exhaustion (Barling &

MacIntyre, 1993), which has a strong negative correlation with vitality (Demerouti et al., 2010;

González-Romá, Schaufeli, Bakker, & Lloret, 2006). In contrast, by enabling one to reappraise

such experiences as momentary events that are acceptable, mindfulness is likely to help prevent

emotional exhaustion and thereby enhance vitality. Indeed, research has shown that reappraisal is an

active coping mechanism that can reduce psychological distress (Folkman, 1997), and that lower

levels of psychological distress are in turn associated with greater vitality (Ryan & Frederick,

1997). Furthermore, studies have shown that dispositional mindfulness is associated with less

emotional exhaustion (O'Donovan & May, 2007) and that MBIs reduce emotional exhaustion

among healthcare workers (for review, see Escuriex & Labbé, 2011). In addition, mindfulness-

based training has been found to significantly increase energy levels (Smith et al., 2008). More

work is needed to elucidate the mechanisms via which mindfulness reduces emotional exhaustion

and increases vitality, but it is likely that reappraisal is a contributing process.

Finally, the vitality dimension of the thriving construct is closely related to positive affect

(Ryan & Frederick, 1997). For example, markers of positive affect include among others feeling

attentive, alert, enthusiastic, energised, and strong (Watson et al., 1988), which could also be

described as markers of vitality. So it may be that improvements in vitality, and consequently in

thriving at work, following mindfulness training are directly attributable to improvements in

positive affect.

Hypothesis 5: Mindfulness will be positively associated with thriving at work, and as

shown in Figure 1.1, that association will be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and

positive affect.

1.4.6 Summary of proposed benefits of mindfulness in the workplace

By enabling more adaptive and flexible responding due to increases in cognitive flexibility,

better coping and emotion regulation due to reappraisal of stressful and unpleasant events, and a

broadening of thought-action repertoires due to increases in positive affect, mindfulness is expected

36

to have a range of positive impacts in the workplace. As described above, the association between

mindfulness and those processes suggests that it is particularly likely to be positively related to co-

worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, work engagement, and thriving at work, and

negatively related to resistance to change.

It is worth noting that mindfulness may also impact the workplace outcomes described

above via interrelationships between those outcomes. For example, better interpersonal relations

lead to greater engagement (May et al., 2004) and thriving at work (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009), and

are likely to enhance openness to change (Vakola & Nikolaou, 2005). Similarly, thriving at work

may increase innovative behaviours (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009), which are likely to increase

engagement. Mindfulness practise therefore has the potential to create “upward spirals” of

employee well-being and performance where improvements in one outcome trigger improvements

in other outcomes, which in turn reinforce initial outcomes (Fredrickson et al., 2008; Fredrickson &

Joiner, 2002; Garland et al., 2011).

1.5 Research Proposal

To test the hypotheses described above, a cross-sectional study of employees will initially be

conducted to investigate whether dispositional mindfulness is associated with co-worker

relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, work engagement, and thriving at

work. Furthermore, measures of cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect will also be

taken to determine whether they mediate the association between mindfulness and each of the

workplace outcomes. All constructs will be measured by inviting employees in a local organisation

to complete an online survey containing extant self-report measures of each construct.

To investigate the causal relationships between the constructs that are found by the cross-

sectional study to be significantly related, a second study will then measure the effects of a 4-week

workplace MBI on each of those constructs. This study will determine whether training employees

in mindfulness has a significant impact on the workplace outcomes of interest, as well as whether

changes in mindfulness during the intervention are associated with changes in the other outcomes.

The aim of this study is primarily to determine whether a brief MBI delivered within the workplace

is effective in improving the outcomes of interest.

The final study will use weekly data collected during the same intervention as the second

study to investigate the temporal order of changes in mindfulness and the other outcomes. This

study will help to determine whether changes in mindfulness precede changes in cognitive

flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect, and whether those changes in turn precede

changes in the workplace outcomes. The study will use a similar methodology as that used by Baer

37

and colleagues (2012), who took weekly measures during an 8-week MBI and found that increases

in mindfulness preceded decreases in perceived stress. However, the current study will also

investigate the timing of changes in variables for individual participants, as well as the timing of

changes at the group level.

38

Chapter 2 – Study of Dispositional Mindfulness in the Workplace

2.1 Introduction

This study aims to test the hypotheses outlined in the previous chapter that dispositional

mindfulness will be associated with better interpersonal relations with co-workers, more innovative

behaviours, less resistance to change, and greater work engagement and thriving at work.

Furthermore, it will investigate whether the cognitive and affective processes of cognitive

flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect mediate the association between mindfulness and

each of those workplace outcomes.

This will be a preliminary cross-sectional study aimed at identifying which workplace

outcomes, and which mediating processes, warrant further investigation. The study will be

conducted by inviting employees in the central office of a large government department to complete

self-report measures of each of the above variables via an anonymous online survey. To investigate

the relationship between mindfulness and each workplace outcome, the mediation effects of

cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect will be analysed with bootstrap

analyses using Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model.

2.2 Method

2.2.1 Participants and procedure

The participants in this study were 230 employees of the Queensland Department of

Education and Training. Participants were invited via email to complete an anonymous online

survey. Senior managers of several divisions distributed an email to line managers inviting them in

turn to distribute an invitation email to their staff as they saw fit. It is therefore not known exactly

how many employees received an invitation to participate, but it is estimated to be between 500 and

1000, giving an estimated response rate of between 23 and 46 per cent.

Participants ranged in age from 18 to 63 (M = 39.95, SD = 11.24), and 68.7 per cent were

female. A total of 15 participants worked less than 30 hours per week, 194 worked 31-45 hours per

week, and 20 worked more than 45 hours per week. The job roles of participants ranged from low

level administrative officers to senior executives. On a self-rated 7-point scale with Level 1

representing entry-level jobs and Level 7 representing high-ranking executives, the percentage of

participants at each job level within the organisation was 9.1% at Level 1, 13.5% at Level 2, 23.5%

at Level 3, 35.2% at Level 4, 15.7% at Level 5, .9% at Level 6, .9% at Level 7, and 1.3% unknown.

Of the participants who provided a response to survey questions about prior mindfulness training

and practice, the 20 participants (8.7%) who reported having previously attended a mindfulness

39

training course showed no significant differences from those who indicated they had not received

prior mindfulness training in any of the measures used in the current study (Table 2.1). The same

was true for the 53 participants (23%) who reported some prior mindfulness practice (Table 2.2).

However, the 22 participants (9.6%) who reported practising mindfulness regularly showed

significantly higher levels of positive reappraisal on the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (t(174)

= -2.24, p < .05), but significantly lower levels of positive affect (t(173) = 2.06, p < .05) than those

who reported not having a regular mindfulness practice (Table 2.3).

Table 2.1

Comparison of participants with and without prior mindfulness training

Prior mindfulness training

Yes No

M (SD) M (SD) t (df) Mindfulness 3.20 (.55) 3.41 (.51) 1.74 (173) Cognitive flexibility 4.68 (.53) 4.66 (.64) -.14 (174) Reappraisal 4.95 (.96) 5.15 (1.03) .81 (174) Positive affect 3.19 (.81) 3.36 (.71) .99 (173) Relationship quality 3.59 (.75) 3.61 (.73) .10 (172) Innovative behaviours 7.55 (3.20) 7.78 (2.89) .33 (174) Resistance to change 2.97 (.64) 2.91 (.72) -.36 (172) Work engagement 3.37 (.98) 3.57 (.97) .88 (174) Thriving at work 2.92 (.80) 3.20 (.72) 1.55 (173)

Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation. * p < .05

Table 2.2

Comparison of participants with and without some prior mindfulness practice

Some prior mindfulness practice

Yes No

M (SD) M (SD) t (df) Mindfulness 3.39 (.50) 3.38 (.53) -.17 (173) Cognitive flexibility 4.74 (.51) 4.63 (.67) -1.07 (174) Reappraisal 5.33 (.89) 5.04 (1.06) -1.76 (174) Positive affect 3.29 (.75) 3.36 (.71) .64 (173) Relationship quality 3.70 (.67) 3.56 (.75) -1.14 (172) Innovative behaviours 7.92 (2.54) 7.67 (3.07) -.52 (174) Resistance to change 2.97 (.65) 2.90 (.74) -.58 (172) Work engagement 3.52 (.97) 3.56 (.97) .24 (174) Thriving at work 3.17 (.79) 3.17 (.71) -.04 (173)

Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation. * p < .05

40

2.2.2 Measures

Mindfulness. Mindfulness was measured with the 39-item Five Facet Mindfulness

Questionnaire (FFMQ; Baer et al., 2006), which explores five dimensions of mindfulness: non-

reactivity to inner experience (e.g. “I perceive my feelings and emotions without having to react to

them”), observing internal experiences and sensations (e.g. “When I’m walking, I deliberately

notice the sensations of my body moving”), acting with awareness (e.g. “I find myself doing things

without paying attention”), the ability to describe internal experiences (e.g. “I’m good at finding the

words to describe my feelings”), and non-judging of experience (e.g. “I make judgments about

whether my thoughts are good or bad”). The acting with awareness subscale measures the tendency

to be distracted or to act on automatic pilot, and the results are then reverse scored. Similarly, the

non-judging subscale measures the tendency to judge experiences, and then reverse scores the

results. Participants rated how often each item was true for them on a 5-point Likert scale. Items are

summed to produce a total trait mindfulness score. Prior psychometric studies of the relationship

between the FFMQ and other psychological constructs found that it exhibited convergent,

discriminant, and incremental validity that was consistent with predictions (Baer et al., 2006; Baer

et al., 2008). The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s α) for the overall FFMQ scale

typically ranges from .75 to .91, and in the current sample was .89.

Cognitive flexibility. This construct was measured with the 12-item Cognitive Flexibility

Scale (CFS; Martin & Rubin, 1995), which is designed to measure three components of cognitive

Table 2.3

Comparison of participants with and without a regular mindfulness practice

Regular mindfulness practice

Yes No

M (SD) M (SD) t (df) Mindfulness 3.49 (.36) 3.37 (.54) -1.02 (173) Cognitive flexibility 4.76 (.58) 4.65 (.64) -.77 (174) Reappraisal 5.58 (.69) 5.06 (1.05) -2.24 (174)* Positive affect 3.05 (.77) 3.38 (.70) 2.06 (173)* Relationship quality 3.51 (.79) 3.62 (.72) .63 (172) Innovative behaviours 7.77 (2.89) 7.75 (2.93) -.04 (174) Resistance to change 3.00 (.66) 2.91 (.72) -.55 (172) Work engagement 3.38 (1.09) 3.58 (.95) .89 (174) Thriving at work 3.14 (.82) 3.17 (.72) .18 (173) Note: M = mean; SD = standard deviation. * p < .05

41

flexibility: awareness that there are a variety of response options available in most situations,

willingness to respond to situations adaptively and flexibly, and self-efficacy or belief in one’s

ability to respond flexibly. Participants were asked to rate on a 6-point Likert scale the extent to

which they agreed with statements about making choices and responding to situations flexibly (e.g.

“My behaviour is a result of conscious decisions that I make” and “I have many possible ways of

behaving in any given situation”). Psychometric studies of the CFS found that it correlated with

assertiveness and responsiveness, close friend’s perceptions of respondents’ cognitive flexibility,

and self-efficacy in communication, respectively indicating concurrent, construct, and criterion

validity (Martin & Anderson, 1998). Those validity studies reported coefficient alphas for the CFS

ranging from .72 to .81. For the current sample, the coefficient alpha was .80.

Positive reappraisal. Positive reappraisal was measured with the 6-item reappraisal

dimension of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003). This subscale

measures the antecedent-focussed strategy of regulating emotions by cognitively reappraising

emotion-eliciting events before an emotional response has become fully activated (e.g. “I control

my emotions by changing the way I think about the situation I’m in” and “When I’m faced with a

stressful situation, I make myself think about it in a way that helps me stay calm”). Participants

rated their level of agreement with each statement on a 7-point Likert scale. The reappraisal

dimension of the ERQ has been shown to be related to relevant constructs in the expected direction

to demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity, and its internal consistency coefficient ranges

from .75 to .82 (Gross & John, 2003). For the current sample, the coefficient alpha was .93.

Positive affect. Positive affect was measured with a short form of the Positive and Negative

Affect Schedule (PANAS-SF; Mackinnon et al., 1999), which asked participants to rate on a 5-point

Likert scale the extent to which they usually felt five positive and five negative emotions (e.g.

“Inspired”, “Enthusiastic”, “Nervous” and “Distressed”). The mean response to the five positive

emotions was used as a measure of positive affect. The validity of the scale and its two-factor

structure have been supported by several studies (Mackinnon et al., 1999). Mackinnon et al. (1999)

reported an internal consistency coefficient of .78 for the Positive Affect subscale that was largely

consistent across different age groups. The coefficient alpha (Cronbach’s α) of the Positive Affect

dimension of the PANAS-SF for the current sample was .82.

Co-worker relationship quality. The quality of participant’s relationships with co-

workers, as perceived by the participants themselves, was measured with the 10-item Rewarding

Co-worker Relations Scale (May, 2003; May et al., 2004). Participants rated on a 5-point Likert

scale the extent to which they agreed with items measuring how valued they felt by co-workers (e.g.

42

“I believe that my co-workers appreciate who I am”), the level of trust between them and their co-

workers (e.g. “I trust my co-workers”), and how much they felt co-workers valued their input (e.g.

“My co-workers listen to what I have to say”). The internal consistency coefficient of the 10 items

in this scale has been reported to be .93 (May et al., 2004). For the current sample, it was .94.

Innovation-related behaviours. Innovation-related behaviours were measured using a 5-

item scale developed by Ng, Feldman and Lam (2010), which asks participants about the number of

new ideas they have come up with at work during the last six months and the extent to which those

ideas have been shared with, and implemented by, co-workers and supervisors. So the scale

measures the number of ideas generated, spread of innovation, and implementation of new ideas.

Responses to each item are summed to give a total score of innovation-related behaviours ranging

from 0-11. As this scale uses a count measure, rather than a purely Likert scale, it is likely to be less

affected by self-report biases. A sample of employees with managerial experience previously

reported a mean score on this scale of 5.13 (SD = 2.50) and a coefficient alpha of .81 (Ng &

Feldman, 2013). The current sample reported a higher level of innovation-related behaviours, with

the mean response being 7.76 (SD = 2.91). The coefficient alpha was .77.

Resistance to change. This construct was measured with the 17-item Resistance to Change

Scale (Oreg, 2003; Oreg et al., 2008), which explores four dimensions of resistance to change:

routine seeking (e.g. “I’ll take a routine day over a day full of unexpected events any time”),

emotional reaction (e.g. “When things don’t go according to plans, it stresses me out”), short-term

focus (e.g. “I sometimes find myself avoiding changes that I know will be good for me”), and

cognitive rigidity (e.g. “I don’t change my mind easily”). Participants rated their level of agreement

with each statement on a 6-point Likert scale. For this study, the composite of items from all four

subscales was used to provide a single measure of resistance to change. The validity and reliability

of this scale has been demonstrated in a variety of contexts, with the internal consistency coefficient

ranging from .72 to .86 (Hon, Bloom, & Crant, 2014; Oreg, 2003, 2006; Oreg et al., 2008). The

coefficient alpha for the current sample was .91.

Work engagement. Work engagement was measured with a 9-item short form of the

Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9; Schaufeli, Bakker, & Salanova, 2006; Schaufeli,

Salanova, González-Romá, & Bakker, 2002), which measures three dimensions of work

engagement: vigour (e.g. “At my work, I feel bursting with energy”), dedication (e.g. “I am

enthusiastic about my job”), and absorption (e.g. “I get carried away when I am working”).

Participants rated on a 7-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 6 (always) how often each

statement was true for them. The composite of items from the three subscales was used for the

43

current study to give a total work engagement score. The validity and reliability of the UWES-9

have all been demonstrated, with the scale correlating with other measures in the predicted direction

(Schaufeli et al., 2006). Schaufeli et al (2006) reported that the coefficient alpha for the nine-item

scale ranged from .85 to .92 across 10 countries. For the current sample, it was .93.

Thriving at work. This construct was measured with a Thriving at Work Scale developed

by Carmeli and Speitzer (2009), which explores thriving at work as a process of human growth

involving dimensions of learning (e.g. “To what extent do you learn new things at work”) and

vitality (e.g. “I feel active and energetic at work”). Participants rated on a 5-point Likert scale the

extent to which each statement was true for them. For this study, the learning and vitality items

were combined to give a score on the second-order construct of Thriving. Carmeli and Speitzer

(2009) reported that the scale was correlated with relevant measures in the expected direction,

indicating its validity. They reported an internal consistency coefficient for the overall Thriving

scale of .94, similar to the coefficient of .93 that was observed for the current sample.

2.3 Results

2.3.1 Analysis

Fifty-four of the 230 participants did not complete the survey. Their data was retained if

they had provided responses to at least 70 per cent of the items on each scale that was used for each

analysis. For remaining items with missing data, the mean of parallel items on the same scale or

subscale for each participant was substituted. The relationship between mindfulness and each

workplace outcome was analysed separately, and so the final sample sizes ranged from 182 to 184.

The variability in sample size occurred because some participants only responded to at least 70% of

items on the measures used in the analysis of some workplace outcomes. So those participants were

included in those analyses, but not in the analysis of other workplace outcomes where they had

responded to less than 70% of items on the measures used. For each workplace outcome that

showed a significant bivariate correlation with mindfulness, the mediation effects of cognitive

flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect were then analysed with bootstrap analyses using

Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model with each analysis based on 10,000 bootstrap samples.

2.3.2 Co-worker relationship quality

The internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the

measures used for this analysis are shown in Table 2.4. As predicted, a positive association was

found between mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality, r=.15, p=.049. Mindfulness was

also associated with reappraisal (r=.41, p<.001), positive affect (r=.30, p<.001) and cognitive

flexibility (r=.61, p<.001). The hypothesis that the association between mindfulness and co-worker

44

relationship quality would be mediated by reappraisal, positive affect and cognitive flexibility was

tested using Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model entering the total score of the FFMQ as the

independent variable (IV), the co-worker relationship score as the dependent variable (DV), and

reappraisal, positive affect, and cognitive flexibility as the three mediators.

As shown in Table 2.5 and Figure 2.1, results of the bootstrap analysis revealed that

mindfulness was indirectly associated with co-worker relationship quality through its effect on

reappraisal and positive affect, but not through its effect on cognitive flexibility. Participants with

higher levels of mindfulness were more likely to use reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy

than those with lower levels of mindfulness (a2 = .839) and participants who reported more use of

reappraisal in turn reported better co-worker relationship quality than those who reported less use of

reappraisal (b2 = .152). A bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the standardised

indirect effect through reappraisal (a2b2=.089) was entirely above zero (.015 to .181). Similarly,

participants with higher levels of mindfulness reported higher levels of positive affect than those

with lower levels of mindfulness (a3=.427) and participants with higher levels of positive affect in

Table 2.4

Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for co-worker

relationship quality analysis

Variable Cronbach's

alpha M SD 1 2 3 4

1. Mindfulness .89 3.38 .51 2. Co-worker relationship quality .94 3.61 .72 .15*

3. Cognitive flexibility .80 4.66 .63 .61** .27** 4. Emotion regulation - reappraisal .93 5.12 1.05 .41** .30** .52**

5. Positive affect .82 3.35 .71 .30** .39** .38** .22** * p < .05

** p < .01

Table 2.5

Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for co-worker relationship quality analysis

Variable Effect SE Bias corrected confidence intervals

Lower Upper Cognitive flexibility .05 .06 -.07 .18 Emotion regulation - reappraisal .09 .04 .01 .18 Positive affect .10 .03 .05 .19 Total indirect effect .25 .06 .13 .38 Direct effect -.14 .12 -.38 .10

Bootstrap sample size = 10,000

45

turn reported better co-worker relationship quality (b3=.364). A bias-corrected bootstrap 95%

confidence interval for the standardised indirect effect through positive affect (a3b3=.104) was

entirely above zero (.046 to .186). A contrast of indirect effects found no significant difference

between the two mediators. There was no evidence that mindfulness was associated with co-worker

relationship quality independent of its effects on reappraisal and positive affect (c’=-.144, p=.240).

Whilst the analysis indicated that positive affect and the emotion regulation strategy of

reappraisal both mediated the relationship between mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality,

it is worth noting that the overall model only explained a small amount of the variance in co-worker

relationship quality, R2=.02, F(1, 180)=3.93, p<.05.

2.3.3 Innovative behaviours

The internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the

measures used for this analysis are shown in Table 2.6. As predicted, a positive association was

found between mindfulness and innovative behaviours, r=.26, p<.001. The hypothesis that that

association would be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect was tested

using Hayes's (2008) PROCESS model entering the total score of the FFMQ as the IV, the

innovative behaviours scale as the DV, and cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect as

the three mediators.

As shown in Table 2.7 and Figure 2.2, results of the bootstrap analysis revealed that

mindfulness was indirectly related to innovative behaviours through its effect on cognitive

flexibility, but not through its effects on reappraisal or positive affect. Participants with higher

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Co-worker relationship quality

a1 = .752** b1 = .103ns

a2 = .839** b2 = .152**

a3 = .427** b3 = .364**

c’ = -.144ns

Figure 2.1.

Indirect effects of mindfulness on co-worker relationship quality through cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect . * p<.05. ** p<.01. ns=not significant.

46

Table 2.6

Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for innovative

behaviours analysis

Variable Cronbach's alpha M SD

1 2 3 4 1. Mindfulness .89 3.38 .50 2. Innovative behaviours .77 7.76 2.91 .26** 3. Cognitive flexibility .80 4.65 .62 .61** .40** 4. Emotion regulation - reappraisal .93 5.12 1.05 .41** .22** .52** 5. Positive affect .82 3.34 .7 .31** .23** .38** .23** * p < .05** p < .01

Table 2.7

Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for innovative behaviours analysis

Variable Effect SE Bias corrected confidence intervals

Lower Upper Cognitive flexibility .22 .07 .09 .35 Emotion regulation - reappraisal .00 .03 -.07 .07 Positive affect .03 .03 -.02 .09 Total indirect effect .24 .07 .12 .38 Direct effect .11 .50 -.88 1.10 Bootstrap sample size = 10,000

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Innovative behaviours

a1 = .756** b1 = 1.637**

a2 = .858** b2 = .017ns

a3 = .430** b3 = .361ns

c’ = .108ns

Figure 2.2. Indirect effects of mindfulness on innovative behaviours through cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect . * p<.05. ** p<.01. ns=not significant.

