In Search of Collective Mindfulness: Individual and Group Practices in Corporate Mindfulness

Abstract

Contemporary organizational scholarship on mindfulness has questioned the implications of mindfulness at the collective level. Claims of individualistic biases have been used to critique emergent mindfulness perspectives as solipsistic or apolitical, while other perspectives have argued that such individualistic biases are distortions and misunderstandings of mindfulness principles. Yet such debates lack empirical research comparing individual versus collective aspects of mindfulness programs, and how in practice individual practices may or may not support collective mindfulness processes. The current paper uses an in- depth qualitative case study of a corporate mindfulness program to examine the question of whether and how mindfulness practices bridge individual and group levels within an organizational setting. Through our examination of the processes by which practitioners understood mindfulness at work, we build theory around the mechanisms by which collective mindfulness can be achieved, and discuss whether the collective mechanisms of mindfulness are sufficiently robust to counter critiques of the inherent individualizing tendencies of mindfulness practices.