The Routledge Companion to Mindfulness at Work

Satinder K. Dhiman

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9780429534867
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Given the ever-growing interest in the benefits of mindfulness to organizations and the individuals who work in them, this Companion is a comprehensive primary reference work for mindfulness (including creativity and flow) in the workplace, including business, healthcare, and educational settings.

Research shows that mindfulness boosts creativity through greater insight, receptivity, and balance, and increases energy and a sense of wellbeing. This Companion traces the genesis and growth of this burgeoning field, tracks its application to the workplace, and suggests trends and future directions.

With contributions from leading scholars and practitioners in business, leadership, psychology, healthcare, education, and other related fields, The Routledge Companion to Mindfulness at Work is an extensive reference work which will be a vital resource to the fields of management and organizational studies, human resource management, psychology, spirituality, cultural anthropology, and sociology. Each chapter will present a listing of key topics, a case or situation that illustrates the application of the themes, workplace lessons, and reflection questions.

PART I

Mapping the terrain of mindfulness at work

1

Anatomy of mindfulness at work

Theoretical construct and practical applications

Satinder K. Dhiman

Mindfulness construct

It is only when we’ve awakened that we realize how much of our lives we’ve actually slept through.

– Langer (2005, p. 16)

Introduction

Many sages throughout the human history have pointed out that the normal state that we call ‘waking’ is a form of psychological slumber. Mindfulness represents a wake-up call to live more consciously and attentively. Only when we make a conscious effort to be more awake do we realize how mindlessly our life has been lived. As Langer has pointed out, ‘It is only when we’ve awakened that we realize how much of our lives we’ve actually slept through’ (2005, p. 16). Given our ‘fast and fragmented lives’—both personally and professionally—few topics are more pertinent in the present times than the art of conscious living and working. Since awareness is considered a universal human capacity and the most fundamental quality of our being, mindfulness accords great application potential in myriad fields involving personal and collective well-being.

Mindfulness has come to be recognized as one of the most enduring catchwords in the recent times. Research has shown that mindfulness improves markers of health (Creswell et al., 2016), reduces physiological markers of stress (Pascoe et al., 2017), and can literally change our brain (Congleton et al., 2015). The research on mindfulness also suggests that meditation sharpens skills like attention, memory, resilience, and emotional intelligence, competencies critical to leadership effectiveness and productivity (Seppala, 2015). After reviewing the research on the myriad applications of mindfulness in the ‘wider context’ of psychological well-being (Brown & Ryan, 2003), this chapter will focus on the role and application of mindfulness in the workplace, both from the leadership and employees’ perspective.

After defining the construct of mindfulness from multiple perspectives, the first part of this chapter will explore how Theravada Buddhism understands mindfulness. The Theravada tradition based on the Pali canon will be utilized to survey the Buddhist approach to mindfulness since it represents, according to most Buddhist scholars (Rahula, 1974; Carrithers, 1988; Nanamoli, 1992; Gethin, 1998; Bodhi, 2005, 2012, 2016, 2017; Piyadassi, 1991, 2005), the ‘oldest’ and, hence, the most ‘genuine’ form of Buddhist teachings. The second section will present a critical review of the existing mindfulness literature in cognitive and clinical psychology to create a pathway to the exploration of mindfulness in the workplace and leadership domain.

Mindfulness as a special form of self-awareness

Weick and Putnam (2006, p. 275) speak about a sign on the wall of a machine shop run by the New York Central railroad that reads: ‘Be where you are with all your mind.’ This essentially sums up the practice of mindfulness and suggests its potential application in myriad fields. Recently, we have seen mindfulness practice making its way to wellness and health clinics (Kabat-Zinn, 2005; Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008), prison houses, government offices (Parihar, 2004)¹, law firms (Keeva, 2004; Carroll, 2007), and business leadership (Jyoti, 2000; Nakai & Schultz, 2000; Carroll, 2004, 2007, 2012; Gaytso & Muyzenberg, 2008; Marturano, 2015).

