Cultivating a Conflict-Positive Workplace: How Context Moderates the Effectiveness of Mindfulness.

Abstract

The effectiveness of mindfulness has been established, however, the conditions under which mindfulness is most effective has received limited attention, leaving a theoretical gap in understanding how mindfulness interacts with its context. This has prompted an unresolved debate amongst scholars about whether mindfulness is a universal panacea or has a differentiated effect based on context. To investigate how context may play a role, we developed and tested a multi-level model on how task and relationship conflict influences the relationship between mindfulness, emotional exhaustion, and team member well-being in self-managed teams, which are an increasingly common and complex way of organizing work that is more likely to generate team conflict. The results from this time-lagged, multi-source, survey study involving 274 team members in 54 project teams support the proposition that the effectiveness of mindfulness is influenced by context. Mindfulness is a universal panacea in that it increases affective well-being by reducing emotional exhaustion. However, it is also has a differentiated effect in that these relationships are most pronounced under conditions of high relationship and/or task conflict. We conclude that mindfulness is most effective in contexts that elicit negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, thus expanding the theory on mindfulness.