Mindfulness in context: Mindfulness, conflict, emotional exhaustion, and well-being in team context.

Abstract

The effectiveness of mindfulness has been established, however, the conditions under which mindfulness is most effective have received limited attention. This has prompted an unresolved theoretical debate amongst scholars about whether mindfulness is a universal panacea or has a differentiated effect based on context. We investigate this issue in two ways. First, we systematically review empirical research on mindfulness since 2010 to gain insight into the role of context in mindfulness research. Second, we study whether mindfulness is influenced by context, specifically, mindfulness in self-managed teams, which are an increasingly common and complex way of organizing work. We develop and test a multilevel model on how team conflict influences the relationship between mindfulness, emotional exhaustion, and team member well-being. We test these relationships in a time-lagged, multi-source, survey study involving 274 team members in 54 project teams. Our results support the proposition that mindfulness increases affective well-being by reducing emotional exhaustion. However, this effect is most pronounced under conditions of high team conflict. High individual mindfulness is a universal panacea in that it results in less emotional exhaustion and greater affective wellbeing at all levels of team conflict, however, it also has a differentiated effect in that those with low individual mindfulness experience higher emotional exhaustion and lower affective wellbeing when team conflict is high. We conclude that mindfulness is most effective in contexts that elicit negative thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.