47

levels of mindfulness were more likely to have greater cognitive flexibility than those with lower

levels of mindfulness (a1=.756) and participants with greater cognitive flexibility in turn reported

more innovative behaviours than those with less cognitive flexibility (b1=1.637). A bias-corrected

bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the standardised indirect effect through cognitive flexibility

(a1b1=.215) was entirely above zero (.087 to .350). There was no evidence that mindfulness was

related to innovative behaviours independent of its effect on cognitive flexibility (c’=.108, p=.830).

The overall model explained the following amount of variance in innovative behaviours: R2=.07,

F(1, 182)=13.60, p<.001.

2.3.4 Resistance to change

The internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the

measures used for this analysis are shown in Table 2.8. As predicted, a negative association was

found between mindfulness and resistance to change, r=-.34, p<.001. The hypothesis that that

association would be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect was tested

using Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model entering the total score of the FFMQ as the IV, the total

score of the resistance to change scale as the DV, and cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect as the three mediators.

As shown in Table 2.9 and Figure 2.3, results of the bootstrap analysis revealed that

mindfulness was indirectly associated with resistance to change through its effect on cognitive

flexibility, but not through its effects on reappraisal or positive affect. Participants with higher

levels of mindfulness were more likely to have greater cognitive flexibility than those with lower

levels of mindfulness (a1=.755) and participants with greater cognitive flexibility in turn reported

less resistance to change than those with less cognitive flexibility (b1=-.523). A bias-corrected

Table 2.8

Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for resistance to

change analysis

Variable Cronbach's

alpha M SD 1 2 3 4

1. Mindfulness .89 3.38 .50 2. Resistance to change .91 2.91 .72 -.34**

3. Cognitive flexibility .80 4.65 .62 .61** -.49** 4. Emotion regulation - reappraisal .93 5.11 1.05 .41** -.25** .52**

5. Positive affect .82 3.34 .70 .31** -.19* .38** .23** * p < .05

** p < .01

48

bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the standardised indirect effect through cognitive flexibility

(a1b1=-.281) was entirely below zero (-.415 to -.155). There was no evidence that mindfulness was

related to resistance to change independent of its effect on cognitive flexibility (c’=-.106, p=.367).

The overall model explained the following amount of variance in resistance to change: R2=.12, F(1,

181)=24.65, p<.001.

2.3.5 Work engagement

The internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the

measures used for this analysis are shown in Table 2.11. As predicted, a positive association was

found between mindfulness and work engagement, r=.36, p<.001. The hypothesis that that

association would be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect was tested

using Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model entering the total score of the FFMQ as the IV, the total

Table 2.9

Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for resistance to change analysis

Variable Effect SE Bias corrected confidence intervals

Lower Upper Cognitive flexibility -.28 .07 -.42 -.15 Emotion regulation - reappraisal .01 .04 -.07 .09 Positive affect -.00 .02 -.05 .04 Total indirect effect -.27 .06 -.40 -.15 Direct effect -.11 .12 -.34 .13 Bootstrap sample size = 10,000

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Resistance to change

a1 = .755** b1 = -.523**

a2 = .860** b2 = .019ns

a3 = .427** b3 = -.003ns

c’ = -.106ns

Figure 2.3. Indirect effects of mindfulness on resistance to change through cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect . * p<.05. ** p<.01. ns=not significant.

49

score of the work engagement scale as the DV, and cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect as the three mediators.

As shown in Table 2.10 and Figure 2.4, results of the bootstrap analysis revealed that

mindfulness was indirectly associated with work engagement through its effect on cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect. Participants with higher levels of mindfulness were more

likely to have greater cognitive flexibility than those with lower levels of mindfulness (a1=.752) and

participants with greater cognitive flexibility in turn reported greater work engagement than those

with less cognitive flexibility (b1=.207). A bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the

standardised indirect effect through cognitive flexibility (a1b1=.082) was entirely below zero (.001

to .170). Participants with higher levels of mindfulness were also more likely to use reappraisal as

an emotion regulation strategy than those with lower levels of mindfulness (a2=.848) and

participants who reported more use of reappraisal in turn reported greater work engagement than

those who reported less use of reappraisal (b2=.153). A bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence

interval for the standardised indirect effect through reappraisal (a2b2=.069) was entirely above zero

Table 2.11

Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for work engagement

analysis

Variable Cronbach's

alpha M SD 1 2 3 4

1. Mindfulness .89 3.37 .51 2. Work engagement .93 3.52 .97 .36**

3. Cognitive flexibility .80 4.65 .62 .60** .47** 4. Emotion regulation - reappraisal .93 5.10 1.05 .41** .39** .52**

5. Positive affect .82 3.33 .71 .30** .73** .38** .23** * p < .05

** p < .01

Table 2.10

Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for work engagement analysis

Variable Effect SE Bias corrected confidence intervals

Lower Upper Cognitive flexibility .08 .04 .00 .17 Emotion regulation - reappraisal .07 .02 .03 .13 Positive affect .19 .05 .09 .29 Total indirect effect .34 .06 .21 .46 Direct effect .05 .12 -.18 .29 Bootstrap sample size = 10,000

50

(.028 to .127). Similarly, participants with higher levels of mindfulness reported higher levels of

positive affect than those with lower levels of mindfulness (a3=.423) and participants with higher

levels of positive affect in turn reported greater work engagement (b3=.364). A bias-corrected

bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the standardised indirect effect through positive affect

(a3b3=.188) was entirely above zero (.088 to .287). A contrast of indirect effects found no

significant difference between the three mediators. There was no evidence that mindfulness was

related to work engagement independent of its effects on cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and

positive affect (c’=.054, p=.644). The overall model explained the following amount of variance in

work engagement: R2=.13, F(1, 181)=28.18, p<.001.

2.3.6 Thriving at work

The internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations among the

measures used for this analysis are shown in Table 2.13. As predicted, a positive association was

found between mindfulness and thriving at work, r=.38, p<.001. The hypothesis that that

association would be mediated by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect was tested

using Hayes’s (2008) PROCESS model entering the total score of the FFMQ as the IV, the total

score of the thriving at work scale as the DV, and reappraisal, positive affect, and cognitive

flexibility as the three mediators.

As shown in Table 2.12 and Figure 2.5, results of the bootstrap analysis revealed that

mindfulness was indirectly related to thriving at work through its effect on reappraisal and positive

affect, but not through its effect on cognitive flexibility. Participants with higher levels of

mindfulness were more likely to use reappraisal as an emotion regulation strategy than those with

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Work engagement

a1 = .752** b1 = .207*

a2 = .848** b2 = .153**

a3 = .423** b3 = .364**

c’ = .054ns

Figure 2.4. Indirect effects of mindfulness on work engagement through cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect . * p<.05. ** p<.01. ns=not significant.

51

through reappraisal

Table 2.13

Internal consistency, means, standard deviations, and intercorrelations for thriving at work

Variable Cronbach's

alpha M SD 1 2 3 4

1. Mindfulness .89 3.37 .51 2. Thriving at work .93 3.15 .74 .38**

3. Cognitive flexibility .80 4.65 .62 .60** .47** 4. Emotion regulation - reappraisal .93 5.10 1.05 .41** .40** .52**

5. Positive affect .82 3.32 .70 .30** .74** .38** .23** * p < .05

** p < .01

Table 2.12

Direct effect and standardised indirect effects for thriving at work analysis

Variable Effect SE Bias corrected confidence intervals

Lower Upper Cognitive flexibility .07 .05 -.02 .16 Emotion regulation - reappraisal .07 .03 .03 .13 Positive affect .19 .05 .10 .29 Total indirect effect .33 .07 .20 .46 Direct effect .09 .09 -.08 .26 Bootstrap sample size = 10,000

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Thriving at work

a1 = .752** b1 = .130ns

a2 = .848** b2 = .125**

a3 = .423**

b3 = .656**

c’ = -.144ns

Figure 2.5. Indirect effects of mindfulness on thriving at work through cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect . * p<.05. ** p<.01. ns=not significant.

52

lower levels of mindfulness (a1=.848) and participants who reported more use of reappraisal in turn

had higher scores on the thriving at work scale than those who reported less use of reappraisal

(b1=.125). A bias-corrected bootstrap 95% confidence interval for the standardised indirect effect

through reappraisal (a1b1=.073) was entirely above zero (.030 to .134). Similarly, participants with

higher levels of mindfulness reported higher levels of positive affect than those with lower levels of

mindfulness (a2=.423) and participants with higher levels of positive affect in turn had higher scores

on the thriving at work scale (b2=.656). A bias-corrected bootstrap confidence interval for the

standardised indirect effect through positive affect (a2b2=.191) was entirely above zero (.097 to

.286). A contrast of indirect effects found that positive affect mediated significantly more of the

association between mindfulness and thriving at work than did reappraisal, Contrast effect=.171,

95% CI [.005, .341]. There was no evidence that mindfulness was associated with thriving at work

independent of its effects on reappraisal and positive affect (c’=.089, p=.310). The overall model

explained the following amount of variance in thriving at work: R2=.15, F(1, 181)=32.95, p<.001.

2.3.7 Summary

As predicted, dispositional mindfulness was significantly correlated with cognitive

flexibility, positive reappraisal and positive affect. It was also significantly correlated with each of

the workplace outcomes of interest. An overview of the processes that were found to mediate the

association between mindfulness and each of the workplace outcomes is shown in Figure 2.6.

Mindfulness was related to co-worker relationship quality, work engagement, and thriving at work

through positive affect and positive reappraisal, and additionally with work engagement through

cognitive flexibility. On the other hand, mindfulness was related to innovative behaviours and

resistance to change through cognitive flexibility only.

2.4 Discussion

Researchers have begun to investigate the effects of mindfulness in the workplace. This

study adds to that body of research by investigating the association between dispositional

mindfulness and self-report measures of co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours,

resistance to change, work engagement, and thriving at work. It also investigated fundamental

cognitive and affective processes that may explain those associations. Specifically, it was

hypothesized that mindfulness would be indirectly associated with each of the workplace outcomes

via cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect. The hypotheses built on previous research

showing that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with each of these processes and that

these processes are likely to impact the workplace outcomes of interest.

53

As expected, the results indicated that mindfulness was significantly correlated with all of

the workplace outcomes of interest, as well as with cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect. However, the specific cognitive and affective processes that mediated the association

between mindfulness and the workplace outcomes varied with each outcome. The findings for each

workplace outcome are discussed below, followed by a brief discussion of the overall limitations

and future directions of this research.

2.4.1 Dispositional mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality

As expected, the results of this study found that higher levels of dispositional mindfulness

were associated with greater co-worker relationship quality (as rated by study participants), which

aligns with the results of previous studies that have found that mindfulness is positively associated

Mindfulness Reappraisal

Positive affect

Co-worker relationships

Mindfulness Reappraisal

Positive affect

Thriving at work

Mindfulness Cognitive flexibility Innovative behaviours

Mindfulness Cognitive flexibility Resistance to change

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal

Positive affect

Work engagement

Figure 2.6 Processes that mediated the association between mindfulness and each of the

workplace outcomes

54

with other aspects of interpersonal relations in the workplace, including negotiation skills and

leadership (Reb & Narayanan, 2014; Reb, Narayanan, & Chaturvedi, 2014). However, mindfulness

only explained a small amount of the variance in relationship quality. The results also indicated that

the association between mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality was fully mediated by

reappraisal and positive affect, but not by cognitive flexibility.

Mediation of the association between mindfulness and relationship quality by positive affect

was expected, as previous studies have found that individuals with more mindfulness report higher

levels of positive affect (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Giluk, 2009) and higher levels of positive affect

have in turn been found to be associated with factors that impact on interpersonal relations, such as

liking in relationships (Clark & Taraban, 1991), greater supervisor and co-worker support (Staw et

al., 1994), and being more helpful (Isen & Levin, 1972). The current results are also congruent with

Giluk (2011) who found that positive affect partially mediated the association between mindfulness

and relationship quality.

Mediation of the association between mindfulness and relationship quality by reappraisal

was also expected. A study by Garland, Gaylord and Fredrickson (2011) found that participants’

dispositional mindfulness was positively associated with reappraisal prior to participating in an

MBI, and that reappraisal increased during the mindfulness training. Greater use of reappraisal has

in turn been shown to be associated with closer social relationships (as rated by peers) and being

better liked by peers (Gross & John, 2003).

The hypothesis that cognitive flexibility would also partially mediate the association

between mindfulness and relationship quality was not supported. Cognitive flexibility was

significantly correlated with relationship quality, which aligns with previous studies that found that

cognitive flexibility is associated with interpersonal communication competence (Martin &

Anderson, 1998) and social competence in children (Ciairano et al., 2006; Stevens, 2009).

However, cognitive flexibility did not help to explain the relationship between mindfulness and

relationship quality, which suggests that the variance in relationship quality that is related to

cognitive flexibility is due to factors other than mindfulness.

2.4.2 Dispositional mindfulness and innovative behaviours

The results of this study indicated that dispositional mindfulness was positively associated

with innovative behaviours, and that the association was fully mediated by cognitive flexibility.

Cognitive flexibility was expected to mediate the relationship between mindfulness and innovative

behaviours. Several studies have shown that mindfulness training increases cognitive flexibility (for

review, see Chiesa et al., 2011), and cognitive flexibility is in turn widely regarded as important to

55

creativity and innovation (Georgsdottir et al., 2003; Nijstad et al., 2010; Runco & Okuda, 1991;

Zabelina & Robinson, 2010). In addition, previous research has shown that self-reported

mindfulness is associated with cognitive flexibility (Moore & Malinowski, 2009; Moore, 2013) and

with higher levels of creative elaboration (Zabelina, Robinson, Ostafin, & Council, 2011). The

current study demonstrates that those associations extend to innovative behaviours.

Contrary to expectations, positive affect and reappraisal did not partially mediate the

association between mindfulness and innovative behaviours. As workplace creativity has been

shown to be affected by surface acting (Geng et al., 2014), the current study predicted that

reappraisal would partially mediate the association between mindfulness and innovative behaviours

by enabling individuals to positively reappraise difficult experiences and thereby increase deep

acting and reduce the need for surface acting. However, while reappraisal was significantly

correlated with innovative behaviours, it did not mediate the association between innovative

behaviours and mindfulness. There are several potential explanations for this finding. First, the

study by Geng and colleagues (2014) specifically focussed on the emotion regulation strategies of

surface acting and deep acting among employees in a frontline customer service role. While it has

previously been shown that mindfulness does reduce surface acting (Hülsheger et al., 2012), it is

conceivable that reappraisal is not one of the processes that facilitate that reduction. The processes

via which mindfulness decreases surface acting will need to be investigated by future research.

Perhaps a better explanation for the current results, however, may be that the participants in the

current study were not frontline employees, and so surface and deep acting may have a smaller

influence on their level of innovative behaviour. In other words, emotion regulation strategies such

as surface and deep acting may have a bigger influence on creativity when faced with resolving an

issue or complaint raised by a customer than when developing and sharing innovative ideas with

supervisors and co-workers. Furthermore, developing and implementing new ideas in the types of

job roles held by participants in the current study may involve quite different processes than the

creative problem solving that was investigated by Geng (2014). More research is needed to

elucidate the influence of different emotion regulation strategies on creativity and innovative

behaviours, and whether they play any role in the link between mindfulness and innovative

behaviours. The results of the current study suggest that reappraisal may not play a role.

Finally, there is a considerable body of research showing that positive affect is associated

with creativity (Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1994; Isen et al., 1987), and the results of the current study

add to that by identifying a significant correlation between positive affect and innovative

behaviours. Nevertheless, the results indicated that positive affect did not partially mediate the

relationship between mindfulness and innovative behaviours. One possible explanation for this is

56

that there may be overlapping variance between positive affect and cognitive flexibility that is

related to the association between mindfulness and innovative behaviours. In other words, positive

affect may enhance creativity and innovative behaviours by increasing cognitive flexibility (Ashby

et al., 1999) and may therefore not explain any additional association between mindfulness and

innovative behaviours beyond that which is mediated by cognitive flexibility. In support of that

explanation, the current study found that positive affect was a significant mediator when cognitive

flexibility was excluded from the analysis.

While the current study has shown that dispositional mindfulness is associated with self-

reported innovative behaviours, and that cognitive flexibility fully mediates that association, future

research will need to investigate whether mindfulness training can increase innovative behaviours

and whether any such increases are explained by improvements in cognitive flexibility.

2.4.3 Dispositional mindfulness and resistance to change

As expected, the current study found that higher levels of dispositional mindfulness

predicted less resistance to change, with that association being fully mediated by cognitive

flexibility. These results are in line with previous studies that have shown that practicing

mindfulness increases cognitive flexibility (Heeren et al., 2009; Moore & Malinowski, 2009), and

that cognitive flexibility is in turn negatively related to resistance to change (Su et al., 2012).

Previous research has also found that positive affect is consistently associated with coping

with change (Judge et al., 1999), and as positive affect is associated with mindfulness, it was also

hypothesized that positive affect would partially mediate the association between mindfulness and

resistance to change. However, that hypothesis was not supported. That may be due to differences

between the coping with change and resistance to change constructs, although the scales for both

constructs are similar and include items relating to cognitive and affective attitudes and responses to

change. Alternatively, there may be variance in positive affect related to resistance to change that is

due to factors other than variance in mindfulness.

It was also hypothesized that more mindful individuals would use more positive reappraisal

and that individuals who use more positive reappraisal would find change easier to cope with, and

consequently be less resistant to it. Reappraisal was therefore expected to mediate the association

between mindfulness and resistance to change. However, that hypothesis was also not supported. As

with positive affect, it may be that the variance in reappraisal that is related to resistance to change

is due to factors other than variance in mindfulness. Alternatively, greater use of positive

reappraisal by mindful individuals may enable them to cope better with change without necessarily

influencing their attitude toward change. It would therefore be useful to investigate whether mindful

57

individuals actually cope better with change, and if so whether their greater coping ability is

partially due to a greater use of reappraisal.

2.4.4 Dispositional mindfulness and work engagement

An aim of the current study was also to investigate the association between dispositional

mindfulness and work engagement and in particular to try to elucidate fundamental cognitive and

affective processes that mediate that association. As expected, an indirect association between

mindfulness and work engagement was observed, with that association being mediated by cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect. There was no direct association after accounting for

those mediators.

This is the first study to show that people’s self-reported ability to respond flexibly to events

partially mediates the association between mindfulness and work engagement. As job roles continue

to become more complex, and as employees more often have to cope with constantly changing

goals and priorities, the ability to remain engaged at work is likely to increasingly depend on

flexibility. An inability to respond flexibly is likely to increase distress when faced with challenges

and changes, resulting in rumination or avoidant behaviours that may reduce engagement. By

observing difficulties and problems non-judgementally and non-reactively, mindful individuals may

be better able to respond flexibly and therefore to remain engaged, rather than becoming distracted

by rumination or avoidant behaviours. Indeed, a recent study found that it was specifically the

ability of mindful individuals to step back from experiences rather than automatically reacting to

them that predicted work engagement (Malinowski & Lim, 2015). Nevertheless, this explanation of

the current findings is somewhat speculative and more research is needed to elucidate the specific

processes of cognitive flexibility via which mindfulness is associated with work engagement. For

example, do mindful individuals have the flexibility to remain engaged at work because of a greater

ability to regulate their attention, or does that flexibility arise from a greater ability to regulate their

emotions and thereby remain engaged when difficulties are encountered?

The finding by the current study that reappraisal partially mediates the relation between

mindfulness and engagement is in line with previous research showing that mindfulness predicts

positive reappraisal (Garland et al., 2015) and that reappraisal predicts work engagement (Schulz,

2008, as cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248). By adopting a meta-cognitive awareness in

which experiences are observed as transient mental events that are distinct from the self, mindful

individuals are less inclined to automatically react to initial appraisals of difficult or unpleasant

events (Arch & Craske, 2006; Ortner et al., 2007). By not getting caught up in an immediate

reaction, whether behavioural, cognitive, or emotional, they are likely to have a greater opportunity

58

to positively reappraise the event and their ability to cope with it. That may in turn foster greater

work engagement, as difficulties and problems that arise are reappraised as manageable challenges

rather than threats that automatically trigger rumination or avoidant behaviour.

The results of the current study are also in line with previous research showing a positive

relationship between positive affect and work engagement (Sonnentag, Mojza, Binnewies, &

Scholl, 2008) and help confirm Malinowski and Lim’s (2015) findings that positive affect partially

mediates the association between mindfulness and work engagement. Malinowski and Lim (2015)

drew on Fredrickson’s (2001) Broaden and Build theory of positive emotions to propose that by

broadening people’s thought-action repertoires positive affect would increase personal resources

such as hope and optimism, and that those resources would in turn foster greater work engagement.

They found support for a partial serial mediation model where mindfulness predicted positive

affect, which in turn predicted work engagement directly as well as indirectly via hope and

optimism. More research is clearly needed to fully explain how increases in positive affect due to

mindfulness enhance work engagement.

Previous studies have shown that mindfulness is exclusively indirectly associated with work

engagement via authentic functioning (Leroy et al., 2013) and via hope, optimism, and positive

affect (Malinowski & Lim, 2015). The current study adds to that research by showing that cognitive

flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect between them fully explain the association

between mindfulness and work engagement. As the mediators investigated by the current study are

more fundamental processes, it would be useful for future studies to determine if and how they

influence the higher order constructs of authentic functioning, hope and optimism.

2.4.5 Dispositional mindfulness and thriving at work

The results of this study indicated that there was a positive association between dispositional

mindfulness and thriving at work. That association was fully mediated by reappraisal and positive

affect, but not by cognitive flexibility. Furthermore, positive affect predicted significantly more of

the relationship between mindfulness and thriving than did reappraisal.

