Book chapter published in Dhiman, S. (2020) “The Routledge Companion to Mindfulness at Work”, Routledge
Mindfulness-based interventions in context: A case study of managers’ experiences and the role of the organizational environment
The purpose of this chapter is to offer a broader understanding of the opportunities and challenges of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) in the workplace by reporting on a longitudinal case study of a medium-sized Scandinavian company. The longitudinal study focuses on how specific participants experience the outcomes of an MBI over time and the role that the organizational environment plays in shaping these outcomes. The main outcome of the MBI is seen as the development of mindfulness-related abilities—for example, perspective taking, self-reflection, empathy, authentic functioning, and the meta-ability to be aware of the ways in which these abilities are applied. The extent to which these abilities are developed and used is also related to the individual’s ability to embrace both the practical and spiritual aspects of the MBI. The results of the case study suggest that several elements in the organizational context supported the implementation of the MBI: authentic top management support, alignment between the MBI and a larger organizational transformation, a stable organizational environment, and the creation of a holding environment to support the managers’ integration of what they have learned into their everyday working lives.
Keywords: mindfulness, mindfulness-based interventions, mindfulness at work, personal transformation, spirituality, case study
Exhibition accepted to the Arts & Management of Management and Organization (AoMO), Liverpool (UK) August 19-22 2021
Points of contact: A photographic exploration
Leadership is a complex task that sometimes is described as art rather than science. Taylor and Karanian (2008) point out that if we are to take seriously the idea that leadership is an art, we might also ask, what is the medium of the art of leadership? The authors suggest that, like the glass is the medium of the glassblower, connection is the medium that is worked in the craft of leadership (Taylor, 2020; Taylor & Karanian, 2008).
However, we seldom reflect on the nature of connection in itself. What does it mean to be in connection? How does it feel from inside? What does it look like? In this photographic research, contact improvisation is used to explore the nature of connection as one’s ability to embrace another “I”, while at the same time being in genuine contact with one’s own “I”.
Contact improvisation is a contemporary dance form in which two or more people are improvising around a point of contact. As the next move is never known in advance, the dancer can only mindfully experience the dance as it emerges, listening inwards and acting outwards at the same time. In this way, the dancers are participating in a shared co-creation while simultaneously dancing one’s own dance. The purpose of this photographic work is to share that experience with people who would not dance themselves.
Paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, August 7-11 2020, Vancouver, BC, Canada
Abstract
Building on sensemaking theory and Erich Fromm’s distinction between the existential modes of having and being, this paper explores the process in which managers integrate spirituality into their working lives through a longitudinal, clinical research project. The being mode offers a way to bypass the grip of the habituated identity in the sensemaking process and thus, to open up for new ways of perceiving, interpreting and enacting cues in familiar situations. In this process, spirituality is allowed to be integrated into the evolving self at work. By articulating the role of mode of existence in the sensemaking process, this paper also contributes to the sensemaking perspective. The notion of being-based doing is developed as a way of talking about actions that stem from the being mode, including mindfulness, compassion and other states grounded in experience.