Mindfulness is a complex and multi-dimensional concept, with exceedingly rich and evolving history. Historically a Buddhist practice, mindfulness is a universal human capacity (Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008) as well as a skill that can potentially be cultivated through many diverse paths (Bishop et al., 2004; Shapiro & Carlson, 2009). In its original Buddhist form, the practice of mindfulness refers to cultivating awareness of the body and the mind in the present moment.

The faculty of self-awareness, a facet of mindfulness, has always been prized by various wisdom and spiritual traditions (Wilber, 2000). Socrates believed that ‘an unexamined life is not worth living’ (Durant, 1962) and declared cultivating gnothi seauton—self-knowledge—to be the most important purpose of life. Various other wisdom traditions of the world also highlight the importance of garnering a heightened sense of awareness by keeping the attention focused on a chosen object through intense absorption, meditation, contemplation, concentration, remembrance, and recollection. For example, Sufi masters use a special form of meditation called a Zikr to develop ‘yearning for the divine’ through constant remembrance and recollection (Idries Shah, 2004).

Christian Desert Fathers likewise used the royal art of ‘the prayer of the heart’ according to which prayer is employed to garner the knowledge of the Divine (Merton, 2004). The Philokalia, a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth century by masters of the Greek Orthodox tradition (Kadloubovsky & Palmer, 1979), speaks of the virtue of developing mental silence and inner attention in the service of the Divine. In the modern times, Gurdjieff-Ouspenksy, two Russian mystics, have laid special importance on ‘self-remembering’ as a unique way to psychological self-evolvement (Ouspenksy, 1973; Burton, 2007). And Krishnamurti (2002), a modern Indian philosopher, popularized the phrase ‘choiceless awareness’ to denote a state of pure alertness where we are fully aware of the moment-to-moment reality ‘as it is,’ yet our awareness is not focused on any particular physical or mental object.

Although Hindu, Sufi, and Christian Orthodox traditions employ some form of mindfulness to attune to reality, yet, in no other spiritual tradition has mindfulness played such a key role in developing awareness of the present reality as it has in the Buddhist spiritual path. In no other tradition has mindfulness received such a comprehensive treatment as it has in the Buddhist doctrine and discipline, both in the ancient manuals and commentaries, and in the modern Buddhist writings.

Defining mindfulness

‘Mindfulness,’ as the traditional English word, has been around for over 300 years (Still, 2005; Dryden & Still, 2006, p. 3). In the early part of the twentieth century, the term ‘mindfulness’ was coined by the British scholar, T.H. Rhys-Davids, to translate the Pāli word sati (Thanissaro, 1996). During last 20 years, the word mindfulness has gained unprecedented popularity mainly due to Jon Kabat-Zinn’s (1990) mindfulness-based stress reduction program that he pioneered at the University of Massachusetts Medical School during the 1980s. Other teachers who have contributed to bringing mindfulness to the mainstream consciousness in Western cultures include Nyanaponika Thera (Nyanaponika, 1962, 1996), Thich Nhat Hanh (1992), Ellen Langer (1989, 2005, 2014), Joseph Goldstein, and Jack Kornfield (2001).

Although the interest in application of mindfulness technique has grown exponentially over the last two decades, the term mindfulness has not been defined operationally (Bishop et al., 2004). The word has many connotations and various authors have described the term differently to suit their needs and purposes, mostly acknowledging—explicitly or implicitly–its Buddhist roots. Here is a sampling of a few of those definitions:

• ‘a process of bringing a certain quality of attention to moment-to-moment experience’ (Kabat-Zinn, 1990)
• ‘moment to moment, non-judgmental awareness cultivated by paying attention’ (Kabat-Zinn, 2015)
• ‘Mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to things as they are’ (Williams, Teasdale, Segal, and Jon Kabat-Zinn, 2007, p. 47)
• ‘remembering to bring attention to present moment experience in an open and nonjudgmental manner’ (Huxter, 2008)
• ‘keeping one’s consciousness alive to the present reality’ (Hanh,1975)
• ‘awareness of what happens in your own mind and in the world around you’ (Sangharakshita, 2000)
• ‘process of drawing novel distinctions or noticing new things’ (Langer, 1989; Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000)
• ‘simply the knack of noticing without comment whatever is happening in your present experience. It involves just seeing from moment to moment what the mind is up to; the endless succession of ideas and feelings and perceptions and body sensations and memories and fantasies and moods and judgments arising and passing away’ (Claxton, 1990)
• ‘When you are mindful you are highly concentrated, focused on what you are doing, and you are collected—poised and calm with a composure that comes from being aware of yourself and the world around you as well as being aware of your purpose’ (Kulananda & Houlder, 2002)
• ‘Mindfulness is the capacity to be fully aware of all that one experiences inside the self—body, mind, heart, spirit—and to pay full attention to what is happening around us—people, the natural world, our surroundings, and events’ (Boyatzis & McKee, 2005)
• ‘a kind of nonelaborative, nonjudgmental, present-centered awareness in which each thought, feeling, or sensation that arises in the attentional filed is acknowledged and accepted as it is’ (Bishop et al., 2004)

