Abstract
In recent years, the construct of mindfulness has gained growing attention in psychological research. However, little is known about the effects of mindfulness on interpersonal interactions and social relationships at work. Addressing this gap, the purpose of this study was to investigate the role of mindfulness in leader–follower relationships. Building on prior research, we hypothesize that leaders’ mindfulness is reflected in a specific communication style (“mindfulness in communication”), which is positively related to followers’ satisfaction with their leaders. We used nested survey data from 34 leaders and 98 followers from various organizations and tested mediation hypotheses using hierarchical linear modeling. Our hypotheses were confirmed by our data in that leaders’ self-reported mindfulness showed a positive relationship with several aspects of followers’ satisfaction. This relationship was fully mediated by leaders’ mindfulness in communication as perceived by their followers. Our findings emphasize the potential value of mindfulness in workplace settings. They provide empirical evidence for a positive link between leaders’ dispositional mindfulness and the wellbeing of their followers, indicating that mindfulness is not solely an individual resource but also fosters interpersonal skills. By examining leaders’ mindfulness in communication as an explanatory process, we created additional clarification about how leaders’ mindfulness relates to followers’ perceptions, offering a promising starting point for measuring behavioral correlates of leader mindfulness.
Highlights
In the last decades, the construct of mindfulness, an open, non-judging awareness of the current experience (Baer, 2003), has received growing attention in psychological research
Drawing on the mindfulness literature, we propose that mindfulness in communication consists of three facets: (a) being present and paying attention in conversations, (b) an open, non-judging attitude, and (c) a calm, non-impulsive manner
We provide a detailed rationale for our assumption that leader dispositional mindfulness is reflected in these three facets of mindfulness in communication
Summary
The construct of mindfulness, an open, non-judging awareness of the current experience (Baer, 2003), has received growing attention in psychological research (for overviews see Brown et al, 2015; Creswell, 2017; Good et al, 2016). This research has mostly focused on positive intrapersonal effects (i.e., effects within individuals) of mindfulness, for instance on employee wellbeing (Roche et al, 2014; Schultz et al, 2014; Reb et al, 2015a; Malinowski and Lim, 2015), emotion regulation (Hülsheger et al, 2013), psychological detachment from work (Hülsheger et al, 2014), and job performance (Dane, 2011; Dane and Brummel, 2013; Reb et al, 2015a), while studies on interpersonal effects (i.e., effects between individuals) are just beginning to emerge This is reflected in the recent call by Good et al (2016), stating that “research in neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, medicine, and related disciplines has laid the groundwork for developing and testing theory about how mindfulness might affect relational processes, such as teamwork and leadership, but management scholars have not yet seriously undertaken that challenge” We adopt a communication-centered view of leadership (de Vries et al, 2010; Fairhurst and Connaughton, 2014; Ruben and Gigliotti, 2016) and propose that leaders’ mindfulness relates to a specific communication style of leaders that we term “mindfulness in communication.” This communication style, in turn, is assumed to predict followers’ interaction satisfaction as well as their overall satisfaction with the leader
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