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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of mindfulness meditation sessions on students of higher education in terms of their mindfulness, mindful consumption behavior and life satisfaction.

Participants of research were higher education students. The research included two studies. The first (screener) study endorsed that mindfulness was higher in students with higher mindfulness meditation frequency. The second study used difference-in-differences experimental design using a treatment and a control group. These groups participated in pre and post-treatment surveys. The treatment was given as guided short mindfulness meditation sessions as suggested by mindfulness guru – Dr Jon Kabat-Zinn. The treatment group received these sessions at the end of regular subject classes for two months.

The experiment revealed that mindfulness, mindful consumption and life satisfaction change significantly in the treatment group after treatment as compared to the control group.

Limitations of the study included sample size and attrition. In total, 149 students participated in the screener study. In total, 94 students were given pre-treatment survey as per research design and 80 participated in post-treatment survey.

This experiment demonstrated that important traits and behavior like life satisfaction and mindful consumption behavior of higher education students can be improved significantly. The effectiveness of guided short mindfulness sessions, conducted in the classroom environment, was also confirmed.

The inclusion of mindfulness in the regular curriculum by policy makers would benefit students, faculty members and overall quality of learning environment.

Though previous researches have separately investigated relationships of mindfulness with life satisfaction, there is a lack of research to show association of mindfulness, mindful consumption and life satisfaction.

As the concept of mindfulness gains popularity in the workplace, there is a need to understand the extent to which mindfulness-related practices are integrated into training and development activities and the impact of these practices on employees and organizations. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the scope of mindfulness as an intervention in the workplace and to identify outcomes of mindfulness-related training activities at the individual, job/work, team/group and organizational levels.

Torraco (2005) and Briner and Denyer's (2012) four steps (search, selection, analysis and synthesis) for conducting an integrative literature review were used for this study. This method enabled us to compare and contrast relevant articles, integrate distributed information, create new knowledge and provide research directions on mindfulness practices in work settings.

Through a revision of 28 empirical studies, the authors found that mindfulness-based training is an effective intervention for organizations to improve mental health, wellbeing and performance of employees. A total of 51 significant outcomes of mindfulness-related training categorized at the individual (23), job/work (17), group/team (7) and organizational (4) levels were identified.

Despite the benefits of mindfulness training, according to the research, only a handful of organizations have rolled-out this program for employees. The authors recommend that industry leaders and managers take a proactive approach and incorporate mindfulness-related practices as part of their professional development training for employees at all levels to improve personal and professional growth and performance.

This paper extends the emerging literature on mindfulness by providing a comprehensive summary of the consequences of mindfulness training at a multilevel context within the human resource development domain.

Organizational researchers studying well-being – as well as organizations themselves – often place much of the burden on employees to manage and preserve their own well-being. Missing from this discussion is how – from a human resources management (HRM) perspective – organizations and managers can directly and positively shape the well-being of their employees. The authors use this review to paint a picture of what organizations could be like if they valued people holistically and embraced the full experience of employees’ lives to promote well-being at work. In so doing, the authors tackle five challenges that managers may have to help their employees navigate, but to date have received more limited empirical and theoretical attention from an HRM perspective: (1) recovery at work; (2) women’s health; (3) concealable stigmas; (4) caregiving; and (5) coping with socio-environmental jolts. In each section, the authors highlight how past research has treated managerial or organizational support on these topics, and pave the way for where research needs to advance from an HRM perspective. The authors conclude with ideas for tackling these issues methodologically and analytically, highlighting ways to recruit and support more vulnerable samples that are encapsulated within these topics, as well as analytic approaches to study employee experiences more holistically. In sum, this review represents a call for organizations to now – more than ever – build thriving organizations.

Brief loving-kindness meditation (LKM) is introduced here as a valid social marketing intervention. LKM positively influences prosocial cognitions and affects. However, it remains unclear whether brief meditation interventions can influence prosocial behavior. This study aims to provide evidence of the effects of short LKM on prosocial behavior.