As is evident from the foregoing definitions, mindfulness refers to ‘intentional awareness of what is unfolding in the present moment’ (Williams, Teasdale & Segal, 2007). When used in the therapeutic sense, the definitions of mindfulness tend to incorporate an element of non-judgment to facilitate wider acceptance of its use (Gilpin, 2008). Within Buddhist context, mindfulness almost always denotes an awareness of moment-to-moment changes that are taking place in our body and mind.

Mindfulness in the earliest Pali canon

This section presents the fundamental teachings on Satipatthana as preserved in the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism (the School of the Elders). The Buddha wrote no books or treatises. His earliest discourses are recorded in Pāli bhāshā—the language of Buddhist texts—which is closely related to Sanskrit. Meditation constitutes the essence of Buddhism, the very foundation of Buddhist practice. Meditation is to Buddhism what prayer is to Christianity (Conze, 1959, p. 11). The two main types of Buddhist meditation are: (1) samatha meditation, which deals with the development of serenity or calm, and (2) vipassana² meditation, which involves the development of insight.

Calm meditation aims to provide the mind essential clarity and makes the mind serene, stable, and strong. By preparing the mind to ‘see the things as they really are,’ it serves as a necessary foundation for Insight meditation. Together, Calm and Insight meditation form the Buddhist path leading to the realization of final awakening or enlightenment.

In an introduction to Vissudhamagga—The Path of Purification, Bhikkhu Nanamoli (2003, p. xIiii; originally published 1972) has noted that

concentration is training in intensity and focus and in single-mindedness. While Buddhism makes no exclusive claim to teach jhana concentration (samatha=samadhi), it does claim that the development of insight (vipassana) culminating in penetration of Four Noble Truths is peculiar to it. The two have to be coupled together to attain to the truths and the end of suffering. Insight is initially training to see experience as it occurs, without misperception, invalid assumptions or wrong inferences.

The foundations of mindfulness: Satipatthana Sutta

The most important and the most original discourse on the subject of meditation delivered by the Buddha is called Satipatthana Sutta. The ‘Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness’ (Satipatthana Sutta) occurs twice in Buddhist Scriptures: (1) as the 10th Discourse of Middle Collection of Discourses (Majjhima Nikaya), (2) as the 22nd Discourse of the Long Collections of Discourses (Digha Nikaya). In the second version, it is called Maha-Satipatthana Sutta (‘Maha’ means great) and differs from the first version only by a detailed treatment of the Four Noble Truths (Conze, 1959; Nyanaponika, 1962, 1996; Saddhatissa, 1971; Rahula, 1974; Soma, 1981; Narada, 1988; Sayadaw, 1990, 1999; Piyadassi, 1991; Nanamoli, 1998; Gunaratana, 2002; Thanissaro, 2004; Goenka, 2006; Analayo, 2007).

The elaboration of four foundations of mindfulness ‘seem to be a direct outcome of Buddha’s awakening.’ In the opening and concluding sections of Satipatthana Sutta, Buddha himself has declared it to be the direct path to liberation...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Notes on contributors
• About the editor
• Prolegomenon
• Introduction
• PART I: Mapping the terrain of mindfulness at work
• PART II: Leading mindfully
• PART III: Managing mindfully
• PART IV: Mindfulness-based learning and interventions
• PART V: Creative and novel approaches to mindfulness
• Index