Twenty years of research on mindfulness at work: A structured literature review

Abstract

Over the last two decades, mindfulness has become increasingly mainstream in the workplace and has attracted significant scholarly attention. However, there lacks a comprehensive and updated review of mindfulness that identifies historical research trends and establishes the current state of knowledge. To address this gap, we conduct a structured review of 217 articles published in top management and psychology journals between 2003 and 2022. Our findings reveal an uneven development in mindfulness research by topic. For example, while substantial research has examined the associations between mindfulness and both job performance and health outcomes, few studies have considered which factors moderate these associations. We propose five areas for future research that will facilitate a deeper understanding of mindfulness at work: the associations between mindfulness and adaptive performance, the design of mindfulness interventions, the complex nature of mindfulness effects, team mindfulness, and the interactions between different levels of mindfulness.