The results of this study add support to previous studies that have shown a relationship

between mindfulness and vitality (Allen & Kiburz, 2012; Brown & Ryan, 2003), which is a major

component of thriving at work. However, this is the first study to extend that research to specifically

investigate the link between mindfulness and thriving at work, as well as the cognitive and affective

processes that mediate that relationship. It is perhaps not surprising that positive affect explained

most of the relationship, given that the thriving at work construct is largely a measure of well-being

(as evidenced in the current study by a high bivariate correlation between positive affect and the

59

vitality dimension of thriving (r=.74, p<.001)). That high correlation was expected, as markers of

positive affect include among others feeling attentive, alert, enthusiastic, energised, and strong

(Watson et al., 1988), which could also be described as markers of vitality. It was therefore

expected that positive affect would be a key process linking mindfulness to thriving at work.

Furthermore, by broadening attention and cognition (Fredrickson, 2001), higher levels of positive

affect due to mindfulness may also enhance the growth aspect of thriving by fostering an openness

to new information. Indeed, the current study also found a high bivariate correlation between

positive affect and the learning dimension of thriving (r=.53, p<.001), and when the learning

dimension was analysed separately, positive affect still partially mediated its link with mindfulness.

While positive affect explained most of the link between mindfulness and thriving,

reappraisal was also found to be a partial mediator, suggesting that mindfulness may partially

enhance thriving by enabling individuals to cope better with stressful events. That is, by enabling

individuals to reappraise difficulties and challenges as acceptable, momentary events, mindfulness

reduces psychological distress and helps prevent emotional exhaustion (Cohen-Katz et al., 2005).

Hence, mindful individuals experience greater vitality and thriving due to greater reappraisal ability.

It was also thought that by enabling a more adaptable and favourable response to

opportunities for learning and growth in the workplace, that mindfulness would enhance thriving

via increased cognitive flexibility. However, that hypothesis was not supported by the current study.

While it may be the case that cognitive flexibility does not influence thriving at work, another

explanation is a possible overlap in variance between cognitive flexibility and positive affect.

Positive affect is associated with increased cognitive flexibility (Ashby et al., 1999; Isen et al.,

1987) and so there may be variance in cognitive flexibility that links mindfulness and thriving but

which is being explained in the current model by positive affect. Interestingly, the current study

found that cognitive flexibility was a significant mediator when positive affect was excluded from

the analysis. Further research is therefore needed to investigate any relationship between cognitive

flexibility and thriving at work, as well as whether a serial relation exists between mindfulness,

positive affect, cognitive flexibility, and thriving.

2.4.6 Limitations and future directions

The current study has some important methodological limitations due to it having a cross-

sectional design and being solely reliant on self-report data. The fact that the data was collected

from each participant at a single point in time means the results only show correlation and not

causation. Self-report data collected at a single time-point is also potentially biased by common

method variance, which arises from “response tendencies that raters apply across measures,

60

similarities in item structure or wording that induce similar responses, the proximity of items in an

instrument, and similarities in the medium, timing, or location in which measures are collected”

(Edwards, 2008; p.476). In other words, when the same method is used to measure different

constructs, the relationships between the measures may be influenced by how participants respond

or react to the method used. In addition, self-reports assume that respondents interpret questions as

intended and have the necessary knowledge and motivation to retrieve the requested information

(Tourangeau, Rips, & Rasinski, 2000).

Future studies could address some of these limitations by collecting data on different

measures at different time-points and from people other than the participants, such as supervisors

and co-workers. Of course, some of the measures such as mindfulness, positive reappraisal, positive

affect, dispositional resistance to change, and thriving at work describe subjective phenomena and

so can at present only really be measured with self-report. Furthermore, the current study was

explicitly concerned with self-report of co-worker relationship quality. Nevertheless, supervisor and

co-worker reports of other measures could be used, and cognitive flexibility could even be

measured objectively using a laboratory task (eg. Moore & Malinowski, 2009). Future studies

should also look at whether the outcomes of the current study hold across other occupations and

work environments, such as for customer service or manual workers or workers in particularly high-

stress jobs.

2.4.7 Conclusion

In line with previous research, the overall results of this study suggest that dispositional

mindfulness is associated with the ability to respond flexibly to events, with the ability to regulate

emotions by positively reappraising events, and with higher levels of positive affect. The results

also suggest that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with co-worker relationship

quality, innovative behaviours, and work engagement and thriving, and that it is negatively

associated with resistance to change. Overall, these results raise the question of whether training

employees in mindfulness might have a positive impact on these outcomes. That question will be

addressed in the next study by investigating the effectiveness of a 4-week workplace MBI.

In addition, this study adds to previous research by showing some of the fundamental

cognitive and affective processes that mediate the association between dispositional mindfulness

and each of the workplace outcomes of interest. A subsequent study will extend these findings by

investigating the extent to which these processes explain any changes in workplace outcomes

during a workplace MBI.

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Chapter 3 – Effects of a Mindfulness-based Intervention in the Workplace

3.1 Introduction

High levels of workplace stress have been associated with multiple pathologies, including

cardiovascular disease (Hemingway & Marmot, 1999), diabetes (Hu et al., 2004), depression and

anxiety (García-Bueno et al., 2008), and obesity (Black, 2006). High stress levels are also

associated with productivity losses, absenteeism, and increased staff turnover (Michie & Williams,

2003; Wang et al., 2014). On the other hand, high levels of positive emotions have the opposite

impact on many of those outcomes (for review, see Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). It follows that

developing interventions to improve coping and well-being in the workplace is important,

particularly if those interventions can also enhance processes associated with greater productivity.

Workplace programs based on mindfulness are one approach that has been gaining increasing

interest from researchers and employers (Escuriex & Labbé, 2011; Glomb et al., 2011; Reb & Choi,

2014; Virgili, 2013).

The previous study (Chapter 2) found that dispositional mindfulness was associated with a

number of processes that influence well-being and productivity in the workplace, including

cognitive flexibility, the emotion regulation strategy of reappraisal, and positive affect, and that it

was also associated with co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to

change, work engagement, and thriving at work. The current study is a pilot that aims to extend

those findings by investigating the effectiveness of a brief workplace MBI in improving each of

those psychological processes and workplace outcomes. Based on the results of the previous study

(Chapter 2), it is hypothesized that the MBI will lead to significant improvements in each of those

measures. This study also aims to investigate the extent to which changes in each of those measures

are explained by changes in mindfulness, as opposed to other non-specific effects of the

intervention.

3.2 Method

3.2.1 Participants

The participants in this study were 131 employees of the Queensland Department of

Education and Training (DET). Some participants in this study may have also participated in

Study 1 reported in Chapter 2, but the number who did so is unknown, as participation in that study

was anonymous. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 64 (M=45.21, SD=10.38), and 83.8 per cent

were female. A total of 30 (22.9%) participants worked less than 30 hours per week, 63 (48.1%)

worked 31-45 hours per week, 11 (8.4%) worked more than 45 hours per week, and 27 (20.6%)

worked an unknown amount of hours. The job roles of participants varied considerably, and

62

included school teachers, administrative officers, cleaners, managers, and senior executives. On a

self-rated 7-point scale with Level 1 representing entry-level jobs and Level 7 representing high-

ranking executives, the percentage of participants at each job level within the organisation was

5.3% at Level 1, 11.5% at Level 2, 19.8% at Level 3, 28.2% at Level 4, 11.5% at Level 5, 3.1% at

Level 6, 0.8% at Level 7, and 19.8% unknown. Six participants (4.6%) reported having previously

attended a mindfulness training course, and 44 participants (33.6%) reported some experience with

practising mindfulness. Of the participants with some mindfulness experience, 14 of them (10.7%

of all participants) reported practicing mindfulness regularly. Correlation analyses indicated that

participants’ ages, gender, number of hours worked per week, and job status were not associated

with the baseline measures of any of the potential mediators and workplace outcomes.

Recruitment emails were disseminated to central office employees by senior staff within the

Department. In addition, a staff member in the DET Metropolitan Regional Office with a strong

interest in mindfulness promoted the research to staff at several Queensland state schools. Central

office and state school employees were invited to participate in a 4-week evidence-based group

program introducing fundamental mindfulness concepts and practices. Employees registered their

interest in participating via an online registration page, which informed them that the study was

aimed at examining how people respond to mindfulness training in the workplace.

Central Office registrants were then sent an email providing further information about

participation, as well as requesting that they reply to the email indicating in order of preference

which of eight available groups suited them best. Where possible participants were allocated to their

first choice, but due to the popularity of some sessions, some participants had to be allocated to

their second or third choices. School-based registrants were sent a similar email which requested

that they reply indicating whether the dates scheduled for training at their school suited them. Of the

169 employees who registered for this study, 38 were unable to participate due to other

commitments on the dates scheduled for the mindfulness sessions.

The remaining 131 participants were sent a follow-up email informing them which group

they had been assigned to and providing instructions about the location of the training and what to

bring. Confirmed participants were also sent an email containing a link to a pre-training survey that

they were asked to complete prior to the first session. The training facilitators also contacted

participants by phone prior to the first session to confirm attendance, address any participant

queries, and to check that the pre-training survey had been completed.

63

3.2.2 Study intervention

The intervention was a group-based program consisting of four weekly 2-hour sessions

delivered at each participant’s workplace. There were 12 groups in total ranging in size from 6 to 25

participants, with most groups containing 8 to 12 participants. Seven groups took place in a

conference room in the DET Central Office and the remaining five groups each took place at a

different metropolitan state school. Participants were encouraged to attend the same group each

week in order to develop and maintain better group dynamics. However, participants who were

unavoidably prevented from attending a class were permitted to attend a replacement session. Only

four participants reported attending a replacement session.

The intervention was based on a group-based program that has been provided to community

members by the Psychology Clinic at the University of Queensland for several years (Harnett et al.,

2010), with modification for delivery within the workplace. The program was very practical and

aimed to introduce participants to the foundational concepts of mindfulness and to train them in

formal and informal mindfulness practices. It involved defining and explaining mindfulness,

describing and explaining some of the scientifically-validated benefits of practicing mindfulness,

both for daily life and in the workplace, engaging participants in formal mindfulness practices and

then giving them the opportunity to share and discuss their experiences and reactions to those

practices, and encouraging participants to incorporate both formal and informal mindfulness

practices into their daily life.

The mindfulness training for all 12 groups was facilitated by provisionally registered

psychologists undertaking postgraduate training in clinical psychology. Some of the facilitators had

previously run mindfulness groups, but most had little or no experience practicing or teaching

mindfulness. To compensate for lack of experience, the facilitators were provided with a clearly

structured course manual and attended a detailed training session that included guided mindfulness

practices and subsequent discussion. Facilitators were also advised to practice mindfulness daily for

the duration of the program in order to better understand the experiences and challenges

encountered by participants. In addition, facilitators were sent weekly emails providing advice and

suggestions for the upcoming session, they attended a group review session with the researcher and

their supervisor part-way through the course, and they were invited to discuss any issues or

concerns that arose during the course with the researcher and their supervisor.

At the first session, participants were welcomed and provided with a name badge. They

were reminded that the program was being delivered as part of a research project investigating the

workplace benefits of learning mindfulness, and then given an information sheet and consent form

64

to sign. The first session then involved establishing a safe and supportive environment for

participants to share and discuss the experiences that arise from practicing mindfulness, defining

and explaining the concept of mindfulness as a practice, describing some of the scientifically-

validated benefits of mindfulness practice for daily life and in the workplace, and presenting some

basic information about how mindfulness is currently thought to produce those benefits. The

session also involved formal practices of mindful eating, mindfulness of the breath, and self-

compassion, each of which was followed by a group discussion about the practice. At the end of the

session, participants were assigned home practices (mindfulness of the breath for 10 minutes daily

and mindfulness of a routine daily activity such as brushing their teeth) and given a link to online

recordings of mindfulness practices that they could use at home. The recordings were developed by

an expert in mindfulness for an earlier study, which showed the effectiveness of a mindfulness

intervention in reducing psychological distress in a community sample (Harnett et al., 2010).

The remaining three sessions followed a similar format as the first, and included formal

practices of mindfulness of the body, mindful walking, developing acceptance, mindfulness of

thoughts, mindful communication, mindfulness of emotions, and developing kindness and

compassion. Each session also included a review and discussion of participants’ home practice and

assignment of home practices for the following week. The structure of each session is detailed in

Table 3.1.

3.2.3 Measures

Participants completed an online survey at six time-points throughout the study, including a

pre-intervention baseline survey within a week prior to the first session, a weekly survey 5-7 days

after each session, and a follow-up survey two months after the final session. Participants were

emailed a link to each survey, followed by a reminder email the following day. Only the data from

the pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up surveys are used in the current study to

evaluate the effectiveness of the MBI. The weekly data were collected for use in a follow-up

analysis investigating the mechanisms of change during the MBI (Chapter 4).

To measure mindfulness, this study used an abbreviated 15-item version of the Five Facet

Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ) that included three items for each of the five subscales (Baer et

al., 2012). The five dimensions of mindfulness measured are non-reactivity to experience, observing

experiences, acting with awareness, ability to describe internal experiences, and non-judging of

experiences. Psychometric studies of the relationship between the FFMQ and other psychological

constructs have found that it exhibited convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity that was

65

Table 3.1

Structure of each session of the workplace mindfulness intervention

Session 1

Activity Details and objectives

1. Welcome and introduction • Information sheet and consent form • Set agenda for session • Getting to know each other • Ground rules

2. Overview of program • Emphasis on mindfulness practices and group discussions

3. Introduction to mindfulness • Defining mindfulness • Components of mindfulness practice

o intention o awareness o attitude

4. Mindfulness practices • Formal and informal practices • Mindful sitting posture

5. Mindful eating • Mindfully eating a raisin (10 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

6. Benefits of mindfulness • Research described showing benefits for: o daily life and general well-being o workplace well-being and productivity

7. Mechanisms of mindfulness • Hypothesized mechanisms described: o attention regulation o emotion regulation o increased self-awareness

8. Mindfulness of the breath • Mindfulness of the breath practice (10 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

9. Acceptance • Self-compassion practice (10 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

10. Home practice • Mindfulness of the breath (10 minutes each day) • Mindfulness of a routine daily activity (e.g.

brushing teeth, showering, etc.) • Summary handout of Session 1 provided, including

URL for online mindfulness recordings.

66

Table 3.1 continued from previous page

Structure of each session of the workplace mindfulness intervention

Session 2

Activity Details and objectives

1. Introduction • Set agenda for session

2. Mindfulness of breath • Mindfulness of breath practice (5 minutes)

3. Home practice review • Feedback and discussion: o How practice went o Experiences o Barriers and challenges to practice

4. Mindfulness of the body • Body scan practice (15 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

o Initially in pairs and then as a group o Included discussion of how practice may be

helpful in the workplace

5. Mindful walking • Mindful walking practice (15 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

6. Acceptance • Self-compassion practice (10 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

7. Home practice • Mindfulness of the body (15 minutes each day) • Mindful walking (5-10 minutes each day) • Summary handout of Session 2 provided

67

Table 3.1 continued from previous page

Structure of each session of the workplace mindfulness intervention

Session 3

Activity Details and objectives

1. Introduction • Set agenda for session

2. Mindfulness of breath • Mindfulness of breath practice (5 minutes)

3. Home practice review • Feedback and discussion: o How practice went o Experiences o Barriers and challenges to practice

4. Mindfulness of thoughts • Mindfulness of thoughts practice (15 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

o Initially in pairs and then as a group o Included discussion of how practice may be

helpful in the workplace

5. Mindful communication • Mindful communication practice (15 minutes) o Communicating mindfully in pairs

• Feedback and discussion o Included discussion of how practice may be

helpful in the workplace

6. Acceptance • Practice for developing acceptance • Feedback and discussion

o Included discussion of how practice may be helpful in the workplace

7. Home practice • Mindfulness of the breath and body (15 minutes each day)

• Mindfulness of thoughts (a few times this week) • Mindfulness of desires and cravings practice (once

or twice this week) o This practice was explained in detail during

the session, and simply involved bringing greater awareness to desires and cravings before acting on them.

• Summary handout of Session 3 provided

68

Table 3.1 continued from previous page

Structure of each session of the workplace mindfulness intervention

Session 4

Activity Details and objectives

1. Introduction • Set agenda for session

2. Mindfulness of breath • Mindfulness of breath practice (5 minutes)

3. Home practice review • Feedback and discussion: o How practice went o Experiences o Barriers and challenges to practice

4. Mindfulness of the body • Body scan practice (15 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

5. Mindfulness of emotions • Mindfulness of emotions practice (15 minutes) o This practice involved eliciting a mild

negative emotion and then noticing what occurs.

• Feedback and discussion o Initially in pairs and then as a group o Included discussion of how practice may be

helpful in the workplace

6. Acceptance and compassion • Loving-kindness practice (15 minutes) • Feedback and discussion

o Included discussion of how practice may be helpful in the workplace

7. Summary of mindfulness program

• Review of mindfulness practices covered during 4-week program

8. Home practice • Participants encouraged to continue practicing mindfulness post-program

69

consistent with predictions (Baer et al., 2006; Baer et al., 2008). The internal consistency coefficient

for current sample was .93.

Reappraisal was measured with an abbreviated version of the Emotion Regulation

Questionnaire (ERQ) that included the four items on the reappraisal dimension with the highest

factor loadings in Gross and John (2003). The internal consistency of the abbreviated 4-item scale

was .91. Cognitive flexibility, positive affect, co-worker relationship quality, innovation-related

behaviours, resistance to change, work engagement and thriving at work were all measured using

the same measures that were used in the previous study of dispositional mindfulness in the

workplace (Chapter 2). In addition, the mean response to the five negative emotions included in the

PANAS-SF was used as a measure of negative affect. The internal consistency coefficients of the

pre-training survey for the current sample were .81 for the Cognitive Flexibility Scale, .91 for the

reappraisal dimension of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ), .81 for the positive affect

dimension and .87 for the negative affect dimension of the PANAS-SF, .94 for the Rewarding Co-

worker Relations Scale, .80 for the Innovation-Related Behaviours Scale, .88 for the Resistance to

Change Scale, .93 for the Work Engagement Scale, and .91 for the Thriving at Work Scale.

3.3 Results

No control group was used in the present study and so several analyses were conducted to

evaluate treatment effectiveness. Pre-post changes in the outcome measures were investigated using

paired sample t tests. A Bonferroni correction, which was applied to the results of the pre-post t

tests to control for the multiple comparisons of mindfulness, potential mediators and workplace

outcomes, indicated that p<.005 was required for significance (the five mindfulness facets were not

included in the Bonferroni correction, as they were not part of the primary analyses of the results).

In addition, pre-post effect sizes were calculated using the formula suggested by Rosenthal (1984)

for matched pairs data (d=t/√degrees of freedom). Finally, the percentage of participants who

reported a clinically significant change was calculated using the reliable change index (RCI;

Jacobson & Truax, 1991). The RCI is a statistic that determines whether the extent of change from

pre to post for a participant exceeds a level that could occur through chance (measurement error)

and can therefore be considered clinically meaningful. It is calculated by subtracting a participant’s

pre-intervention score on a measure from their post-intervention score, and then dividing the result

by the standard error of the difference between the two scores. An RCI that is larger than 1.96

indicates a pre-post change that is unlikely to be due to chance (p<.05).

70

3.3.1 Participant flow and missing data

There were 169 employees who registered online to participate in the study. However, 38 of

them did not attend any of the training sessions and were therefore not included in the study. Of the

remaining 131 participants, 14 did not complete the questionnaires and were therefore also excluded

from the study. The final sample used in the analyses included 117 participants. Of these, 26

participants dropped out during the training (17 after week 1, 6 after week 2, and 3 after week 3).

Those participants were included in the analyses with their last observations carried forward.

3.3.2 Pre-post changes in mindfulness

The hypothesis that mindfulness would increase was initially tested using a paired sample t

test comparing participant’s overall scores on the FFMQ post-intervention with their pre-

intervention scores (Table 3.2). As expected, participants reported significantly higher levels of

mindfulness at post-intervention than at pre-intervention, t(116)=5.48, p<.001. Follow-up paired

sample t tests to assess change at the subscale level revealed that there were significant pre-post

increases in scores on all five of the FFMQ subscales at the p<.05 alpha level (t scores ranged from

Pre-MBI Post-MBI Follow-up Pre-Post Pre-Follow-

up Variable M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) t d t d

Mindfulness 3.16 (0.55) 3.40 (0.60) 3.39 (0.61)

5.69** 0.53

4.97** 0.46

Nonreact 2.65 (0.72) 2.92 (0.82) 2.99 (0.82)

3.75** 0.35

4.69** 0.44

Observe 3.04 (0.74) 3.20 (0.86) 3.21 (0.79)

2.03* 0.19

2.28* 0.21

Act with Awareness 3.23 (0.79) 3.44 (0.80) 3.34 (0.79)

3.41** 0.32

1.63 0.15

Describe 3.18 (0.90) 3.39 (0.96) 3.41 (0.94)

3.41** 0.32

3.49** 0.32

Nonjudge 3.63 (0.89) 4.07 (0.82) 4.00 (0.86)

7.06** 0.66

5.46** 0.51

Cognitive flexibility 4.57 (0.57) 4.65 (0.64) 4.65 (0.64) 1.78 0.17 1.64 0.15 Reappraisal 5.03 (0.92) 5.27 (0.92) 5.24 (1.04)

3.22** 0.30

2.37* 0.22

Positive affect 3.11 (0.77) 3.11 (0.79) 3.07 (0.83)

0.09 0.01

0.50 0.05 Negative affect 1.94 (0.89) 1.59 (0.65) 1.68 (0.77)

5.10** 0.47

3.55** 0.33

Relationship Quality 3.72 (0.77) 3.69 (0.81) 3.65 (0.87)

0.50 0.05

1.22 0.11 Innovative Behaviours 6.15 (3.61) 4.87 (3.91) 5.26 (4.07) 3.58** 0.33 2.39* 0.22 Resistance to change 3.06 (0.67) 2.92 (0.70) 2.94 (0.72)

3.60** 0.33

3.01** 0.28

Work engagement 3.55 (1.02) 3.56 (1.25) 3.57 (1.32)

0.10 0.01

0.12 0.01 Thriving at work 3.13 (0.71) 3.20 (0.77) 3.20 (0.80)

1.32 0.12

1.28 0.12

Note: MBI = mindfulness-based intervention; M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

* p < .05 ** p < .01

Table 3.2

Means and standard deviations for variables at pre-MBI, post-MBI and 2-month follow-up. Pre-

post and pre-follow-up paired-sample t tests and effect sizes (n = 117)

71

2.03 to 7.06, all p’s<.05). After applying the Bonferroni correction, the observe subscale failed to

reach significance. Interestingly, that was the mindfulness subscale that Baer and colleagues (2012)

found had the largest effect size following an 8-week MBI. The pre-post change in overall

mindfulness had a moderate effect size of d=0.53, which was similar to that reported by previous

studies (Baer et al., 2012; Harnett et al., 2010). The effect sizes for the four mindfulness subscales

that reached significance were small to medium (d’s ranged from 0.32 to 0.66). With the exception

of the describe subscale, they were lower than the effect sizes that were reported by Baer and her

colleagues (2012).