This study reports the results of three experiments examining the effects of brief LKM on donations to unknown others. The results are then integrated with the results of seven other studies testing the effects of brief LKM on prosocial behavior using a meta-analysis (n = 683).

LKM increased love more than the control group (focused breathing) in the three experiments; however, its effects on donations were mixed. The meta-analysis shows that LKM has a small-to-medium significant effect compared to active control groups (d = 0.303); moreover, age and type of prosocial measure used moderate the effects.

Results suggest that LKM can nurture prosocial emotions such as love and lead young individuals to donate. However, these emotions may not be sufficient to lead adult meditators to share their resources with unknown others. This study presents the first meta-analysis of brief LKM and provides insights into the use of meditation in social marketing programs.

In this chapter, the authors discuss the results of research carried out on a sample of students at an elite university in the northeastern United States. The focus of the research was the interpretations that the students gave to a period of digital meditation. Meditation, yoga, and mindfulness have boomed in popularity over the past few years. Several factors are responsible of our “age of anxiety.” The de-standardization of life trajectories makes people freer (at least apparently) but requires more choices and, thus, reduces the sense of security. According to Rosa (2010), anxiety has intensified due to social acceleration. Therefore, it is not surprising that we sleep less than before. However, sleep loss is not just due to stress. According to Crary (2013), capitalism produces a consumer who should be able to buy “7/24.” Consequently, the chances of consumption should not have temporal boundaries. In sum, it is not surprising that there are numerous apps to cope with anxiety. Going back to the research, one result should be mentioned: several students have used biomedical jargon to describe the effects of meditation. Someone spoke of “digital therapy” referring to meditation. Moreover, some affirmed that the perception that they had of their own body had changed; thus, they were more keen on the quantifiable aspects of bodily health. In general, students found meditation as a very useful “therapy” for a quick fix for the many stresses of college. This is why we called it a “positive” medicalization.

The purpose of this paper is to review the implementation of two strategies that are actually un-teachable yet highly effective in higher education: meditation and storytelling.

Specifically focussing on workplace spirituality as a movement from corporate workers, and consequently, also a teaching topic in management education, the paper first indicates some problems faced in today's world, and relates these to the need for facilitating college courses in more compelling and comprehensive ways.

Spirituality and spiritual concepts can involve emotional and other non-cognitive experiences which cannot be taught using traditional teaching approaches such as reading and lecture. Specific approaches, such as meditation and storytelling are useful for teaching spirituality and spiritual concepts in a business school classroom setting. These two strategies provide an opportunity for students to reflect on their experiences and to become more self-aware.

Using the practical strategies discussed in this paper in management classes turns out to be a positive experience for both the course facilitators and the students.

Reflecting on the overhaul attempts of management education in universities, even those with the prestige of Harvard and Stanford, the authors discuss some interesting strategies that can help management educators take their course experiences and the results attained to the next level.

Business schools need to prepare students for effective, ethical decision-making. When faced with stressful life events that negatively affect wellbeing, making decisions can become more challenging. As future managers, students will need to learn how to make decisions when they are at the same time faced with stress and cognitive overload. In such situations, the brain looks for mental shortcuts in making choices to make things faster and easier, which leads to less optimal decision-making. Research shows that mindfulness meditation can effectively decrease stress and anxiety. Mindfulness meditation increases metacognition and, in the process, reduces the effects of biases, ethical blind spots, and psychological traps. Therefore, introducing students to these techniques has significant pedagogical potential for business education as students learn mindfulness meditation and show a need to include such practices in the curriculum. This chapter sheds light on two mindfulness technique cases with business school students in Lebanon and Switzerland. In these cases, the authors explore the impact of mindfulness practices on students by applying the emotional intelligence mood metre and mindfulness meditation. The authors also apply the ‘response time testing’ (RTT) methodology in the Swiss case to measure students’ attitudes. As a result, the authors provide simple confirmations from their classrooms that engaging in mindfulness activities and meditation is a simple and productive exercise that is essential for student wellbeing, learning, and decision-making. Therefore, the authors’ purpose is to encourage and give mindfulness practices a viable place in business education.