A growing number of researchers and managers are focusing on how to deal with employee anxiety and distraction while also improving their level of well-being and work engagement. Scholars and organizational managers are increasingly focusing on mindfulness as a solution to these problems. Mindfulness entails paying attention to the present moment with awareness and nonjudgmental processing (Kabat-Zinn, 2005). Mindfulness can help people stay calm, maintain mental sobriety, and achieve higher levels of attention (Wadlinger and Isaacowitz, 2011). According to research in the field of organizational management, mindfulness assists individuals in paying more stable and effective attention to information related to current tasks (Dane, 2011).
Employee Mindfulness
According to the theory of conservation of resources (CORs), acquiring initial resources will bring more resources to individuals, and scarcity of resources will lead to further resource depletion in the future (Hobfoll, 2001). Employee mindfulness, as a unique internal resource of an individual, contributes to the positive psychological resource of work engagement, according to COR theory. One of the fundamental components of mindfulness is attention (Good et al., 2016). Employees who can maintain active observation and attention to current internal and external stimuli in their daily work can maintain a high level of vigilance and sensitivity to their own internal experiences and external situation. Employees with high mindfulness, on the other hand, are more likely to maintain a beginner’s mind, focus their attention on current activities, regard each moment as unique, and, as a result, experience a higher level of vitality.
Organizational Mindfulness
Organizational mindfulness refers to the degree to which an organization captures discriminatory detail about emerging threats and develops the capability to respond quickly to these details (Weick et al., 1999; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2001; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2007). Organizational mindful-ness entails discussing potential threats to reliability on a regular and robust basis (preoccupation with failure); developing a nuanced and current understanding of the context by frequently questioning the adequacy of existing assumptions and considering reliable alternatives (reluctance to simplify interpretations); integrating these understandings into an up-to-date big picture (sensitivity to operations); and recognizing the inevitability of failure (Weick et al., 1999; Weick & Sutcliffe, 2007).
Advancement in technology
Blue Logic Computers’ Chief Technology Officer, Tim Hall, explains the top technological changes affecting the workplace right now. Organizations are adopting to newer changes in technology, which is bringing a change in the running or organnizations. With the pandemic, the world was introduced to virtual offices. According to employeebenefits.co.uk, “more than half (58%) of employee respondents cite flexible-working hours as the most important benefit.” Cloud computing platforms are intended to transition your company into the modern world of flexible and remote working, thereby increasing productivity and performance. As a result, the IT environment ensures security and dependability. Office 365 brings together the tools that modern businesses require to effectively collaborate and communicate. It can assist the organization in increasing productivity and controlling costs. Taking all of these processes online is fantastic for many reasons, but it raises the question of how secure employer data can be when it’s all online. According to a 2017 cyber security breach report, nearly half of all UK businesses (46%) identified at least one cyber security breach or attack in the previous 12 months. This figure rises to two-thirds among medium-sized businesses (66%) and large businesses (68%). Firewalls and internet gateways are intended to control incoming and outgoing network traffic, as well as to screen hackers and viruses attempting to access your network. Malware protection, on the other hand, prevents malicious software from infiltrating your network. ‘There are various types of malware, including spyware, keyloggers, true viruses, worms, or any type of malicious code that infiltrates a computer,’ according to Norton. According to Forbes, immersive technology may become the norm in the workplace sooner than expected. Through training and immersive conference room services, augmented and virtual reality technology could be used in the business environment. Job training is also changing as a result of technological advances. The new way to learn is through microlearning. It’s a method of teaching skills in short bursts. The rise of video has accelerated this trend, particularly among millennials who prefer short, digestible content.
Mindfulness and change in organizations
In recent years, mindfulness has been used to describe organizations that are “attentive to and aware of what is going on” (Brownand Ryan, 2003: 822). High levels of mindfulness enable organizations to make precise interpretations and respond adaptively to changes in their environment, as well as notice and disrupt the unexpected in the making (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2001; Fiol and O’Connor, 2003). Mindful behavior has been defined as (i) openness to new information, (ii) awareness of multiple perspectives, (iii) the creation of new categories, and (iv) a focus on the present (Langer, 1997; Sternberg, 2000; Fiol and O’Connor, 2003). Openness to new information necessitates the ability to challenge existing conventions and think in unconventional or novel ways. The ability to see things from multiple perspectives, on the other hand, assists organizational actors in cognitively recognizing and depicting the current state outside of existing scripts and routines (Krieger, 2005).
Despite the apparent benefits of highly attentive and conscious behavior, most human behavior is driven by automatic, nonconscious mental processes that we are unaware of, do not intend, and do not necessitate effort (Bargh and Chartrand, 1999). Mindfulness is rarely sustained; in the absence of unexpected stimuli, mindfulness can easily devolve into mindlessness (Germer, 2005). The result of “habituation, mindlessness, laxity, and scattered attention” is mindlessness (Weick and Putnam, 2006: 277). Mindlessness causes organisational actors to reduce their attention levels and to employ cognitively and emotionally rigid rule-based behavior mechanically (Fiol and O’Connor, 2003). Mindfulness and mindlessness are not mutually exclusive processes; most organisations exhibit some degree of both mindfulness and mindlessness. The issue is their proportion and simultaneity in a particular organization (Weick, 1998)
Technological advancement and Mindfulness
Technological advancement refers to the mechanisms used in organisations to organise, store, manipulate, present, and communicate information (Yates and Van Maanen, 2001). It includes shared and tangible resources such as hardware and software systems, network and telecommunication technologies, key data, and core data-processing applications that serve as a foundation for business applications (Duncan, 1995). Swanson and Ramiller (2004) discuss mindfulness in the context of technological advancements and argue that it decreases as the organisation continues to engage with innovation. While Swanson and Ramiller’s article demonstrates the mindfulness concept’s applicability in the IT domain, they primarily focus on the institutional bandwagon phenomenon, which drives organizations to imitate other organizations in innovation while ignoring their own organization and context-specific facts and distinctions. Fichman (2004) refers to Swanson and Ramiller’s article in his essay on IT innovation research but calls for empirical studies that incorporate mindfulness more closely into IT-enabled organizational innovation.
References
Digest, F. (2017, September 20). Technological Advancement In The Workplace. Finance Digest. https://www.financedigest.com/technological-advancement-in-the-workplace.html
Liu, S. (2020). The Influence of Individual and Team Mindfulness on Work Engagement. Frontiers. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02928/full
M.V. (2009, September). Information technology and mindfulness in organizations. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/46513170_Information_technology_and_mindfulness_in_organizations
P.A., & E.B.D. (2015, July). The Role of Mindfulness in Leading Organizational Transformation: A Systematic Review. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/282896291_The_Role_of_Mindfulness_in_Leading_Organizational_Transformation_A_Systematic_Review
T.J.V., & K.M.S. (2013, January). Organizational Mindfulness and Mindful Organizing: A Reconciliation and Path Forward. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235256977_Organizational_Mindfulness_and_Mindful_Organizing_A_Reconciliation_and_Path_Forward
W.F.C., & R.M. (2016, March). How Technology Is Changing Work and Organizations. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299400943_How_Technology_Is_Changing_Work_and_Organizations
About the Author:
Ms. Nayanika Chakraborty is a freshly graduated curious person, having experience in different domains of Human Resources, and now exploring the vast depths of Consumer Behaviour. I am disciplined regarding personal and career growth, and I enjoy my leisure time with my close ones and my pet.