The RCI analyses that were carried out to assess clinical significance found that 27.4% of

participants reported a clinically significant increase in mindfulness from pre-intervention to post-

intervention (Table 3.3). The percentage of participants who reported a significant improvement on

each subscale of the FFMQ ranged from 31.6% for the acting with awareness subscale to 47.9% for

the non-judging subscale.

Pre-MBI to Post-MBI Pre-MBI to 2-Month Follow-Up

Variable Improvement No

Change Deterioration Improvement No

Change Deterioration

Mindfulness 27.4% 69.2% 3.4% 27.4% 67.5% 5.1%

Nonreact 42.7% 39.3% 17.9% 47.9% 33.3% 18.8%

Observe 33.3% 42.7% 23.9% 29.9% 47.9% 22.2%

Act with Awareness 31.6% 52.1% 16.2% 29.9% 47.0% 23.1%

Describe 32.5% 56.4% 11.1% 32.5% 53.8% 13.7%

Nonjudge 47.9% 44.4% 7.7% 48.7% 38.5% 12.8%

Cognitive flexibility 13.7% 78.6% 7.7% 15.4% 78.6% 6.0% Reappraisal 23.9% 68.4% 7.7% 25.6% 63.2% 11.1% Positive affect 8.5% 81.2% 10.3% 9.4% 76.1% 14.5% Negative affect 22.2% 72.6% 5.1% 20.5% 70.9% 8.5% Relationship Quality 14.5% 71.8% 13.7% 12.8% 68.4% 18.8% Innovative Behaviours 4.3% 74.4% 21.4% 9.4% 73.5% 17.1% Resistance to change 12.8% 86.3% 0.9% 13.7% 82.9% 3.4% Work engagement 17.1% 68.4% 14.5% 19.7% 63.2% 17.1% Thriving at work 20.5% 66.7% 12.8% 22.2% 60.7% 17.1%

Table 3.3

Percentage of participants (n=117) showing a significant change following the MBI using the

Reliable Change Index (RCI)

72

3.3.3 Pre-post changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and affect

The hypotheses that the workplace MBI would lead to increases in cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect were also investigated by comparing post-intervention with pre-

intervention scores using paired sample t tests. As shown in Table 3.2, the results indicated a

significant pre-post increase in reappraisal (t(116)=3.22, p=.002), with an effect size of d=0.30.

There were no significant pre-post changes in cognitive flexibility (t(116)=1.78, p=.077ns) or

positive affect (t(116)=0.09, p=.932ns). The latter finding was in contrast to previous studies that

found increases in positive affect following an MBI (Harnett et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers,

2008). However, a significant pre-post decrease in negative affect was observed (t(116)=5.10,

p<.001), with an effect size of d=0.47. As shown in Table 3.3, the RCI analyses of pre-post changes

revealed that 13.7 per cent of participants reported a significant increase in cognitive flexibility,

23.9 per cent reported a significant increase in reappraisal, and 22.2 per cent reported a significant

decrease in negative affect.

3.3.4 Effects of MBI on workplace measures

The same analyses were used to investigate the impact of the MBI on the workplace

outcomes of interest. As shown in Table 3.2, paired sample t tests comparing pre- and post-

intervention scores revealed significant pre-post decreases in resistance to change (t(116)=3.60,

p<.001) and innovative behaviours (t(116)=3.58, p<.001), but no significant pre-post changes in co-

worker relationship quality (t(116)=0.50, p=.619ns), work engagement (t(116)=0.10, p=.920ns), or

thriving at work (t(116)=1.32, p=.189ns). The decreases in resistance to change and innovative

behaviours both had an effect size of d=0.33. The decrease in innovative behaviours was surprising,

as it was hypothesized that they would increase following the MBI. As shown in Table 3.3, the RCI

analyses of pre-post changes found that 12.8 per cent of participants reported a significant decrease

in resistance to change and 21.4 per cent reported a significant decrease in innovative behaviours.

There were also 14.5% of participants who reported a significant improvement in relationship

quality, 17.1% who reported a significant increase in work engagement, and 20.5% who reported a

significant increase in thriving.

3.3.5 2-Month Follow-up

Paired samples t tests were used to investigate whether the changes observed at post-

intervention were sustained until two months after the mindfulness intervention ended. Relative to

pre-intervention, mindfulness scores were still significantly higher at the 2-month follow-up,

t(116)=4.88, p<.001. Similarly, the scores of reappraisal (t(116)=2.37, p=.020), negative affect

(t(116)=3.55, p=.001) and resistance to change (t(116)=3.01, p=.003) were all still improved from

pre-intervention scores at the 2-month follow-up, However, the improvement in reappraisal was

73

non-significant if a Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons was applied. Finally, the scores

of innovative behaviours, (t(116)=2.40, p=.018) were still lower than pre-intervention scores at the

2-month follow-up. No other measures were significantly different from pre-intervention levels at

the 2-month follow-up.

3.3.6 Associations between changes in mindfulness and other outcomes

To investigate the extent to which changes in mindfulness may have led to changes in the

other outcomes, the correlation between the pre-post changes in mindfulness and the pre-post

changes in each of the outcomes of interest was also calculated. As multiple bivariate correlations

were involved, only those with p<.01 were considered significant. As shown in Table 3.4, the

results revealed that changes in mindfulness were associated with changes in cognitive flexibility

(r=.40, p<.001), resistance to change (r=-.37, p<.001), work engagement (r=.28, p=.002) and

thriving at work (r=.27, p=.004). However, it is unclear whether the associations with cognitive

flexibility, work engagement and thriving are meaningful given that overall there were no

significant pre-post changes in these outcomes. In contrast, the observed improvement in

reappraisal and the reduction in negative affect were not significantly correlated with changes in

Number of practice sessions

Duration of practice sessions

Pre-post change in mindfulness Variable

Mindfulness

.25**

-.06

Nonreact

.17

-.05

Observe

.26**

.01

Act with Awareness

.01

-.01

Describe

.30**

-.06

Nonjudge

.02

-.09

Cognitive Flexibility .17 .11 .40** Reappraisal

.07

.02

.19

Positive affect

.08

.08

.18 Negative affect

.01

.20

-.13

Relationship Quality

.07

.07

.11 Innovative Behaviours .12 .05 .13 Resistance to change

-.15

-.11

-.37**

Work engagement

.19

.07

.28** Thriving at work

.20

.06

.27**

** p < .01

Table 3.4

Correlations between average weekly mindfulness practice and pre-post changes in other variables

and between pre-post changes in mindfulness and pre-post changes in other variables

74

mindfulness, suggesting that the MBI may have impacted those outcomes in ways other than by

improving mindfulness. The results of analyses of changes for individual participants using the RCI

also suggested that improvements may have been due to non-specific effects of the intervention.

They revealed that 53.6% of participants with a significant pre-post improvement in reappraisal,

65.4% with a significant pre-post decrease in negative affect, and 40% with a significant pre-post

improvement in resistance to change did not show a significant improvement in mindfulness.

3.3.7 Impact of prior mindfulness practice

The impact of prior mindfulness experience on pre-post changes in mindfulness was also

investigated. Prior to the intervention, 14 participants reported having a regular mindfulness

practice while 85 reported brief or no mindfulness experience (18 participants did not provide a

response). Prior to the intervention, participants who had never or only briefly practiced

mindfulness had significantly lower FFMQ scores (M=3.08, SD=.58) than participants with a

regular mindfulness practice (M=3.54, SD=.51; t(97)=2.77, p=.007). A mixed-factorial ANOVA

comparing pre-post changes on the FFMQ for participants who reported a regular pre-existing

mindfulness practice with those who had never or only briefly practiced mindfulness revealed a

significant difference between the groups (F(1, 97)=8.68, p<.001). As shown in Figure 3.1, follow-

up paired-sample t tests found that the participants who already had a regular mindfulness practice

showed no significant pre-post change in FFMQ scores (t(13)=0.13, p=.900ns), whereas the

2.8

2.9

3

3.1

3.2

3.3

3.4

3.5

3.6

Pre Post

FFM

Q

Est

imat

ed M

argi

nal M

ean

Prior regularmindfulness practice

No prior regularmindfulness practice

Figure 3.1. Pre-post changes in mindfulness (FFMQ scores) for participants with a pre-existing

regular mindfulness practice (n=14) compared with those without a pre-existing regular mindfulness

practice (n=85)

75

participants who had never or only briefly practiced mindfulness before the intervention showed a

significant pre-post increase in FFMQ scores (t(84)=5.92, p<.001).

The impact of prior mindfulness experience on pre-post changes in cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect was also investigated. Prior to the intervention, participants who had

never or only briefly practiced mindfulness had significantly lower cognitive flexibility scores

(M=4.51, SD=.56) than participants with a regular mindfulness practice (M=4.90, SD=.55;

t(97)=2.43, p=.017). A mixed-factorial ANOVA comparing pre-post changes in cognitive flexibility

for participants who reported a regular pre-existing mindfulness practice with those who had never

or only briefly practiced mindfulness revealed a significant difference between the groups (F(1,

97)=7.80, p=.006). As shown in Figure 3.2, cognitive flexibility appeared to decrease slightly

during the intervention for participants who already had a regular mindfulness practice, but follow-

up paired-sample t tests found that this change was not significant (t(13)=1.61, p=.131ns). It is

unclear whether this decrease would have been significant had there been a larger sample size. In

contrast, there was a significant increase in cognitive flexibility for participants who had never or

only briefly practiced mindfulness before the intervention (t(84)=2.48, p=.015). The above analyses

were repeated for reappraisal and positive affect, but no differences were observed between groups.

The impact of prior mindfulness experience on pre-post changes in each of the above

workplace outcomes was also investigated. However, no differences were observed between those

with and without a pre-existing mindfulness practice.

4.3

4.4

4.5

4.6

4.7

4.8

4.9

5

Pre Post

Cogn

itive

Fle

xibi

lity

Est

imat

ed M

argi

nal M

ean

Prior regularmindfulness practice

No prior regularmindfulness practice

Figure 3.2. Significant Pre-Post change in cognitive flexibility for participants without a pre-

existing regular mindfulness practice (n=85) compared with no significant change for those with a

pre-existing regular mindfulness practice (n=14)

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3.3.8 Home mindfulness practice

Each week during the intervention, participants were asked to select one of five responses

that best described how often they had practiced mindfulness during the previous week (every day,

on 4 or 5 days, on 2 or 3 days, once, not at all) and one of six responses that best described the usual

duration of each mindfulness practice session (I didn’t practice at all, less than 5 minutes, 5 to 15

minutes, 15 to 30 minutes, 30 minutes to 1 hour, more than 1 hour). A correlation analysis was

conducted comparing participant’s average number of practice sessions, and also the average

duration of those sessions, over the four weeks with their pre-post changes on other measures. The

analysis involved multiple bivariate correlations and so only those with p<.01 were considered

significant. As shown in Table 3.4, there was a significant correlation between the average number

of times participants practiced mindfulness each week and their pre-post change in self-reported

mindfulness (r=.25, p=.008). Analyses at the subscale level revealed that the number of practice

sessions correlated significantly with pre-post changes in the observing (r=.26, p=.004) and non-

judging (r=.30, p=.001) facets, but not with changes in the other facets. The average number of

practice sessions did not correlate significantly with pre-post changes in any of the other study

measures. Similarly, the analysis of the average duration of practice sessions found no significant

correlations between duration and pre-post changes on any of the outcomes. Overall, the results

suggest that the frequency, but not duration, of mindfulness practice may have an impact on the

development of the observing and non-judging facets of mindfulness.

3.4 Discussion

This results of this study indicated that a brief 8-hour mindfulness-based intervention

delivered over 4 weeks in the workplace had a number of beneficial effects, including

improvements in self-reported mindfulness and positive reappraisal, and a reduction in negative

affect. In addition, workplace-specific measures revealed a reduction in resistance to change.

Surprisingly, there was also a reduction in self-reported innovative behaviours. On the other hand,

there were no significant changes in self-reports of cognitive flexibility, positive affect, co-worker

relationship quality, work engagement, or thriving at work. All of the changes that occurred during

the intervention were maintained until the 2-month follow-up.

3.4.1 Impact of MBI on mindfulness, reappraisal and negative affect

Overall, the observed improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal and negative affect are in

line with previous studies that have found similar improvements at the group level following

mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs; Baer et al., 2012; Carmody & Baer, 2008; Garland et al.,

2011; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008). Furthermore, the present study shows that such beneficial

effects can be achieved within the workplace via an abbreviated MBI involving only four 2-hour

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sessions. The results therefore add support to prior studies that suggest MBIs may be a cost-

effective way of improving mindfulness and well-being within the workplace (Escuriex & Labbé,

2011; Wolever et al., 2012). The current findings are also in line with Garland and colleague’s

(2009) mindful coping model, which proposes that increases in mindfulness during an MBI improve

well-being by enabling individuals to shift from stress appraisals to positive reappraisals. However,

it should be noted that the current analyses are not sufficient to demonstrate a causal relationship

between improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal and well-being.

Despite the significant pre-post changes described above, the majority of participants in this

study did not show a clinically significant change in any of the outcome measures. Only around a

quarter of participants reported significant improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal, and negative

affect, while only 13% of participants reported a significant decrease in resistance to change. No

other workplace MBI studies, to the knowledge of the authors, have used the RCI to investigate the

number of participants reporting clinically significant changes on outcome measures, and so it is

unknown whether such a low proportion showing significant improvements is the norm. However,

the present results are somewhat similar to Harnett and colleagues (2010) who found that about a

third of participants from a community sample reported a reduction in psychological distress

following a 3-week MBI. Both studies used a non-clinical community sample.

3.4.2 Impact of MBI on cognitive flexibility

Previous studies have reported that participation in an MBI led to increases in cognitive

flexibility (Jensen et al., 2012; Moore & Malinowski, 2009). Study 1 also found that dispositional

mindfulness was associated with cognitive flexibility (Chapter 2). It was therefore predicted that

increases in mindfulness during the current MBI would lead to increases in cognitive flexibility.

Interestingly, while that hypothesis was not supported for the overall group of participants, a

significant pre-post increase in cognitive flexibility was found when participants with a regular pre-

existing mindfulness practice were excluded from the analysis. The lack of overall increase in

cognitive flexibility may have therefore been due to having a mix of experienced and non-

experienced mindfulness practitioners. The increase in cognitive flexibility for novices, but not for

more experienced mindfulness practitioners, suggests that cognitive flexibility may increase

significantly during the early stages of practicing mindfulness, but then reach a ceiling after which

further mindfulness practice has less impact. This is hardly surprising, as the most rapid

improvement in most skills would usually be seen during the early stages of training, with it

levelling off as one becomes more experienced. However, this suggestion is speculative given the

small sample size of experienced mindfulness practitioners in the current study.

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3.4.3 Impact of MBI on positive affect

The lack of change in positive affect during the intervention was contrary to expectations, as

Study 1 found a positive association between mindfulness and positive affect (Chapter 2), and

previous studies have also reported significant increases in positive affect following an MBI

(Harnett et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008). However, there are other studies that have failed

to find an increase in positive affect (Adams, 2011; Martín-Asuero & García-Banda, 2010). It is not

clear whether the outcomes of the different studies are due to differences in the interventions or to

differences in the participants in each study. Most of the facilitators who delivered the intervention

for the current study had little or no mindfulness experience, which may have limited its

effectiveness. Perhaps facilitators with more experience in cultivating and modelling positive

emotions, and a greater emphasis on practices like the loving-kindness practice that generate

positive emotions, would have a greater impact on this outcome. However, the average level of

positive affect of participants in the current study prior to the intervention (M=3.11, SD=.77) also

appears to have been higher than in the studies by Harnett and colleagues (M=2.65, SD=.68; 2010)

and Nyklicek and Kuijipers (M=2.84; SD=1.41; 2008), suggesting that there may have been a

ceiling effect due to there being less room for improvement. Furthermore, quite a few participants

in the current study reported that they were attending the mindfulness training out of curiosity or

because they were hoping to improve their ability to focus at work, rather than as a way to improve

their well-being. So differences in participants and their expectations may also explain the different

outcomes. Future studies of MBIs should systematically evaluate motivations and expectations,

particularly in non-clinical samples.

3.4.4 Impact of MBI on co-worker relationship quality

As reported in Chapter 2, the previous study found that self-reported mindfulness was

associated with co-worker relationship quality. It was therefore surprising that increases in self-

reported mindfulness during the MBI did not lead to increases in self-reported relationship quality.

However, the previous study found that dispositional mindfulness only explained 2% of the

variance in relationship quality, and so it may be that large increases in mindfulness would be

needed before changes in relationship quality would become apparent. It is also worth noting that

positive affect was a significant mediator of the association between dispositional mindfulness and

relationship quality in Study 1, and as positive affect is associated with better interpersonal

relations, the workplace MBI was expected to enhance relationship quality partly by increasing

positive affect. However, no improvements in positive affect were seen, which may partially

explain the lack of change in the quality of relationships reported. The results of the current study

align with those of Giluk (2011), who found that a workplace MBI failed to improve co-worker

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relationship quality as reported by participant’s supervisors and co-workers. In discussing

limitations of that study Giluk (2011) suggests that aggregating ratings from multiple co-workers

may have been questionable, as relationships may not all be affected in the same way by behaviour

changes in the study participant. However, the results of the current study suggest that a brief MBI

had little impact on the perceived quality of relationships with co-workers.

In contrast to the findings of the current study and those of Giluk (2011), a qualitative study

by Hunter and McCormick (2008) found that managers and professionals who practice mindfulness

described improvements in interpersonal relations. Other studies have also shown that mindfulness

improves specific interpersonal skills such as leadership and negotiation (Reb & Narayanan, 2011;

Reb et al., 2014). It may therefore be useful for future studies to investigate the association between

mindfulness and specific components or aspects of interpersonal relations in the workplace, rather

than the very broad measure of co-worker relationship quality used in the current study.

3.4.5 Impact of MBI on innovative behaviours

Given that the previous study (Chapter 2) found a positive association between dispositional

mindfulness and self-reported innovative behaviours, the current study investigated whether

training employees in mindfulness would increase innovative behaviours. Surprisingly, however,

participants reported significantly lower levels of innovative behaviours at post-intervention than at

pre-intervention. That was despite significant pre-post increases in mindfulness.

There are several potential explanations for this finding. The first is that training people in

mindfulness actually reduces innovative behaviours. The results of the current study suggest there

were increases in mindfulness, which has been shown to be associated with creativity (Zabelina et

al., 2011). However, a central component of mindfulness is acceptance (Baer et al., 2006; Bishop et

al., 2004), and so it is possible that when individuals participate in an MBI, they become more

accepting of how things are and therefore experience less desire to change or improve things.

Consequently, they may feel less motivated to engage in innovative behaviours. Interestingly, one

of the participants in the current study expressed some concern about this possibility during a

private conversation with the researcher. She was concerned that some participants in her

mindfulness group seemed to be using the mindfulness practice to help them ‘passively’ accept the

workplace issues that they were unhappy about, rather than actively trying to improve them. This

certainly raises some interesting questions about the impact that mindfulness may have on whether

people respond actively or passively to difficult circumstances (eg. Monteiro, Musten, & Compson,

2014).

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Another potential explanation worth considering is that some of the cognitive resources

needed to implement innovative behaviours might have been "used up" by the process of learning

mindfulness. For example, Teasdale, Segal and Williams (1995) have suggested that mindfulness

may help prevent depressive relapse, as habitually re-deploying attention to present-moment

experience uses up cognitive resources that might otherwise support rumination and worry. Perhaps

learning to repeatedly re-deploy attention to the present moment also impacts the amount of

cognitive resources that are available for thinking in creative and innovative ways.

However, an alternative explanation for the results of the current study is that they were an

artefact of the Innovation-Related Behaviours Scale that was used. The scale asks participants to

report the number of new ideas they have come up with relating to workplace issues, whether they

shared the ideas with supervisors and co-workers, and whether the ideas were implemented. The

original scale asks participants to think back over the last 6 months when answering the questions,

whereas for the current study that was altered to 1 week to allow for repeated measures (weekly

changes are reported in Chapter 4). One problem with making that change is that when completing

the pre-intervention measure, participants may have been inclined to count innovative behaviours

that occurred slightly more than a week prior. On the other hand, when completing the subsequent

weekly measures, the ‘previous week’ would have been more clearly delineated and so they

probably would have only counted the behaviours since last completing the measure a week earlier.

The pre-intervention results may have therefore been inflated in comparison to the subsequent

weekly and post-intervention results. It is therefore unclear whether the significant drop in

innovative behaviours that occurred during the MBI was an artefact of the measure that was used or

a real effect of the intervention. It is also possible that aspects of the intervention, such as the lack

of teacher experience, may have reduced the impact on innovative behaviours. Future studies will

need to investigate this further with a mindfulness intervention led by more experienced teachers

and with a more objective measure of innovative behaviours, or at least with a scale that has been

validated as a measure of innovative behaviours over such a short timeframe.

