Sign of the times: Workplace mindfulness as an empty signifier

Abstract

The rapid emergence of mindfulness programs within organizational settings reflects an amalgam of humanistic, spiritual, and managerial perspectives. While impact studies have focused on effects of mindfulness programs on employees, how such programs are implemented by trainers, managers, and employees and how the mindfulness concept operates within organizations are not well understood. In this study, we draw upon Laclau’s notion of the ‘empty signifier’ to argue that mindfulness programs work to encode oppositional organizational elements, drawing on competing discourses that shape, in practice, how mindfulness evolves within organizations. Through an empirical qualitative study of organizational mindfulness practitioners, we show how practitioners leverage heterogeneous meanings to represent oppositions within organizations, and that in the course of mindfulness programs, these oppositions are framed to align with dominant managerial perspectives. We discuss the ramifications of these findings to understanding the uses of mindfulness for ideological purposes while speculating on the emancipatory possibilities of mindfulness as a solidaristic and collective practice.