3.4.6 Impact of MBI on resistance to change

As reported in Chapter 2, the first study found that individuals with higher levels of

dispositional mindfulness were less resistant to change, and that cognitive flexibility mediated that

association. To extend that finding, this study investigated whether increases in mindfulness during

a workplace MBI would reduce resistance to change, as well as whether increases in cognitive

flexibility would mediate those changes. Of the five workplace outcomes of interest, resistance to

change was the only one that showed a significant pre-post improvement. This is the first study to

show that an MBI can reduce dispositional resistance to change. This finding tentatively suggests

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that mindfulness training may be a helpful tool to provide to employees prior to and during periods

of organisational change. However, it is worth noting that multiple factors influence attitudes

towards organisational change, with them being particularly dependent on the context and nature of

the specific changes occurring (for review, see Choi, 2011). Nevertheless, as the fundamental

purpose of the Buddhist mindfulness practices upon which modern MBIs are based is initially to

increase awareness and develop acceptance of the impermanence of all phenomena (Thera, 2005), it

is possible that such practices would enhance people’s ability to cope with change. Future research

requires prospective studies that assess the impact of mindfulness on employee coping during actual

organisational change.

3.4.7 Impact of MBI on work engagement

The lack of improvement in work engagement during the intervention was contrary to

expectations, given that dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with work engagement

(Malinowski & Lim, 2015 and see Chapter 2 of current thesis) and that increases in work

engagement have previously been reported following a workplace MBI (Leroy et al., 2013).

However, the current study predicted that the MBI would increase work engagement at least

partially by increasing positive affect, as positive emotions are integral to the work engagement

construct (Macey & Schneider, 2008) and have been shown to be related to changes in engagement

(Bledow et al., 2011). Furthermore, the previous study (Chapter 2 of this thesis) and the study by

Malinowski and Lim (2015) both found that positive affect partially mediated the association

between dispositional mindfulness and work engagement. The lack of increase in work engagement

may therefore be due to a lack of change in positive affect. The study by Leroy and colleagues

(2013) that reported increases in work engagement following an MBI did not specifically measure

positive affect, and so it is not known whether it contributed to the changes in engagement. More

work is therefore needed to determine whether changes in work engagement following mindfulness

training are dependent on changes in positive affect. The current study also predicted that

mindfulness training would improve work engagement by increasing reappraisal. Given previous

findings of an association between reappraisal and work engagement, it is unclear why the observed

increases in reappraisal in the current study did not lead to increases in work engagement. It may be

that the association between reappraisal and work engagement is also dependent on positive affect.

3.4.8 Impact of MBI on thriving at work

The lack of change in thriving at work during the MBI was also unexpected, as the previous

study (Chapter 2 of this thesis) found that dispositional mindfulness was positively associated with

thriving at work. Furthermore, a major dimension of the thriving construct is subjective vitality,

which has previously been found to increase during an MBI (Canby et al., 2014). However, as with

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work engagement, the lack of change in thriving at work during the current MBI may be due to the

lack of change in positive affect. The previous study (Chapter 2) found that positive affect was

highly correlated with thriving at work, and that it largely mediated the association between

mindfulness and thriving. The study by Canby and colleagues (2014) that reported improvements in

vitality following an MBI did not specifically measure positive affect, and so it is not known

whether it contributed to the changes in vitality. However, the vitality dimension of the thriving

construct is largely a measure of well-being. For example, markers of positive affect include among

others feeling attentive, alert, enthusiastic, energised, and strong (Watson et al., 1988), which could

also be described as markers of vitality. So it may be that improvements in vitality, and

consequently in thriving at work, following mindfulness training are dependent on increases in

positive affect.

Of course, it is also possible that mindfulness training may not increase thriving at work.

The extent to which individuals report they are thriving at work would be influenced by their

attitude towards many aspects of their work, including the job role, the behaviour of management,

and other aspects of the work environment. If an individual is unhappy or frustrated with aspects of

their work, learning mindfulness may help them to become more accepting of those aspects and to

cope with them better. However, it may not change their attitude toward them sufficiently to feel

that they are thriving. That is, learning mindfulness may enable an individual to feel more accepting

of, and less stressed about, their work environment without necessarily feeling that it is providing

opportunities for growth or learning.

Finally, it is also possible that participants’ responses to the learning dimension of the

thriving at work scale might have been influenced by the timeframe that participants had in mind

when responding, in the same way as suggested above for innovation-related behaviours. The items

for the learning dimension of the scale ask participants to report the extent to which they learn new

things at work. When completing the pre-intervention measure, participants may have considered

things they had learnt at work over a long period of time. However, when completing the

subsequent weekly measures, they may have only considered things they had learnt at work since

completing the same measure a week earlier. Any such difference in the timeframe considered by

participants could possibly have masked improvements in thriving at work.

3.4.9 Association between changes in mindfulness and other outcomes

The significant correlation between pre-post decreases in resistance to change and an

increase in mindfulness suggests that increases in mindfulness may have mediated that

improvement. Changes in mindfulness were also significantly correlated with changes in cognitive

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flexibility, work engagement and thriving at work, but it is unclear whether those associations are

meaningful given that overall there were no significant changes in these outcomes. In contrast, the

improvements in reappraisal and the reductions in negative affect and innovative behaviours were

not significantly correlated with changes in mindfulness, suggesting that the MBI may have

impacted these outcomes in ways other than by improving mindfulness.

Interestingly, the analyses of changes for individual participants using the RCI revealed that

40-65% of participants who showed a significant improvement in an outcome measure other than

mindfulness did not show a significant improvement in mindfulness. That raises some questions

about whether the improvements in mindfulness led to the observed improvements in other

measures. Previous studies have reported significant correlations between improvements in

mindfulness and improvements in measures of psychological distress following an MBI, suggesting

that mindfulness may have mediated those improvements (Canby et al., 2014; Carmody & Baer,

2008). However, concerns have been raised about the reliability of correlating the change scores of

different measures following an intervention (Cohen & Cohen, 1983; Gardner & Neufeld, 1987). It

may therefore be useful for future studies of the effects of MBIs to investigate whether the

individuals who show significant improvements on outcome measures are the same individuals who

show improvements in mindfulness. The results of the present study suggest that may not always be

the case.

3.4.10 Impact of prior mindfulness practice

Participants in the current study with a pre-existing regular mindfulness practice reported

significantly higher levels of mindfulness prior to the intervention than the other participants, which

is line with previous findings (Baer et al., 2008). They also reported higher pre-intervention levels

of cognitive flexibility. However, only the participants without the prior regular mindfulness

practice improved in mindfulness during the intervention. Those results are to be expected, as

increases in mindfulness are likely to be the greatest during the first few weeks of practice with

them levelling out once a long-term regular practice is established. Interestingly, prior regular

mindfulness practice had no impact on any of the other variables, either in terms of pre-intervention

differences or in terms of changes during the intervention. However, only 14 participants reported

an existing mindfulness practice, and so the small sample size may have made it hard to detect

differences in the other variables.

3.4.11 Impact of home mindfulness practice during the MBI

The results also indicated that the frequency of home mindfulness practice during the

intervention predicted pre-post changes in the observing and non-judging facets of the FFMQ, but

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not in the other mindfulness facets. Carmody and Baer (2008) also found that home mindfulness

practice during an MBI correlated with changes in the observing facet of the FFMQ, but they did

not find a correlation with the non-judging facet. They also found that home practice correlated with

changes in the acting with awareness and non-react facets. On the other hand, other studies have

found no correlation between mindfulness practice during an MBI and changes in mindfulness

(Carmody, Reed, Kristeller, & Merriam, 2008; Kristeller & Hallett, 1999). While the different

findings may be due to differences in the interventions, it remains unclear whether it is mindfulness

practice or other aspects of MBIs that contribute most to increases in mindfulness. That uncertainty

also applies to other outcomes of MBIs. The current study found no correlations between the

frequency of home mindfulness practice during the intervention and any of the other study

variables. Nor was there any correlation between the average duration of mindfulness practice

sessions and any of the study measures. In a review of the association between home practice and

outcomes, Vettese and colleagues (2009) reported that about half of the studies reviewed found that

home practice was associated with outcomes. More work is needed to distinguish the specific

effects of practicing mindfulness from the psychoeducation and other non-specific effects of MBIs.

3.4.12 Limitations and future directions

The current study has a number of limitations. The lack of a control group means that

observed changes may have been due to factors other than the intervention. For example, about half

of the mindfulness groups were delivered to teachers and other staff within schools, which is a

working environment that has some busy and stressful periods throughout the year. So a transition

into or out of one of those periods during the MBI might have influenced the measures taken.

However, the mindfulness groups were staggered over a couple of months, thereby reducing the

likelihood of that. Nevertheless, the lack of a control group in the current study means that the

possibility of other factors systematically influencing the results cannot be ruled out.

The current study was also subject to the limitations of self-report measures, which assume

that respondents interpret questions as intended and have the necessary knowledge and motivation

to retrieve the requested information (Tourangeau et al., 2000). There was a particular issue with the

weekly self-report of innovative behaviours using a measure that has not been validated over such a

short timeframe. The repeated exposure to the same measures weekly for 5 weeks, and then 2

months later, may have also impacted the results. It is also worth noting that any changes in

mindfulness, or lack thereof, during the intervention were specifically changes in mindfulness as

measured by the FFMQ. While the FFMQ is a robust and highly-utilised mindfulness scale, there

remains considerable debate about what mindfulness scales actually measure (Baer, 2011;

Grossman, 2008).

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Another potential limitation was that the facilitators of the mindfulness groups had little or

no prior mindfulness experience. While they were given training and provided with a detailed

manual to follow, their lack of experience may have reduced the effectiveness of the MBI. For

example, a study by Bränström, Kvillemo, Brandberg, & Moskowitz (2010) found that an MBI

delivered by inexperienced and non-certified mindfulness instructors had a smaller effect on

measures of psychological well-being than comparable studies with experienced mindfulness

instructors. It is therefore possible that outcomes that did not change significantly during the current

MBI may have improved if the training was provided by experienced mindfulness instructors. The

effectiveness of the mindfulness training may have also been undermined by the inclusion of so

many measures in the weekly surveys during the MBI. Comments by some of the participants

suggested that the long surveys may have created an additional stressor. Finally, it is also possible

that changes did occur during the current MBI that were not detected due to using the conservative

measure of last observation carried forward (LOCF) to deal with missing data. Future studies could

address some of these limitations by including a control group and more objective measures, and

also looking at the effects of an MBI facilitated by experienced mindfulness teachers.

3.4.13 Conclusion

In line with prior studies, this study has demonstrated that a brief mindfulness-based

intervention provided to office employees and school teachers improved measures associated with

psychological well-being and cognitive functioning in the workplace. In addition, it is the first study

to show that mindfulness training reduces dispositional resistance to change. A surprising drop in

innovative behaviours during the intervention was also observed, but it is not clear whether that was

a real effect or an artefact of the measure used. While the overall results of this study support the

findings of previous studies, which suggest that workplace MBIs may be a cost-effective way to

improve well-being among employees, it remains unclear to what extent changes in mindfulness

explain those improvements. The current study found correlations between improvements in

mindfulness, as measured by the FFMQ, and improvements in some of the other measures, but also

that there were many participants who improved on other measures without showing a significant

improvement in mindfulness. More work is therefore needed to investigate the mechanisms via

which MBIs exert their beneficial effects. In particular, it would be useful for future studies to

investigate the mechanisms via which MBIs improve psychological well-being for some people

without improving measures of their mindfulness. The next study will address some of these issues

by investigating the weekly changes that occurred during the current intervention in order to

investigate whether changes in mindfulness preceded changes in the other outcomes. It will also

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investigate whether changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect mediated

changes in the workplace outcomes, both at the group-level and for individual participants.

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Chapter 4 – Workplace MBI Mechanisms of Change

4.1 Introduction

Drawing on previous theoretical and empirical work in the mindfulness research literature, it

was proposed in Chapter 1 that by increasing cognitive flexibility, reappraisal and positive affect,

mindfulness would have a positive impact on a number of important workplace outcomes. The

results of Study 1 (Chapter 2) supported this proposal by showing that dispositional mindfulness

was associated with all of the workplace outcomes of interest, and that one or more of the proposed

mediators explained each association. The second study (Chapter 3) extended those findings by

investigating whether a brief workplace mindfulness training program would lead to improvements

in these workplace outcomes, as well as in mindfulness and the proposed mechanisms of change.

That study found significant pre-post improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal, negative affect,

and resistance to change, but not in positive affect, co-worker relationship quality, work

engagement, and thriving. Additionally, a significant pre-post increase in cognitive flexibility was

reported by participants without a regular pre-existing mindfulness practice. There was also an

unexpected decrease in innovative behaviours, but as explained in Chapter 3 that may have been an

artefact of the measure that was used. The results of the second study also raised some doubts about

whether improvements in some of the outcomes were likely to be due to increases in mindfulness,

as many of the participants who improved on those outcomes did not show significant

improvements in mindfulness.

This study aims to extend the findings of the previous two studies by investigating the

mechanisms of change during a workplace MBI. The study uses a similar approach to Baer and

colleagues (2012), who took weekly measures during an 8-week MBI and found that changes in

mindfulness preceded changes in perceived stress. For the current study, weekly measures that were

taken during the workplace MBI in Study 2 will be analysed to determine whether changes in

mindfulness preceded changes in workplace outcomes, and whether the proposed mechanisms of

cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect mediated those changes. However, in addition

to looking at the timing of group-level changes as was done by Baer and colleagues, the current

study will also investigate the timing of changes for individual participants.

The same five workplace outcomes that were included in the previous two studies will be

analysed here. At the group level, four of those outcomes did not show significant pre-post

improvements during the previous study. However, for each of those outcomes there were

participants who showed clinically significant improvements. The current analyses therefore aims to

determine whether the improvements for those participants were preceded by increases in

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mindfulness, and if so whether there were improvements in the proposed mediators after the

increases in mindfulness and prior to the improvements in the workplace measures.

The hypotheses for the current study are first that changes in mindfulness during the

workplace MBI will lead to changes in the workplace outcomes. Specifically, improvements in co-

worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, work engagement and

thriving will be preceded by improvements in mindfulness, both at the group level and for

individual participants. Secondly, it is predicted that changes in mindfulness during the MBI will

lead to changes in workplace outcomes via changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive

affect. Specifically for each workplace outcome, the results of Study 1 (Figure 2.6) suggest that

improvements in relationship quality and thriving will be preceded by increases in reappraisal and

positive affect, which will in turn be preceded by increases in mindfulness. Similarly, improvements

in innovative behaviours and resistance to change are expected to be preceded by increases in

cognitive flexibility, which is in turn expected to be preceded by increases in mindfulness. Finally,

improvements in work engagement are expected to be preceded by increases in cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal and positive affect, with those processes in turn being preceded by increases in

mindfulness.

4.2 Method

This study involved analyses of weekly self-report data that was collected during the

previous study (Chapter 3). It included the same 117 participants who were included the previous

analyses, and is based on the outcomes of their participation in the same workplace MBI. However,

this study investigated the timing of changes in the study variables by analysing data that was

collected each week during the intervention. The same study variables were investigated, including

mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect, as well co-worker relationship

quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, work engagement and thriving. The measures

used to record the weekly changes in those variables were the same as described in Chapter 3,

including the 15-item version of the FFMQ, the Cognitive Flexibility scale, an abbreviated 4-item

version of the reappraisal dimension of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, the positive affect

dimension of the PANAS, the Co-worker Relationship Quality scale, the Innovation-Related

Behaviours scale, the resistance to change scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement scale, and the

Thriving at Work scale. As with the previous studies (Chapters 2 and 3), separate analyses were

conducted for each workplace outcome.

To examine changes at the group-level, a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA)

was initially conducted with each variable to determine whether a significant change occurred at

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least once during the 5 weeks between completing the pre-intervention and post-intervention

surveys. For the variables that showed significant changes during the MBI, follow-up paired sample

t tests were used to compare each week with the pre-intervention score to determine when those

changes had occurred. These analyses provided an indication of the order of changes in the different

variables.

In addition, changes for individual participants were analysed by using the reliable change

index (RCI) to compare each participant’s weekly scores for each measure with their pre-

intervention score for that measure in order to determine the week at which a significant change

occurred. These analyses provided an indication of the order of changes in the different variables

for each individual participant.

4.3 Results

4.3.1 Weekly changes in mindfulness, proposed mediators, and workplace outcomes

The mechanisms underlying changes in workplace outcomes during the intervention were

initially investigated by determining whether a change in each workplace outcome was preceded by

a change in mindfulness. Subsequent analyses then investigated whether changes in workplace

outcomes were preceded by changes in cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive

affect, and whether those changes were in turn preceded by a change in mindfulness. Each

hypothesized mechanism of change was tested by examining weekly changes in each relevant

variable over the course of the mindfulness intervention. Support for the hypothesized mechanisms

of change would be provided if those mechanisms changed prior to changes in workplace outcomes.

Mindfulness. A repeated measures ANOVA was initially conducted with total mindfulness

score (15-item version of the FFMQ) as the dependent variable to determine whether a significant

change occurred at least once during the 5 weeks from completing the pre-intervention survey to

completing the post-intervention survey. As Mauchly’s test indicated that the assumption of

sphericity had been violated, χ2(9)=138.07, p<.001, the degrees of freedom were corrected using

Greenhouse-Geisser estimates of sphericity (ϵ=.59). The results revealed a main effect of time,

F(2.36, 273.46)=21.82, p<.001, suggesting that significant changes in mindfulness occurred at least

once during the 5 weeks. To investigate the time-point at which significant changes occurred,

follow-up paired sample t tests were used to compare each week with the pre-intervention

mindfulness score. As shown in Table 4.1, mindfulness was significantly higher than pre-

intervention at Weeks 2, 3, and 4 (t’s ranged from 3.57 to 5.48, all p’s<=.001). Additional paired

sample t tests comparing each week with the preceding week revealed that significant changes

occurred during Weeks 2 and 3 (t’s ranged from 3.36 to 4.22, all p’s<=.001).

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Pre-MBI Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Post-MBI Follow-up Variable M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD)

Mindfulness 3.16 (0.55) 3.19 (0.53) 3.29 (0.56) 3.38 (0.61) 3.40 (0.60) 3.39 (0.61) Cognitive Flexibility 4.57 (0.57) 4.58 (0.53) 4.61 (0.54) 4.66 (0.59) 4.65 (0.64) 4.65 (0.64) Reappraisal (ERQ) 5.03 (0.92) 5.14 (0.93) 5.21 (0.89) 5.25 (0.98) 5.27 (0.92) 5.24 (1.04) Positive Affect 3.11 (0.77) 3.11 (0.73) 3.03 (0.72) 3.05 (0.78) 3.11 (0.79) 3.07 (0.83) Relationship Quality 3.72 (0.77) 3.67 (0.72) 3.68 (0.77) 3.64 (0.80) 3.69 (0.81) 3.65 (0.87) Innovative Behaviours 6.15 (3.61) 4.91 (3.66) 4.41 (3.70) 4.44 (3.84) 4.87 (3.91) 5.26 (4.07) Resistance to Change 3.06 (0.67) 3.08 (0.64) 2.98 (0.61) 2.97 (0.64) 2.92 (0.70) 2.94 (0.72) Work Engagement 3.55 (1.02) 3.50 (1.10) 3.44 (1.19) 3.50 (1.22) 3.56 (1.25) 3.57 (1.32) Thriving at Work 3.13 (0.71) 3.14 (0.71) 3.12 (0.72) 3.16 (0.76) 3.20 (0.77) 3.20 (0.80)

Table 4.1

Weekly means and standard deviations for study variables

-0.30

-0.20

-0.10

0.00

0.10

0.20

0.30

0.40

0.50

Pre-MBI Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Post-MBI

Nonreact

Observe

Awareness

Describe

Nonjudge

Figure 4.1. Comparison of timing of changes in the FFMQ subscales. Scores are standardised

by subtracting the pre-intervention score from the score for each week and dividing the

difference by the standard deviation for that week

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Weekly changes in the subscales of the FFMQ (15-item version) were also analysed with

each subscale as the dependent variable in a repeated measures ANOVA (Table 4.2). Mauchly’s test

indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been violated for all subscales (χ2’s ranged from

41.92 to 108.92, all p’s<.001) and so the degrees of freedom were corrected using Huynh-Feldt

estimates of sphericity (ϵ’s ranged from .66 to .86). The results revealed a main effect of time for all

subscales (F’s ranged from 7.51 to 9.41, all p’s<.001), suggesting that significant changes in each

mindfulness facet occurred at least once over the 5 weeks. Follow-up paired sample t tests

comparing weekly scores for each subscale with pre-intervention scores (Figure 4.1) and with the

scores for the previous week revealed some variation in the timing of changes for each subscale.

The non-reactivity subscale improved significantly by week 1 (t(116)=4.84, p<.001) and remained

significantly better than pre-intervention for the remainder of the intervention. For the observing,

describing, and non-judging subscales, it was week 2 by the time they improved significantly from

pre-intervention (t’s ranging from 2.54 to 3.19, all p’s<=.01). They all then remained significantly

better than pre-intervention for the remainder of the intervention. Additional improvements

occurred in the observing subscale from week 1 to week 2 (t(116)=2.37, p=.020), and in the

describing (t(116)=2.41, p=.018) and marginally in the non-judging (t(116)=1.92, p=.058) subscales

from week 2 to week 3. Weekly changes for the acting with awareness subscale were quite unique,

with it decreasing significantly from pre-intervention to week 1 (t(116)=3.01, p=.003), then

increasing significantly from week 1 to week 2 (t(116)=2.63, p=.010) and from week 2 to week 3

(t(116)=2.67, p=.009). However, none of the weekly measures of acting with awareness were

significantly better than pre-intervention.

Cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect. Separate repeated

measures ANOVAs were then conducted with scores for cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal,

Pre-MBI Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Post-MBI Follow-up Measure M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) M (SD) Non-reactivity* 2.61 (0.85) 2.73 (0.80)a 2.84 (0.86)a 2.92 (0.92)a 2.92 (0.82)a 2.99 (0.82)a Observing* 2.91 (0.84) 2.97 (0.76) 3.10 (0.79)ab 3.15 (0.82)a 3.20 (0.86)a 3.21 (0.79)a Act with Awareness* 3.32 (0.85) 3.15 (0.75)a 3.27 (0.76)b 3.41 (0.78)b 3.44 (0.80) 3.34 (0.79)b Describing* 3.13 (0.99) 3.21 (0.92) 3.28 (0.87)a 3.38 (0.93)ab 3.39 (0.96)a 3.41 (0.94)a Non-judging* 3.78 (0.91) 3.89 (0.88) 3.96 (0.87)a 4.04 (0.83)a 4.07 (0.82)a 4.00 (0.86)a Note: M = mean, SD =standard deviation, MBI = mindfulness-based intervention. * Repeated-measures ANOVA showed significant change over the 5 weeks (p<.05). a Score is significantly different from the pre-MBI score (p < .05). b Score is significantly different from preceding week’s score (p < .05).

Table 4.2

Weekly means and standard deviations for the FFMQ subscales

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and positive affect as the dependent variables to determine whether they changed significantly

during the 5 weeks. Mauchly’s test indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been violated for

all three measures (χ2 ranged from 36.44 to 72.62, all p’s<.001), and so degrees of freedom were

corrected using Huynh-Feldt estimates of sphericity (ϵ ranged from .76 to .89). Main effects of time

were observed for cognitive flexibility, F(3.02, 350.69)=2.68, p=.047, and for reappraisal, F(3.57,

273.46)=3.78, p=.007, suggesting that significant changes in cognitive flexibility and reappraisal

occurred at least once during the 5 weeks. However, no main effect of time was observed for

positive affect, F(3.49, 405.03)=.95, p=.427ns, suggesting that there was no significant change in

positive affect during the intervention. Follow-up t tests comparing each week with pre-intervention

showed that cognitive flexibility was significantly higher than pre-intervention at Week 3 only,

t(116)=2.40, p=.018, while reappraisal was significantly higher than pre-intervention at Weeks 2

and 3, and at post-intervention (t’s ranged from 2.27 to 3.22, all p’s<.05). Additional paired sample

t tests comparing each week with the preceding week revealed that significant changes in cognitive

flexibility occurred during Week 3, t(116)=2.29, p=.024, whereas for reappraisal there were no

weeks for which the score was significantly different from the preceding week. The results for

reappraisal therefore suggest a gradual improvement between pre-intervention and Week 2.

Workplace outcomes. Separate repeated measures ANOVAs were then conducted with

scores for each of the workplace outcomes (co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours,

resistance to change, work engagement, and thriving at work) as the dependent variables to

determine whether they changed significantly during the 5 weeks. Mauchly’s test indicated that the

assumption of sphericity had been violated for all five measures (χ2 ranged from 34.06 to 85.64, all

p’s<.001), and so degrees of freedom were corrected using Huynh-Feldt estimates of sphericity (ϵ

ranged from .76 to .89). No main effects of time were observed for co-worker relationship quality,

F(3.30, 382.78)=.738, p=.542ns, work engagement, F(3.04, 353.02)=1.16, p=.324ns, and thriving at

work, F(3.12, 362.18)=.97, p=.409ns, suggesting that there were no significant changes in those

three outcomes at any point during the intervention. However, main effects of time were observed

for innovative behaviours, F(3.56, 413.14)=11.87, p<.001, and for resistance to change, F(3.37,

391.02)=8.24, p<.001, suggesting that significant changes in innovative behaviours and resistance

to change occurred at least once during the 5 weeks. Follow-up t tests compared the innovative

behaviours and resistance to change scores for each week with pre-intervention scores. Contrary to

expectations, innovative behaviours scores were significantly lower than pre-intervention at Weeks

1, 2, and 3, and at post-intervention (t’s ranged from 3.58 to 5.97, all p’s<.001). However, in line

with expectations, resistance to change scores were significantly lower than pre-intervention at

Weeks 2 and 3, and at post-intervention (t’s ranged from 2.46 to 3.60, all p’s<.05). Additional

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paired sample t tests comparing each week with the preceding week revealed that significant

changes in innovative behaviours occurred during Week 1, t(116)=4.84, p<.001, while significant

changes in resistance to change occurred during Week 2, t(116)=3.20, p=.002.

4.3.2 Comparison of weekly changes

Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3 show a comparison of the timing of changes in innovative

behaviours and resistance to change respectively, which were the only workplace outcomes that

changed significantly during the intervention, with the timing of changes in the other variables. The

changes in mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect are presented in both

figures in order to demonstrate how they compare with each workplace outcome. To enable

presentation on the same scale, the scores for all variables shown in Figure 4.2 and Figure 4.3 have

been standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention score from the score for each week and

dividing the difference by the standard deviation for that week. So the figures show how many

standard deviations each measure has changed from pre-intervention at each subsequent week.

The standardised scores for resistance to change shown in Figure 4.3 have been reversed so that

for all measures increases represent improvement.

As shown in Figure 4.2, there was a significant drop in innovative behaviours during the

first week of the intervention, prior to changes in any other variables. It is therefore unlikely that the

changes that were observed in mindfulness, cognitive flexibility, and reappraisal contributed to this

change, as they occurred later.

As shown in Figure 4.3, improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal, and resistance to

change were all observed by week 2. For mindfulness and reappraisal that improvement appears to

have occurred gradually over the first 2 weeks, while for resistance to change the entire

improvement occurred during the second week. While that suggests that changes in mindfulness

and reappraisal may have preceded changes in resistance to change, it is not sufficient evidence to

conclusively demonstrate that. For cognitive flexibility, there was an improvement in week 3 after

the observed improvements in mindfulness, reappraisal, and resistance to change, suggesting that it

is unlikely that improvements in cognitive flexibility contributed to improvements in resistance to

change. As shown, there were no significant changes in positive affect during the intervention.

4.3.3 Mechanisms of change in individual participants

To investigate whether changes in mindfulness for individual participants led to changes in

their levels of cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect, and whether those changes in

turn led to changes in the workplace outcomes, the Reliable Change Index (RCI) was used to

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-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Pre-MBI Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Post-MBI

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal (ERQ)

Positive affect

Resistance to change

Figure 4.3. Comparison of timing of changes in resistance to change with changes in other

variables. Scores are standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention score from the score for each

week and dividing the difference by the standard deviation for that week

-0.6

-0.5

-0.4

-0.3

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

Pre-MBI Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Post-MBI

Mindfulness

Cognitive flexibility

Reappraisal (ERQ)

Positive affect

Innovative behaviours

Figure 4.2. Comparison of timing of changes in innovative behaviours with changes in other

variables. Scores are standardised by subtracting the pre-intervention score from the score for each

week and dividing the difference by the standard deviation for that week

95

determine the timing of changes in the different variables for individual participants (Jacobson &

Truax, 1991). The RCI identifies participants who have a statistically reliable change in a measure

during an intervention. It is generally used to identify participants who achieve a clinically

significant improvement. For the current study, the RCI was used to compare each participant’s

weekly score for each measure with their pre-intervention score for that measure in order to

determine the week at which a significant change occurred. Changes in mindfulness occurring

earlier than changes in the other outcomes would add support to the hypotheses that increasing

mindfulness enhances those outcomes. In addition, improvements in cognitive flexibility,

reappraisal, and positive affect occurring after changes in mindfulness but prior to changes in

workplace outcomes would add support to the hypotheses that those processes mediate the effects

of increased mindfulness on the workplace outcomes. For each hypothesis, participants were

Support for Hypothesis Description

Full support

Improvement in mindfulness (and proposed mediator for applicable analyses) and workplace outcome during the intervention, AND improvement in mindfulness preceded the improvement in (the proposed mediator for applicable analyses, and improvement in the proposed mediator preceded the improvement in) the workplace outcome, AND the improvement in mindfulness, (the proposed mediator for applicable analyses), and workplace outcome were all sustained until the end of the program.

Partial support – 1

a) Same as full support, HOWEVER improvement in mindfulness (and/or proposed mediator) not sustained until the end of the intervention.

b) Same as full support for applicable analyses, HOWEVER improvements in mindfulness and proposed mediator, or in proposed mediator and outcome, occurred simultaneously.

Partial support – 2

Improvement in workplace outcome that was not sustained until the end of the intervention AND a sustained or non-sustained prior or simultaneous improvement in mindfulness (and proposed mediator for applicable analyses)

No support

a) No improvement in mindfulness, (proposed mediator where applicable), or workplace outcome

b) Improvement in workplace outcome that was not sustained until the end of the intervention, AND no improvement in mindfulness (and/or the proposed mediator where applicable) or the improvement in the workplace outcome preceded the improvement in mindfulness (and/or the proposed mediator where applicable).

Contrary evidence

Improvement in workplace outcome that was sustained until the end of the intervention, HOWEVER the improvement in the workplace outcome preceded the improvement in mindfulness (and/or the proposed mediator where applicable) or no improvement in mindfulness (and/or the proposed mediator) was observed.

Table 4.3

Explanation of categories used to describe the level of support found for hypotheses

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allocated to one of four categories (full support, partial support, no support, and contrary evidence)

based on the extent to which that participant’s data supported the hypothesis (see Table 4.3 for

definition of the criteria for each category).

Table 3.3 in Chapter 3 showed the percentage of participants who had a significant pre-post

change on each of the measures. As was shown there, even for the measures that showed significant

group-level changes (mindfulness, reappraisal, negative affect, innovative behaviours, and

resistance to change), the majority of participants did not report a clinically significant change.

The level of support for the hypotheses that the MBI would lead to increases in mindfulness

and each of the proposed mechanisms of change, and that mindfulness changes would precede

changes in these variables, are shown in Table 4.4. The level of support for the hypotheses that the

MBI would lead to increases in mindfulness and each of the workplace outcomes, and that

mindfulness changes would precede changes in the workplace outcomes, are shown in Table 4.5.

The level of support for the hypotheses that the MBI would bring about an increase in mindfulness,

leading to increases in the proposed mechanisms of change, leading in turn to improvements in the

workplace outcomes, are shown in Table 4.6.

Cognitive flexibility, reappraisal and positive affect. The hypothesis that the MBI

would bring about an increase in mindfulness, leading to subsequent increases in cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal and positive affect was tested with each of these processes separately. For

Legend FFMQ Mindfulness PA Positive affect CF Cognitive flexibility REAP Reappraisal

Pre-post improvement in outcome No pre-post improvement in outcome n

Mediator/Outcome Full support*

Partial support

– 1*

Contrary evidence* Subtotal

Partial support

– 2* No support* Subtotal Total

FFMQ - CF 8 (6.8%) 1 (0.9%) 7 (6.0%) 16 2 (1.7%) 99 (84.6%) 101 117

FFMQ - REAP 4 (3.4%) 5 (4.3%) 17 (14.5%) 26 5 (4.3%) 86 (73.5%) 91 117

FFMQ - PA 4 (3.4%) 1 (0.9%) 5 (4.3%) 10 3 (2.6%) 104 (88.9%) 107 117

* See Table 4.3 for explanation of full support, partial support (1 and 2), no support, and contrary evidence categories.

Table 4.4

The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness during the MBI

preceded increases in each of the proposed mechanisms of change.

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increased mindfulness leading to increased cognitive flexibility, full support was only found for

eight participants (6.8%), while three participants (2.6%) showed partial support (Table 4.4). On the

other hand, there was contrary evidence for seven participants (6.0%) who reported an improvement

in cognitive flexibility, but whose improvement occurred prior to or excluding any improvement in

mindfulness. The results of the remaining 84.6% of participants did not support the hypothesis. Of

the 16 participants who reported a significant pre-post increase in cognitive flexibility, eight of

them (50%) reported a prior increase in mindfulness that was sustained until post-intervention. On

the other hand, there were another 24 participants who reported an increase in mindfulness without

any subsequent increase in cognitive flexibility.

For the hypothesis that increases in mindfulness during the intervention would lead to

increased reappraisal, five participants (4.2%) showed full support, eleven (9.2%) showed partial

support, whereas 17 participants (14.3%) showed contrary evidence (Table 4.4). The results of the

remaining 72.3% of participants did not support the hypothesis. Of the 28 participants who reported

a significant pre-post increase in reappraisal, only five of them (17.9%) reported a prior increase in

mindfulness that was sustained until post-intervention. On the other hand, there were another 27

Legend FFMQ Mindfulness RQ Relationship quality IB Innovative behaviours RTC Resistance to change WE Work engagement TaW Thriving at work

Pre-post improvement in outcome No pre-post improvement in outcome n

Mediator/Outcome Full support*

Partial support

– 1*

Contrary evidence* Subtotal

Partial support

– 2* No support* Subtotal Total

FFMQ - RQ 2 (1.7%) 4 (3.4%) 11 (9.4%) 17 3 (2.6%) 97 (82.9%) 100 117

FFMQ - IB improvement 2 (1.7%) 0 (0.0%) 3 (2.6%) 5 5 (4.3%) 107 (91.5%) 112 117

FFMQ - RTC 8 (6.8%) 0 (0.0%) 7 (6.0%) 15 6 (5.1%) 96 (82.1%) 102 117

FFMQ - WE 5 (4.2%) 4 (3.4%) 11 (9.3%) 20 3 (2.5%) 95 (80.5%) 98 118

FFMQ - TaW 7 (6.0%) 1 (0.9%) 16 (13.7%) 24 3 (2.6%) 90 (76.9%) 93 117

FFMQ - IB deterioration 3 (2.6%) 6 (5.1%) 16 (13.7%) 25 3 (2.6%) 89 (76.1%) 92 117

* See Table 4.3 for explanation of full support, partial support (1 and 2), no support, and contrary evidence categories.

Table 4.5

The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness during the MBI

preceded increases in each of the workplace outcomes.

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participants who reported an increase in mindfulness without any subsequent increase in

reappraisal.

Finally, for the hypothesis that increases in mindfulness during the MBI would lead to

increased positive affect, four participants (3.4%) showed full support, another four (3.4%) showed

partial support, while five (4.3%) showed contrary evidence (Table 4.4). The results of the

Legend FFMQ Mindfulness CF Cognitive flexibility REAP Reappraisal PA Positive affect RQ Relationship quality IB Innovative behaviours RTC Resistance to change WE Work engagement TaW Thriving at work

Pre-post improvement in outcome No pre-post improvement in outcome n

Mediator/Outcome Full support*

Partial support –

1*

Contrary evidence* Subtotal

Partial support –

2*

No support* Subtotal Total

FFMQ - CF - RQ 0 (0.0%) 2 (1.7%) 14 (12.0%) 16 1 (0.9%) 100 (85.5%) 101 117

FFMQ - REAP - RQ 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.9%) 15 (12.8%) 16 0 (0.0%) 101 (86.3%) 101 117

FFMQ - PA - RQ 0 (0.0%) 1 (0.9%) 16 (13.7%) 17 1 (0.9%) 99 (84.6%) 100 117

FFMQ - CF - IB 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 5 (4.3%) 5 1 (0.9%) 111 (94.9%) 112 117

FFMQ - REAP - IB 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 5 (4.3%) 5 2 (1.7%) 110 (94.0%) 112 117

FFMQ - PA - IB 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 5 (4.3%) 5 0 (0.0%) 112 (95.7%) 112 117

FFMQ - CF - RTC 0 (0.0%) 4 (3.4%) 11 (9.4%) 15 0 (0.0%) 102 (87.2%) 102 117

FFMQ - REAP - RTC 0 (0.0%) 5 (4.3%) 10 (8.5%) 15 0 (0.0%) 102 (87.2%) 102 117

FFMQ - PA - RTC 0 (0.0%) 2 (1.7%) 13 (11.1%) 15 0 (0.0%) 102 (87.2%) 102 117

FFMQ - CF - WE 1 (0.9%) 1 (0.9%) 17 (14.5%) 19 2 (1.7%) 96 (82.1%) 98 117

FFMQ - REAP - WE 1 (0.9%) 4 (3.4%) 14 (12.0%) 19 1 (0.9%) 97 (82.9%) 98 117

FFMQ - PA - WE 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 18 (15.4%) 18 1 (0.9%) 98 (83.8%) 99 117

FFMQ - CF - TaW 2 (1.7%) 2 (1.7%) 20 (17.1%) 24 0 (0.0%) 93 (79.5%) 93 117

FFMQ - REAP - TaW 1 (0.9%) 3 (2.6%) 20 (17.1%) 24 0 (0.0%) 93 (79.5%) 93 117

FFMQ - PA - TaW 1 (0.9%) 2 (1.7%) 21 (17.9%) 24 0 (0.0%) 93 (79.5%) 93 117

* See Table 4.3 for explanation of full support, partial support (1 and 2), no support, and contrary evidence categories.

Table 4.6

The number and percentage of participants for who increases in mindfulness during the MBI

preceded increases in the mechanisms of change, which in turn preceded improvements in the

workplace outcomes.

99

remaining 88.9% of participants did not support the hypothesis. Of the 10 participants who reported

a significant pre-post increase in positive affect, only four of them (40.0%) reported a prior increase

in mindfulness that was sustained until post-intervention. On the other hand, there were another 28

participants who reported a pre-post increase in mindfulness without any subsequent increase in

positive affect. Overall, these results add little support to the hypothesis that improvements in

mindfulness during the intervention would lead to increases in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal and

positive affect.

Co-worker relationship quality. For the hypothesis that the MBI would lead to increases

in mindfulness and co-worker relationship quality, and that the mindfulness changes would precede

changes in relationship quality, full support was only found for two participants (1.7%), while seven

participants (6.0%) showed partial support (Table 4.5). On the other hand, there was contrary

evidence for 11 participants (9.4%) who reported an improvement in relationship quality, but whose

improvement occurred prior to or excluding any improvement in mindfulness. The results of the

remaining 82.9% of participants did not support the hypothesis. Of the 17 participants who reported

a significant pre-post increase in relationship quality, only 2 of them (12%) reported a prior increase

in mindfulness that was sustained until post-intervention. It therefore appears unlikely that increases

in mindfulness during the intervention led to improvements in relationship quality.

The hypothesis that the MBI would bring about an increase in mindfulness, leading to

increases in reappraisal and positive affect, leading in turn to improved co-worker relationship

quality was tested with each proposed mediator separately. As shown in Table 4.6, full support for

mediation by reappraisal was not found for any participants, while only one participant (0.9%)

showed partial support. However, there was contrary evidence for 15 participants (12.8%) who also

reported a significant improvement in relationship quality, but whose improvement occurred prior

to or excluding any improvement in mindfulness or reappraisal. With positive affect as the proposed

mediator of changes in relationship quality, there were no participants showing full support, and

two (1.7%) showing partial support, but 16 (13.7%) showing contrary evidence. For both of the

above analyses, most participants (86.3% for mediation by reappraisal and 84.6% for mediation by

positive affect) showed no support for the hypotheses.

Innovation-related behaviours. For the hypothesis that the intervention would improve

mindfulness leading to improvements in innovative behaviours, two participants (1.7%) showed full

support, five (4.3%) showed partial support, whereas three (2.6%) showed contrary evidence (Table

4.5). The remaining 91.5% of participants showed no support for the hypothesis. As the previous

study (Chapter 3) found a significant decrease in innovative behaviours during the workplace MBI,

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the current study also looked at whether those decreases for individual participants were preceded

by increases in mindfulness. In other words, did increases in mindfulness lead to the observed

decreases in innovative behaviours? The results of the current analyses indicated that of the 25

participants who reported a significant pre-post decrease in innovative behaviours, only 3 of them

(12%) reported a prior increase in mindfulness. On the other hand, there were another 29

participants who reported an increase in mindfulness without a subsequent decrease in innovative

behaviours. It therefore appears unlikely that increases in mindfulness during the intervention led to

the observed decreases in innovative behaviours.

There was also little support for the hypothesis that the intervention would improve

mindfulness leading to improvements in cognitive flexibility which would in turn lead to increased

innovative behaviours. As shown in Table 4.6, no participants showed full support, one (0.9%)

showed partial support, and five participants (4.3%) showed contrary evidence. The remaining

94.9% of participants showed no support for the hypothesis.

Resistance to change. For the hypothesis that the intervention would improve mindfulness

leading to improvements in resistance to change, as shown in Table 4.5, eight participants (6.8%)

showed full support, six (5.1%) showed partial support, whereas there was contrary evidence for

seven participants (6.0%). The remaining 82.1% of participants showed no support for the

hypothesis. Of the 15 participants who reported a significant pre-post decrease in resistance to

change, eight (53%) of them reported a prior increase in mindfulness that was sustained until post-

intervention. However, there were another 24 participants who showed an increase in mindfulness

without a subsequent decrease in resistance to change.

There was little support for the hypothesis that the intervention would improve mindfulness

leading to improvements in cognitive flexibility which would in turn lead to decreases in resistance

to change. As shown in Table 4.6, no participants showed full support, 3.4% showed partial

support, and 9.4% of participants showed contrary evidence. The remaining 87.2% of participants

showed no support for the hypothesis.

Work engagement. Similarly, for the hypothesis that the intervention would bring about

increases in mindfulness leading to improvements in work engagement, as shown in Table 4.5, only

five participants (4.3%) showed full support, seven (6.0%) showed partial support, whereas there

was contrary evidence for eleven participants (9.3%). There was no support for the hypothesis

among the remaining 81.2% of participants. Of the 20 participants who reported a significant pre-

post increase in work engagement, only five of them (25%) reported a prior increase in mindfulness

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that was sustained until post-intervention. On the other hand, there were 27 participants who

showed an increase in mindfulness without a subsequent improvement in engagement.

The hypothesis that the intervention would lead to improvements in mindfulness leading to

increases in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect, leading in turn to increases in

work engagement was tested with each proposed mediator separately. As shown in Table 4.6, only

one participant (0.9%) showed full support, and three (2.6%) partial support, for cognitive

flexibility as a mediator of increases in work engagement. However, 14.5% of participants showed

contrary evidence, while 82.1% showed no support. Similarly, with reappraisal as the proposed

mediator, only two participants (1.7%) showed full support and four (3.4%) showed partial support,

while there was contrary evidence for 12% and no support for 82.9%. With positive affect as the

proposed mediator, no participants showed full support and only one (0.9%) showed partial support,

while there was contrary evidence for 15.4% and no support for the remaining 83.8% of

participants.

Thriving at work. For the hypothesis that the intervention would improve mindfulness

leading to improvements in thriving at work, as shown in Table 4.5, seven participants (6.0%)

showed full support, four (3.4%) showed partial support, whereas there was contrary evidence for

16 participants (13.7%). The remaining 76.9% of participants showed no support for the hypothesis.

Of the 24 participants who reported a significant pre-post increase in thriving, only seven of them

(29.0%) reported a prior increase in mindfulness that was sustained until post-intervention. On the

other hand, there were 25 participants who showed a pre-post increase in mindfulness without a

subsequent improvement in thriving.

The hypothesis that the intervention would lead to increased thriving at work following

increases in reappraisal and positive affect, which were in turn preceded by increased mindfulness,

was tested separately with each proposed mediator. As shown in Table 4.6, only one participant

(0.9%) showed full support, and three (2.6%) showed partial support, for reappraisal as a mediator

of increased thriving at work. However, 17.1% of participants showed contrary evidence, while

79.5% showed no support. Similarly, with positive affect as the proposed mediator, only one

participant (0.9%) showed full support and two (1.7%) showed partial support, while there was

contrary evidence for 17.9% and no support for 79.5% of participants.

Summary of changes in individual participants. As shown in Table 4.5, the majority of

participants who reported a significant pre-post improvement on a workplace outcome during the

intervention did not report a prior improvement in mindfulness that was sustained until post-

intervention. The only exception was resistance to change, for which eight of the 15 participants

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who reported a pre-post decrease in resistance to change reported a prior increase in mindfulness

that was sustained until post-intervention. Similarly, as shown in Table 4.6, very few of the

participants who improved on a workplace outcome reported prior improvements in the proposed

mediators that were in turn preceded by improvements in mindfulness. Overall, these results add

little support to the hypothesized mechanisms of change.

4.3.4 Home mindfulness practice

Weekly changes in the number of home mindfulness practice sessions, and also in the

duration of those sessions, reported each week and at the 2-month follow-up were analysed with

repeated measures ANOVAs. Mauchly’s test indicated that the assumption of sphericity had been

violated for number of practice sessions (χ2(9)=68.29, p<.001) and for session duration

(χ2(9)=67.52, p<.001) and so the degrees of freedom were corrected using Huynh-Feldt estimates of

sphericity (ϵ’s were .81 and .82 respectively). The results revealed a main effect of time for practice

sessions (F(3.24, 376.09)=14.90, p<.001) and for session duration (F(3.29, 381.12)=8.68, p<.001),

suggesting that both measures varied significantly during the study. Follow-up paired sample t tests

comparing the number of practice sessions reported at each time point with the preceding time point

revealed that the number of practice sessions each week did not vary during the 4-week

intervention, but decreased significantly between post-intervention and the 2-month follow-up,

t(116)=4.73, p<.001. The same analysis of the average session duration showed that it increased

significantly from week 1 to week 2 (t(116)=3.06, p=.003), then remained constant for the

remainder of the intervention before decreasing significantly between post-intervention and the 2-

month follow-up, t(116)=3.28, p=.001.

Additional analyses were conducted to investigate whether the number or duration of home

mindfulness practice sessions correlated with pre-post changes in the other variables. As this

involved multiple bivariate correlations, only those with a p value of less than .01 were considered

significant. Interestingly the average number, but not duration, of weekly practice sessions between

week 1 and post-intervention was significantly correlated with the pre-post changes in mindfulness

(r=.24, p=.010). That is, participants who practiced more regularly showed larger increases in

mindfulness, whereas the average duration of each practice session did not make a difference. No

significant correlations were found between number of practice sessions or session duration and the

other outcomes.

4.4 Discussion

The current study initially aimed to investigate the hypotheses that increases in mindfulness

during a workplace MBI would lead to changes in the workplace outcomes of interest. Further

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analyses then investigated the hypotheses that those changes would be mediated by one or more

cognitive and affective processes, including cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect.

Those hypotheses were investigated by measuring weekly changes in the study variables during the

intervention, with it being predicted that there would be early increases in mindfulness, followed by

changes in the proposed mediators that would in turn be followed by improvements in the

workplace outcomes.

4.4.1 Timing of changes in mindfulness

It was hypothesized that increases in mindfulness would be an early outcome of the

workplace MBI. The results support that hypothesis, as participants reported significantly higher

levels of mindfulness by week 2 of the intervention in comparison to pre-intervention levels.

Furthermore, that increase continued with week 3 levels being significantly higher than week 2

levels. Mindfulness levels remained higher than pre-intervention for the remainder of the

intervention, and were still higher than pre-intervention at the 2-month follow-up. These results

largely confirm those of Baer and her colleagues (2012) who investigated the weekly changes in

mindfulness during an 8-week MBI. That study also found that mindfulness increased significantly

by week 2 of the intervention and that it increased significantly again from week 2 to week 3.

However, Baer and her colleagues found that mindfulness also increased significantly from the

preceding week at weeks 4, 6, and 7, whereas the current study did not find further increases after

week 3. Of course, the MBI in the current study was only four weeks in length and so it is not

known whether further increases in mindfulness might have occurred had the intervention been

longer. Nevertheless, both studies suggest that mindfulness levels begin to increase quite early

during a multi-week MBI, and therefore that increases in mindfulness may explain the salubrious

effects of mindfulness interventions.

Analyses of changes in the FFMQ subscales revealed that changes occurred first in the non-

reactivity subscale, with it improving within the first week of the intervention, while it was the

second week of the intervention before significant improvements were observed in the observing,

describing, and non-judging subscales. There were no significant improvements for the acting with

awareness subscale. These results differ somewhat from those of Baer and colleagues (2012) who

found that the observing, acting with awareness and non-reactivity subscales improved during the

second week of the intervention, the non-judging subscale improved during the third week, and the

describing subscale improved near the end of the 8-week intervention. It is not clear whether these

differences are due to differences in the interventions, the participant group, or the version of the

measure used. It is also worth noting that the results of the current study and the study by Baer and

colleagues (2012) may have both been influenced by repeated exposure to the self-report measures.

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4.4.2 Timing of changes in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect

The current study proposed that increases in mindfulness during a workplace MBI would

lead to increases in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect. It was expected that these

changes would then have a beneficial impact on the workplace outcomes of interest. The study

therefore initially investigated whether the MBI resulted in significant increases in each of these

processes, and subsequently whether such changes followed increases in mindfulness and preceded

changes in the workplace outcomes. If so, the results would add support to the proposal that

cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect mediate the impact of mindfulness on the

workplace outcomes.

The results indicated that cognitive flexibility and reappraisal both increased significantly

during the MBI, whereas no change in positive affect was observed. Cognitive flexibility improved

significantly in the third week of the intervention, following significant increases in mindfulness in

the second week. That suggests that the changes in cognitive flexibility may have been attributable

to the earlier increases in mindfulness. However, the increases in mindfulness were sustained until

the end of the intervention, whereas following the intervention the cognitive flexibility scores no

longer differed significantly from pre-intervention scores. If increases in mindfulness lead to

increases in cognitive flexibility, as predicted, then it is unclear why improvements in cognitive

flexibility would subside despite higher levels of mindfulness being maintained.

It is also unclear whether the observed increases in reappraisal can be attributed to increases

in mindfulness, as both measures increased simultaneously during the second week of the

intervention. It is possible that increases in mindfulness lead to greater use of reappraisal over a

shorter time frame than a week, or even that increased mindfulness increases reappraisal

immediately. However, more frequent measures would be needed to ascertain whether that is the

case.

Study 1 found that dispositional mindfulness was associated with positive affect (Chapter 2),

suggesting that by increasing mindfulness a workplace MBI might lead to increases in positive

affect. However, Study 2 found that the current MBI did not lead to significant pre-post increases in

positive affect (Chapter 3). So it was not particularly surprising that the current study found there

were also no increases during earlier weeks of the intervention. Previous studies have reported

increased positive affect following an MBI (Harnett et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008), but as

discussed in Chapter 3, the average level of positive affect of participants in the current study prior

to the intervention appears to have been higher than in those studies. So there may have been less

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room for improvement. In addition, other studies have also failed to find an increase in positive

affect during an MBI (Adams, 2011; Martín-Asuero & García-Banda, 2010).

4.4.3 Timing of changes in workplace outcomes

To investigate whether changes in mindfulness during the intervention led to changes in the

workplace outcomes of interest, and also whether those changes were mediated by the cognitive and

affective processes described above, this study looked at whether changes in each of the workplace

outcomes occurred after changes in the other variables. Adding to the findings reported in Chapter 3

that there were no significant pre-post changes in co-worker relationship quality, work engagement,

and thriving, the current analyses found that those measures did not change significantly from pre-

intervention at any point during the intervention. These results suggest either that the observed

changes in mindfulness, cognitive flexibility and reappraisal were not large enough to significantly

influence those workplace outcomes, or that these processes do not actually have much impact on

those workplace outcomes. While the latter may be true for relationship quality and thriving,

previous studies have found that mindfulness and reappraisal both have an impact on work

engagement (Schulz, 2008, as cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248; Leroy et al., 2013).

Furthermore, the results of Study 1 (Chapter 2) indicated that mindfulness is associated with co-

worker relationship quality, work engagement, and thriving, and that reappraisal partially mediates

that association for all three workplace outcomes. It would therefore be interesting to see whether a

longer or more effective MBI would produce different results, particularly for work engagement.

Study 1 (Chapter 2) found that individuals with higher levels of dispositional mindfulness

were less resistant to change, and that cognitive flexibility mediated that association, while Study 2

(Chapter 3) found that a workplace MBI led to a pre-post decrease in resistance to change. The

current study therefore investigated whether increases in mindfulness during that MBI preceded the

reductions in resistance to change. It also investigated whether increases in cognitive flexibility

mediated those changes. Analyses of the weekly changes revealed that mindfulness and resistance

to change both improved significantly during the second week of the intervention. However, it is

worth noting that mindfulness began increasing by week 1 (although the improvement was non-

significant), whereas resistance to change did not begin to improve until week 2. Interestingly,

scores on the non-reactivity subscale of the mindfulness questionnaire did increase significantly in

week 1, with that possibly having an impact on the emotional reactivity dimension of resistance to

change. On the other hand, cognitive flexibility only showed an improvement during week 3. So the

results do not clearly show whether or not changes in mindfulness preceded changes in resistance to

change, but they suggest that it is unlikely that cognitive flexibility mediated those changes.

However, it needs to be kept in mind that the scale that was used to measure cognitive flexibility

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requires respondents to be aware of their level of flexibility. It is therefore conceivable that

participants became more cognitively flexible earlier than week 3, but only became aware of having

greater flexibility after encountering situations in which flexibility mattered. So it is unclear

whether cognitive flexibility was irrelevant to changes in resistance to change during the MBI, or

whether minor changes in cognitive flexibility contributed that were too small to be detected. A

more objective measure of flexibility, such as a laboratory task, would be needed to determine

whether that occurred.

Study 2 (Chapter 3) was the first study to show that mindfulness training can lead to people

becoming less resistant to change. However, it is unclear from the current analysis whether or not

increases in mindfulness preceded those changes, and so this analysis has not been able to show that

the observed reductions in resistance to change were specifically due to increased mindfulness,

rather than to other non-specific effects of the intervention. It is also possible that an increase in

mindfulness would be associated with an immediate reduction in resistance to change, or even that a

decrease in resistance to change would lead to an increase in mindfulness. A future study using an

experience-sampling methodology in which changes are measured daily, or even several times per

day, during an MBI may help to uncover the order of changes in mindfulness and resistance to

change.

Study 1 (Chapter 2) found a positive association between dispositional mindfulness and self-

reported innovative behaviours, which was mediated by cognitive flexibility, whereas Study 2

(Chapter 3) surprisingly found that self-reported innovative behaviours decreased during a

workplace MBI. However, as discussed in Chapter 3, that decrease may have been caused by the

measure that was used inflating the number of innovative behaviours reported at pre-intervention

relative to the subsequent weekly measures. That supposition is supported by the results of the

current analyses, which found that innovative behaviours dropped significantly during the first

week and then remained relatively constant for the remainder of the intervention. The change in

innovative behaviours therefore occurred prior to changes in mindfulness or any other measures. As

suggested in Chapter 3, future studies should use a more objective measure of innovative

behaviours, or at least a scale that has been validated as a measure of those behaviours over such a

short timeframe.

4.4.4 Mechanisms of change in individual participants

The results of the analyses of weekly changes in individual participants during the

intervention showed little support for the hypotheses that increases in mindfulness during the

intervention would lead to improvements in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect, or

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to improvements in the workplace outcomes. Of the participants who did show an improvement in

cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, or positive affect, or in a workplace outcome, most of them did not

show a prior increase in mindfulness. The only exception was resistance to change, where a little

over half of the participants who reported a decrease in resistance to change showed a prior increase

in mindfulness. On the other hand, for each of the study outcomes (including resistance to change),

the majority of participants who reported an increase in mindfulness showed no subsequent

improvement in that outcome. In other words, there was very little overlap between a clinically

significant increase in mindfulness and an improvement in another study outcome, except for

resistance to change, where increased mindfulness may have contributed to the improvement.

There are a number of potential explanations for these findings. The analyses of the

effectiveness of the MBI reported in Chapter 3 found significant group-level changes in reappraisal,

resistance to change, and innovative behaviours. However, the results of the current analyses of the

timing of these changes for individual participants, as well the timing of changes for some

participants in other study variables, suggest that the observed changes may be due to non-specific

effects of the MBI, rather than to increases in mindfulness. While there have been previous studies

of the group-level effects of an MBI showing correlations between increases in mindfulness and

improvements in other measures (Canby et al., 2014; Carmody & Baer, 2008), and even a study of

weekly changes showing that mindfulness increased before decreases were observed in perceived

stress (Baer et al., 2012), there has been little work investigating changes in individual participants.

The current results suggest that this approach may paint a different picture, as they show that the

participants who reported significant improvements in mindfulness during an MBI may not be the

same participants as those reporting improvements in other outcomes, and that improvements in

mindfulness do not always precede improvements in other outcomes. These results therefore

suggest that some of the positive effects of participating in an MBI may be due to other aspects of

the intervention. For example, participants may benefit from learning to pause before reacting to

events, or learning that thoughts and emotions may not accurately reflect reality, or even having the

opportunity to discuss personal experiences in a supportive group environment.

Another possible explanation for the current results is that the self-report measure of

mindfulness may not adequately detect changes in mindfulness that occurred early in the

intervention. In other words, participants who showed improvements in other outcomes without a

prior increase in mindfulness may have still had prior improvements in mindfulness that were not

detected. This could be due to problems with either the validity or the sensitivity of the FFMQ.

There has been criticism of self-report measures of mindfulness and the lack of consensus about the

dimensions of the construct (Grossman, 2008). It is therefore possible that there are aspects of

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mindfulness that may have improved during the current MBI, which are not measured by the

FFMQ. Alternatively, there may have been changes in the dimensions that are measured by the

FFMQ that contributed to changes in the other study outcomes, but which were too subtle for

participants to be consciously aware of or to be detected by the questions included in the FFMQ.

A final explanation for the current results worth considering is that for many participants,

changes in the study variables during the MBI may not have been due to the intervention at all. That

possibility is particularly likely for the study variables where no significant changes were observed

at the group level. For example, 20 participants reported a significant pre-post increase in work

engagement, but there were also 17 participants who reported a significant pre-post decrease. There

were also somewhat similar numbers of participants reporting improvement as there were reporting

deterioration in positive affect, relationship quality, and thriving. For those measures, it is therefore

possible that clinically significant changes reported by individual participants were fluctuations that

were unrelated to the intervention. That could also therefore explain why changes in those variables

were often not preceded by changes in mindfulness.

The results of the current study also indicated little support for the hypotheses that cognitive

flexibility, reappraisal, and/or positive affect would mediate the effect of increased mindfulness on

changes in the workplace outcomes. However, given that for most participants, mindfulness did not

increase significantly prior to changes in the workplace outcomes, it is not surprising that there was

no evidence of mediation by cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and/or positive affect.

4.4.5 Home mindfulness practice

The analyses of home mindfulness practice during the MBI suggest that increased

mindfulness was the only change that was related to home practice. There was no indication that

changes in the other study variables were influenced by home practice. That is, mindfulness practice

appears to have enhanced participants’ levels of mindfulness, whereas that practice does not appear

to have influenced the other variables. This is interesting as it provides further evidence that the

MBI may have led to changes in these variables via a mechanism other than increased mindfulness.

4.4.6 Limitations and future directions

The current study has a number of limitations. As noted in Chapter 3, the lack of a control

group means that observed changes may have been due to factors other than the intervention. This

was a particular possibility for the analyses of individual-level changes in the outcomes that were

found not to have significant group-level changes at any point during the intervention (i.e. positive

affect, relationship quality, work engagement, and thriving). While the current analyses investigated

individuals who reported clinically significant improvements in those measures, it is entirely

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possible that those improvements were due to natural fluctuations or other factors unrelated to the

intervention. That possibility is highlighted by the fact that for some of those measures, a similar

number of participants reported a significant deterioration as reported a significant improvement.

Caution is therefore needed when interpreting those particular analyses.

As with the previous studies, the current analyses were also subject to the limitations of self-

report measures, which assume that respondents interpret questions as intended and have the

necessary knowledge and motivation to retrieve the requested information (Tourangeau et al.,

2000). As noted in Chapter 3, there was a particular issue with the weekly self-report of innovative

behaviours using a measure that has not been validated over such a short timeframe. The repeated

exposure to the same measures weekly for 5 weeks, and then 2 months later, may have also

impacted the results.

Also as noted previously, the effectiveness of the MBI that this study was based on may

have been reduced by the lack of experience of the facilitators. Furthermore, the finding by Baer

and colleagues (2012) that mindfulness improved significantly in the sixth and seventh weeks of an

MBI suggests that the brevity of the current intervention may have also limited its effectiveness.

Another limitation is due to the methodology used in the current analyses. This study

investigated the timing of changes in different variables to help determine whether changes in

proposed mediators during the intervention preceded changes in outcomes. However, a finding that

a change in one variable preceded a change in another does not necessarily mean that the former

caused the latter. Nevertheless, the current findings that for most participants there were no

improvements in the proposed mediators prior to improvements in other outcomes does more

conclusively suggest that the former did not cause the latter.

Given that the current study investigated the effects of a brief MBI facilitated by

inexperienced mindfulness teachers, and that significant improvements were not found for some

outcomes that have previously been shown to improve during an MBI (i.e. positive affect and work

engagement), it may be useful for a future study to investigate whether a longer MBI with

experienced mindfulness teachers would produce different results. It would also be useful for future

studies to rely less on self-report measures, either by using more objective measures or by collecting

data from co-workers and supervisors in addition to participants. In addition to future studies that

address some of the above limitations, the current findings suggest that more work is needed among

mindfulness researchers generally to try to ascertain the extent to which the psychological

improvements resulting from MBIs can be attributed to increases in mindfulness, versus other non-

specific effects. As the current findings suggest that the observed improvements in outcomes for

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most participants may not have been related to improvements in mindfulness, future studies also

need to identify the other mechanisms that lead to those improvements.

4.4.7 Conclusion

Building on the results of the previous analyses reported in Chapter 3, the results of the

current study raise further questions about the extent to which changes in mindfulness contribute to

the effects of MBIs. As with Baer and colleague’s (2012) study, significant increases in mindfulness

were detected early in the intervention. However, improvements in reappraisal and resistance to

change occurred during the same week that mindfulness increased, making it unclear whether

increases in mindfulness contributed to these changes. For the other study variables, the increases in

mindfulness did not lead to significant improvements, with the possible exception of cognitive

flexibility, which increased transiently during the third week.

While it was unclear from the group-level analyses whether the early increases in

mindfulness contributed to changes in some of the other variables, the individual-level analyses

were less ambiguous. For any given study variable, most of the participants who showed an

improvement in that variable showed no prior improvement in mindfulness, and most of the

participants who showed an improvement in mindfulness showed no improvement in that variable.

In other words, the results suggest that increases in mindfulness during the MBI were largely

unrelated to improvements in the other outcomes. So for the current study, the MBI appears to have

led to improvements in study outcomes via a mechanism other than increased mindfulness.

However, these findings are not entirely conclusive, as only a small percentage of participants

reported a significant improvement on each outcome. So it is possible that a more effective MBI

would produce different results. Nevertheless, the above conclusion is somewhat supported by the

additional finding that home mindfulness practice during the intervention appeared to contribute to

increases in mindfulness, but not to improvements in any other study outcomes.

The most significant implication of the current findings is therefore the possibility that many

of the demonstrated salubrious effects of MBIs may be due to factors other than mindfulness. For

example, while the study by Baer and colleagues (2012) found that increases in mindfulness

preceded reductions in perceived stress, the results of the current study raise the possibility that the

participants in Baer and colleague’s study who reported increases in mindfulness may not be the

same participants who reported subsequent reductions in perceived stress. It would therefore be

useful for future studies of the effects of MBIs to investigate changes in individual participants,

rather than only looking at group effects.

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Chapter 5 – General Discussion Research investigating mindfulness in the workplace has begun to identify multiple effects.

In particular, previous studies have shown that mindfulness is positively associated with measures

of well-being such as positive affect (O'Donovan & May, 2007), job satisfaction (Hülsheger et al.,

2012), and work-family balance (Allen & Kiburz, 2012), and that it is negatively associated with

measures of psychological distress such as depression (Brown & Ryan, 2003), emotional

exhaustion (Hülsheger et al., 2012), and burnout (O'Donovan & May, 2007). Furthermore, studies

investigating the effects of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) within the workplace have

found that they lead to improvements in many such outcomes (for review, see Escuriex & Labbé,

2011). The current body of research aimed to extend those findings by investigating the effects of

mindfulness on a range of workplace outcomes that have previously received little empirical

investigation. Specifically, the research investigated the effects of mindfulness on co-worker

relationship quality, innovative behaviours, resistance to change, and engagement and thriving at

work.

The current research also proposed and investigated a number of mechanisms to explain the

effects of mindfulness on these workplace outcomes. Specifically, the proposal drew on previous

research suggesting that mindfulness leads to more adaptive functioning and greater self-regulation

at least partially by increasing cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect. These

three processes have each previously been shown to be enhanced by mindfulness training (Chiesa et

al., 2011; Garland et al., 2011; Harnett et al., 2010), and to have a wide range of effects in the

workplace (Schulz, 2008, as cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005;

Su et al., 2012).

The hypotheses for the current project were therefore that mindfulness would be associated

with each of the five workplace outcomes described above, and that its association with each would

be mediated by cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal, and positive affect. These hypotheses

were initially tested by measuring the relationship between dispositional mindfulness and the other

outcomes among a sample of 184 office workers. Results of the study indicated that self-reported

mindfulness was associated with all five workplace outcomes, as well as with each of the proposed

mechanisms of change. This is the first study that the author is aware of to show that dispositional

mindfulness is positively associated with co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, and

thriving at work, and that it is negatively related to resistance to change. In addition, the results add

support to previous studies showing a relationship between mindfulness and work engagement

(Leroy et al., 2013; Malinowski & Lim, 2015). As expected, based on the results of previous

studies, dispositional mindfulness was also found to be associated with cognitive flexibility,

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positive reappraisal, and positive affect. Furthermore, one or more of these three processes fully

mediated the association between mindfulness and each of the workplace outcomes. Specifically,

co-worker relationship quality and thriving at work were both associated with mindfulness via

positive reappraisal and positive affect, while innovative behaviours and resistance to change were

both associated with mindfulness via cognitive flexibility. On the other hand, cognitive flexibility,

positive reappraisal, and positive affect all mediated the association between mindfulness and work

engagement.

Given the results of the first study, a second study investigated the effectiveness of a

workplace MBI in improving the psychological processes and workplace outcomes that were shown

by the first study to be associated with mindfulness. Results indicated that a 4-week workplace MBI

delivered to 131 employees, including office workers, school teachers, cleaners, and senior

executives, improved self-reports of mindfulness, positive reappraisal, and negative affect, adding

support to previous studies that reported similar improvements following an MBI (Baer et al., 2012;

Carmody & Baer, 2008; Garland et al., 2011; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008). In addition, this study

was the first that the author is aware of to show a reduction in dispositional resistance to change

following an MBI. The study also found an unexpected decrease in innovative behaviours following

the intervention, but this result may have been an artefact of the measure that was used. No

significant pre-post changes were found in the other measures, including those that have previously

been reported to improve following an MBI, such as cognitive flexibility (Moore & Malinowski,

2009), positive affect (Harnett et al., 2010), and work engagement (Leroy et al., 2013). This may

have been due to the brevity of the MBI, its facilitation by inexperienced mindfulness instructors, or

possibly to the participants and their motivations for attending the MBI (i.e. quite a few participants

reported that they were attending the mindfulness training out of curiosity or because they were

hoping to improve their ability to focus at work, rather than as a way to improve their well-being). It

therefore remains uncertain whether the measures which did not show an improvement might be

amenable to improvement by a longer MBI provided by more experienced mindfulness instructors.

A large number of studies have shown that MBIs can improve psychological functioning

and well-being in a range of contexts, with the observed improvements generally being attributed to

the effects of mindfulness. However, only a few studies have investigated whether observed

improvements in other outcomes are actually due to increases in mindfulness (Baer et al., 2012;

Bränström et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008). The second study therefore also investigated

the extent to which changes in mindfulness explained changes in other measures following the

intervention. Results indicated that decreases in resistance to change correlated with increases in

mindfulness, suggesting that mindfulness may have mediated that improvement. In contrast,

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improvements in reappraisal and reductions in negative affect and innovative behaviours were not

correlated with changes in mindfulness. Furthermore, analyses of pre-post changes reported by

individual participants revealed that 40-64% of participants who showed a significant improvement

in an outcome measure other than mindfulness did not show a prior improvement in mindfulness.

This raises some questions about whether the improvements in mindfulness led to the observed

improvements in other measures. While previous studies have found that changes in mindfulness

mediated improvements in well-being during an MBI (Bränström et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers,

2008), the results of the current study suggest that it may be useful for future studies of the effects

of MBIs to investigate whether the individuals who show significant improvements on outcome

measures are the same individuals who show improvements in mindfulness. The results of the

present study suggest that may not always be the case. Adding to the uncertainty about the extent to

which changes in mindfulness explained other changes, the frequency of home mindfulness practice

during the intervention predicted pre-post changes in mindfulness, but did not predict changes in

any other measures. In other words, practicing mindfulness more regularly appears to increase self-

reported mindfulness, but does not appear to have any impact on the other measures included in this

study.

The final study extended the findings of the first two by investigating the mechanisms of

change during a workplace MBI. Weekly data collected during the previous study were analysed to

determine the extent to which changes in mindfulness during the intervention preceded changes in

the workplace outcomes, as well as the extent to which cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and

positive affect mediated these changes. Results supported the hypothesis that increases in

mindfulness would be an early outcome of the intervention, with them improving significantly by

week 2 of the intervention and then increasing further in week 3. However, reappraisal and

resistance to change also improved significantly by week 2, making it unclear whether these

changes were due to increases in mindfulness. There were no sustained changes in the other

measures, including cognitive flexibility, positive affect, co-worker relationship quality, work

engagement and thriving, suggesting that the increases in mindfulness had no significant impact on

these measures. In addition, the unexpected drop in innovative behaviours occurred during the first

week of the MBI, prior to changes in mindfulness or any other variables, making it unlikely that it

was caused by an increase in mindfulness. This finding supports the explanation that the drop in

innovative behaviours may have been an artefact of the measure that was used.

Analyses of weekly changes reported by individual participants showed that most

participants with an improvement in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, positive affect, or one of the

workplace outcomes, did not show a prior improvement in mindfulness. The only exception was

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resistance to change, where a little over half of participants who reported a decrease in resistance to

change reported a prior improvement in mindfulness. On the other hand, the majority of participants

with improvements in mindfulness reported no significant improvement in other outcomes. So there

was very little overlap between increases in mindfulness and changes in other study outcomes.

Overall, the results provide little support for the hypotheses that increases in mindfulness during the

intervention would lead to improvements in cognitive flexibility, reappraisal, and positive affect, or

to improvements in the workplace outcomes. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the results also provided

little support for the hypotheses that cognitive flexibility, reappraisal and/or positive affect would

mediate the effect of increased mindfulness on changes in workplace outcomes.

5.5 Implications of the findings for the workplace

5.5.1 Attitudes to change

A particularly noteworthy finding was that mindfulness appears to have a significant impact

on employees’ attitudes to change. The first study found that mindfulness was associated with less

resistance to change and that this association was mediated by increased levels of cognitive

flexibility. The second study then demonstrated that a brief workplace MBI led to significant

reductions in resistance to change. Furthermore, those reductions were correlated with increases in

mindfulness during the intervention. However, surprisingly given the results of the first study, the

reductions in resistance to change did not appear to be due to improvements in cognitive flexibility.

Nevertheless, while the study did not conclusively demonstrate that increases in mindfulness or

cognitive flexibility led to reductions in resistance to change, the finding that a brief workplace MBI

can positively affect employees’ attitudes to change may have important implications. As

organisations adapt to greater global competition and constantly changing technology, employees

increasingly have to cope with organisational change and more fluid job roles (Frese, 2008). Cost-

effective interventions and training that enable employees to be less resistant to change may enable

them to cope better with organisational changes when they occur. For example, Oreg (2003) found

that for employees in an organisation undergoing a significant change, those who reported less

dispositional resistance to change experienced less distress and had less difficulty working

effectively during the change. It would therefore be useful for future studies to investigate whether

mindfulness training can ameliorate people’s affective and functional reactions to a significant

change at work, particularly for individuals whose disposition is more highly resistant to change.

5.5.2 Positive reappraisal, well-being and coping

By showing that mindfulness is associated with positive reappraisal and affect, and that a

workplace MBI led to increases in reappraisal and reductions in negative affect, the current research

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also adds to the growing body of research demonstrating positive effects of mindfulness on well-

being within the workplace (for review, see Escuriex & Labbé, 2011). In addition, the results add

support for Garland and colleagues’ (2009) mindful coping model, which proposes that positive

reappraisal is a key process via which mindfulness facilitates better emotion regulation and coping.

In fact, the results of the current research raise the possibility that many of the salubrious effects of

MBIs that have been conducted in the workplace, including reduced emotional exhaustion and

burnout (Cohen-Katz et al., 2005; Hülsheger et al., 2012), less perceived stress (Schenström et al.,

2006; Shapiro et al., 2005), and improved job performance (Dane & Brummel, 2014), may have

been partially due to an enhanced capacity for positive reappraisal.

Studies have also found that positive reappraisal improves interpersonal relations (Gross &

John, 2003; Huston et al., 2011), and is associated with greater work engagement (Schulz, 2008, as

cited in Binnewies & Fetzer, 2010, p.248). Furthermore, the current research found that positive

reappraisal partially mediated a positive association between dispositional mindfulness and both co-

worker relationship quality and work engagement. These results suggest that reappraisal may have

partially explained associations that have previously been found between mindfulness and aspects

of interpersonal relations in the workplace, including negotiation skills and leadership (Reb &

Narayanan, 2014; Reb et al., 2014). Similarly, reappraisal may have also partially explained the

improvement in work engagement that was previously observed following an MBI (Leroy et al.,

2013). It was therefore somewhat surprising that increases in reappraisal during the current

workplace MBI did not lead to improvements in either co-worker relationship quality or work

engagement. One possible explanation is that the intervention did not increase mindfulness or

reappraisal sufficiently to improve those outcomes, possibly due to the brevity of the MBI or to it

being facilitated by inexperienced mindfulness instructors. Another possible explanation is that the

intervention did not increase positive affect, which was shown by the first study to also partially

mediate the association between mindfulness and both co-worker relationship quality and work

engagement. Perhaps improvements in reappraisal and positive affect are both needed to enhance

those outcomes. Positive affect was expected to increase during the MBI, as previous studies have

reported increases in positive affect following an MBI (Harnett et al., 2010; Nyklíček & Kuijpers,

2008). However, participants in the current study appeared to have higher pre-intervention levels of

positive affect resulting in a ceiling effect due to participants having less room for improvement.

5.5.3 Co-worker relationship quality

The first study found that dispositional mindfulness was associated with co-worker

relationship quality, and that the association was fully mediated by positive reappraisal and positive

affect. However, the second study failed to find any improvement in co-worker relationship quality

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during the workplace MBI. While this may have been due to factors affecting the efficacy of the

intervention or to the lack of improvement in positive affect, it may also be the case that MBIs do

not significantly improve this outcome. The current research found that dispositional mindfulness

only explained 2% of the variance in co-worker relationship quality, and the lack of improvement in

this outcome following the MBI aligns with Giluk’s (2011) results. More research is therefore

needed to determine which aspects of interpersonal relations can be improved by mindfulness

training, as well the mechanisms that contribute to such changes.

5.5.4 Thriving at work

The first study also found that dispositional mindfulness was associated with thriving at

work, and that the association was fully mediated by positive reappraisal and positive affect.

However, the second study found that the improvements in mindfulness and positive reappraisal

during the current workplace MBI also failed to lead to any improvement in thriving at work.

Again, this was surprising, as the first study showed that mindfulness is positively associated with

thriving, and that reappraisal partially explains that association. However, the possible explanations

for this finding are likely to be the same as described above for co-worker relationship quality and

work engagement. As with those outcomes, the MBI may not have produced a sufficient

improvement in mindfulness or reappraisal to enhance thriving, or the lack of improvement in

positive affect may explain the results. The latter explanation may be particularly likely, as the first

study found that positive affect was highly correlated with the thriving construct and explained

significantly more of the association between mindfulness and thriving than did positive

reappraisal.

5.6 Limitations and future studies

There are a number of limitations to the current research. There was a complete reliance on

self-report data across the studies, and consequently on the assumption that respondents interpreted

questions as intended and had the necessary knowledge and motivation to retrieve the requested

information (Tourangeau et al., 2000). For measuring mindfulness in particular, there remains

considerable debate about the validity of that assumption (Baer, 2011; Grossman, 2008; Grossman

& Van Dam, 2011). For the first study, the collection of self-report data only at a single time-point

may have also resulted in bias due to common method variance. In addition, the collection of data

from each participant at a single point in time means the results of that study only show correlation

and not causation. Future studies could address some of these limitations by collecting data on

different measures at different time-points and from people other than the participants, such as

supervisors and co-workers. Of course, more objective measures would also be helpful in order to

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overcome concerns about the validity of some of the self-report measures used. However, the

subjective nature of many of the constructs of interest makes them difficult to measure objectively.

The study of the effectiveness of the workplace MBI was also limited by the lack of a

control group, as the observed changes may have been due to factors other than the intervention.

This is a particular concern for the analyses of individual-level changes in some of the outcomes,

where a similar number of participants reported a significant deterioration as reported a significant

improvement. Caution is therefore needed when interpreting those particular analyses. Inclusion of

a control group in future studies would help to distinguish the effects of the MBI from changes due

to natural fluctuations or other factors unrelated to the intervention. For the current MBI study, a

control group would have also been helpful in determining whether the observed decreases in

innovative behaviours during the first week of the intervention were in fact an artefact of the

procedure used to measure this construct, as speculated above.

A final notable limitation of the workplace MBI study is that the effectiveness of the

intervention may have been reduced due to the facilitators of the mindfulness groups having little or

no prior experience with practicing or teaching mindfulness. Indeed, a study by Bränström,

Kvillemo, Brandberg, & Moskowitz (2010) found that an MBI delivered by inexperienced and non-

certified mindfulness instructors had a smaller effect on measures of psychological well-being than

comparable studies with experienced mindfulness instructors. It is therefore possible that outcomes

that did not change significantly during the current MBI may have improved if the training was

provided by experienced mindfulness instructors. Consequently, it would be useful for future

studies to investigate whether co-worker relationship quality, innovative behaviours, work

engagement and thriving can be enhanced by an MBI led by experienced mindfulness instructors,

particularly given that a previous study has already shown an improvement in work engagement

following such an MBI (Leroy et al., 2013). Given the results of Leroy and colleague’s study, it

would also be interesting to investigate whether a more effective MBI would improve work

engagement at least partially by increasing cognitive flexibility, positive reappraisal and positive

affect.

5.7 Future research directions

The results of the current research also suggest that more work is needed among

mindfulness researchers generally to try to ascertain the extent to which the psychological

improvements resulting from MBIs can be attributed to increases in mindfulness, versus other non-

specific effects. It would therefore be useful for future MBI studies to investigate whether the

individuals who report improved well-being and reduced psychological distress following an MBI

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also report increases in mindfulness. As the current findings suggest that the observed

improvements in outcomes for many participants may not have been related to improvements in

mindfulness, future studies should focus on identifying the specific mechanisms that result in MBIs

producing the salutary effects that have been observed. Future studies will also need to look at

whether the findings of the current research hold across other occupations and work environments,

such as for customer service or manual workers or workers in particularly high-stress jobs.

It may also be useful for future research to consider the potential for situational factors (e.g.

workload, management support, stress at home) and personal factors (e.g. personality, threat-

sensitivity, mental health) to moderate the impact of mindfulness in the workplace. In particular, co-

worker relationship quality, creativity and innovative behaviours, and attitudes to change are all

likely to be affected by high levels of perceived stress, heavy workload, and low levels of

management support (Byron, Khazanchi, & Nazarian, 2010; Ferris et al., 2009; George, 2007;

Wanberg & Banas, 2000). By increasing the capacity to cope with those factors, mindfulness may

have the greatest impact under those conditions. On the other hand, when perceived stress is low,

the workload is light, or when management is very supportive, individuals may be more sociable,

innovative, and open to change irrespective of their levels of mindfulness. That is, factors such as

perceived stress, workload, and management support may moderate the relationship between

mindfulness and other workplace outcomes.

Finally, there is a great deal of work still to be done to determine how to bring about

improvements in the outcomes that were not enhanced by the current intervention. It was proposed

in the introduction to this thesis that developing mindfulness would increase cognitive flexibility,

positive reappraisal and positive affect, and that these changes would in turn lead to improvements

in relationship quality, innovative behaviours, attitudes to change, and engagement and thriving at

work. Most of these hypotheses were not supported by the current research, but it remains unclear

whether this was due to the hypotheses being invalid or to the intervention being relatively

ineffective. In support of the latter possibility, the current MBI failed to produce improvements in

positive affect and work engagement, both of which have previously been found to be enhanced by

mindfulness training (Harnett et al., 2010; Leroy et al., 2013; Nyklíček & Kuijpers, 2008).

It is therefore worth considering how the MBI might be improved and whether such

improvements would be likely to produce different results. As discussed above, an intervention that

is facilitated by more experienced mindfulness teachers may have a greater impact (Bränström et

al., 2010). Another factor that might also influence the effectiveness of an MBI is its duration. Baer

and colleague’s (2012) found that while improvements in mindfulness and perceived stress were

119

observed during the first four weeks of an 8-week MBI, further improvements occurred in latter

four weeks. Furthermore, the improvements in work engagement reported by Leroy and colleagues,

and the increases in positive affect reported by Nyklicek and Kuijpers (2008), both occurred during

8-week MBIs (although Harnett and colleagues (2010) observed increases in positive affect

following a 3-week MBI). It is also worth noting that not only was the overall duration of the MBI

used in the current study shorter than in most MBI studies, but the duration of meditation sessions

was also shorter (10-15 minutes compared with 30-40 minutes in most MBI studies). So overall, it

is possible that a longer MBI with longer meditation sessions might have a greater impact on the

outcomes of interest than did the MBI used in the current study.

In addition to enhancing the efficacy of the MBI, it is also worth considering how it might

be better tailored to specifically develop the capacities investigated by the current study. A key

mechanism via which the MBI was expected to impact the outcomes of interest, but which failed to

improve during the intervention, was positive affect. An intervention that better cultivates positive

emotions may therefore have a greater impact on the other outcomes. There are a number of

strategies that could be incorporated into the intervention to achieve this. First, within the

mindfulness paradigm, a greater emphasis could be placed on developing loving-kindness.

Participants in the current study were taught a loving-kindness meditation, but only briefly during

the final session. In contrast, Fredrickson and colleagues (2008) found that six sessions of

instruction in loving-kindness meditation produced significant increases in participants’ daily

positive emotions in comparison to participants in a control group. Fredrickson and colleagues also

reported that these increases in positive emotions led to improvements in mindfulness, life

satisfaction and social support, all of which are likely to have a positive impact in the workplace.

Beyond mindfulness-based practices, the burgeoning field of positive psychology has

identified a range of other strategies and practices for increasing positive emotions, which could

potentially be incorporated into a workplace MBI. These include developing more gratitude, such as

by keeping a daily journal of things one is grateful for (for review, see Wood, Froh, & Geraghty,

2010), writing about positive experiences (Burton & King, 2004), thinking about one’s best

possible self (Sheldon & Lyubomirsky, 2006), and learning to use compassion-focussed and

benefit-focussed reappraisal (vanOyen Witvliet et al., 2010). From a research perspective,

incorporating such practices into a workplace MBI would probably make it more difficult to

identify the mechanisms of change, and in particular to determine the extent to which cultivating

mindfulness explains observed changes. However, a broader workplace well-being program that

combines mindfulness instruction with other practices for enhancing well-being has the potential to

have a greater impact on many workplace outcomes.

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5.8 Overall conclusion

In line with previous studies, the current research found that dispositional mindfulness is

associated with the ability to respond flexibly to events, with the ability to regulate emotions by

positively reappraising events, and with higher levels of positive affect. The results also suggest that

dispositional mindfulness is positively associated with co-worker relationship quality, innovative

behaviours, and work engagement and thriving, and that it is negatively associated with resistance

to change. In addition, the current research found that a brief MBI provided to office employees and

school teachers improved measures associated with psychological well-being and cognitive

functioning in the workplace. Furthermore, it is the first study to show that mindfulness training

reduces dispositional resistance to change. There was also a surprising drop in innovative

behaviours during the first week of the intervention, but it is suspected that may be an artefact of the

measure used.

A notable outcome of the current research is that the findings raise some questions about the

extent to which the salutary effects of MBIs are due to increases in mindfulness. While changes in

some outcomes during the intervention, most notably resistance to change, were correlated with

changes in mindfulness, there were many participants who improved on outcome measures without

showing a significant improvement in mindfulness. Similarly, while improvements in mindfulness

were seen by the second week of the MBI, they did not clearly precede changes in other outcomes.

Furthermore, for any given study variable, most of the participants who showed an improvement in

that variable showed no prior improvement in mindfulness, and most of the participants who

showed an improvement in mindfulness showed no improvement in that variable. In other words,

the results suggest that increases in mindfulness during the MBI were largely unrelated to

improvements in the other outcomes.

Overall, the current research adds support for previous studies that have suggested that

MBIs may be a cost-effective way to improve well-being among employees. Furthermore, the

results suggest that by reducing resistance to change, training employees in mindfulness may have

some potential for helping them to cope with organisational change. However, one of the most

significant outcomes of the current research is that the findings raise the possibility that many of the

demonstrated salubrious effects of MBIs may be due to factors other than improvements in

mindfulness. More work is clearly needed to disentangle the specific effects of increasing

mindfulness in the workplace from the other non-specific effects of MBIs. In addition, the current

findings that different individuals reported improvements in different outcomes during the

workplace MBI suggest that much work remains to be done in identifying which individuals in

which situations are most likely to benefit from mindfulness training, as well as which workplace

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outcomes are most likely to be affected. As with all interventions, mindfulness training will surely

prove beneficial for some individuals in some circumstances, but it is unlikely to be a panacea.

122

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