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This paper aims to examine the differences in mindfulness, meditation and flow and the conditions in which each occurs. It summarizes research that demonstrates positive benefits of these three for employee and organizational learning. While mindfulness focuses awareness on what is occurring in the moment, flow involves total immersion in an activity and loss of awareness of one’s self and the environment. This paper discusses if and how mindfulness can be incorporated into flow and how this relates to organizational learning.

A mindfulness-in-flow process, called mindflow, is described as one that includes open awareness at the “integral point”. Pilot programmes were conducted that integrated mindfulness, meditation and flow for three companies and participants that reported personal physical and psychological benefits and development of mindfulness-in-flow skills.

This paper suggests that conducting workplace programmes and environments that incorporate mindfulness, meditation and flow has considerable potential to improve culture, responsiveness and learning.

For mindflow to be a useful process to enhance individual and organizational learning, conditions need to be embedded which encourage mindfulness and flow in the organization. Further research is needed into the study of the integration of mindfulness in flow versus mindfulness, the workplace conditions necessary to support mindflow and how these translate into organizational learning.

Organizations need to provide workplace conditions, resources and systems that support mindful flow. Leaders also need to be models and coaches to guide individuals and teams to work in a mind-flow way.

The process and practice of mindflow provides greater fulfillment for workers as well as greater alignment between the organization’s products and services and the well being of society.

This paper suggests that conducting workplace programmes and providing organizational conditions that incorporate mindfulness, meditation and flow will increase organizational learning and provide an essential culture for a learning organization.

The predominant psychological type among senior police officers is the extraverted‐sensing‐thinking‐judgement type, pragmatic and practical and thus ideally suited to many aspects of police work, according to data presented to 119 Australian senior police officers. The high proportion of extraverted‐thinking‐sensing‐judgement types may explain the common macho‐image of policemen. Low levels of self‐actualisation among police officers may limit honesty, openness, flexibility and concern for the good of the police force and society, as well as contributing to stress, so this aspect must be dealt with.

There is a significant difference in the perception managers have regarding the level of communications they have with their subordinates and the level of communication subordinates perceive they have with their managers. Managers in the private sector do not communicate more with their employees than managers in the public sector. Nor do private employees indicate that their managers communicate significantly more than employees in the public sector. An ex‐post facto study of 223 persons from private and public organisations was carried out in Australia to discover whether managers perceive they communicate significantly more with subordinates than subordinates perceive the managers communicate with them.

The growing interest in developing and applying “integral” approaches to organisations has been accompanied by a corresponding increase in different ways of interpreting this term. This article aims to present a set of criteria to help in defining the varieties of integral approaches to the study of organisations.

These criteria are derived from Ken Wilber's integral framework. The constitutive elements of Wilber's multi‐paradigm framework are used to develop a typology that honours the many forms that integral approaches can take.

It is proposed that the key criteria for assessing integral approaches to organisational life are: the structural focus, the engagement with process, and the emphasis on spirituality or essential purpose. Four type categories result from applying the structural criteria. These range from a general type that utilises broadly holistic concepts through to type which employs the detailed application of developmental quadrant and level concepts that formally define the integral approach as conceived by Ken Wilber. The engagement and spirituality criteria are additional enriching criteria that establish the integrity of the methods and purposes used in truly integral approaches.

The proposed typology will help in understanding how different authors, researchers and practitioners represent and apply the term “integral” within organisational contexts.

A study of employee involvement in the management and ownership of NVC Australia Pty Ltd indicated high levels of work satisfaction, job security, decision influence, productivity, communication, commitment and involvement. Although only one organisation has been analysed, it is clear that employee ownership and participation provide interesting alternatives for organisations to face the challenges of the present social and economic situations.

Leadership and management skills are increasingly required to navigate organisations through the complexities and changes of contemporary environments. Over the last decade, 3608 feedback is a process that has gained wide usage to help development of these skills. Summarises current research on 3608 feedback and the development of an integrated model of leadership and management based on the theories of Wilber. The article describes a comprehensive “integral” model and a questionnaire that uses elements of 3608 feedback to measure roles of leadership and management, as well as dimensions of self‐development and strategic change skills. This approach is applied to a sample of 304 managers and over 1,000 subordinates. The construction, validity and results of the questionnaire are discussed, as well as the major leadership strengths and weaknesses of the sample managers. Issues and experiences in the use of this model and the 3608 process are described.

There are several stage‐based models of organisational development (OD) that provide a systematic overview of the developmental potential of organisations. This paper compares four such models – Ken Wilber's integral theory, the spiral dynamics model of Don Beck and Chris Cowan, Richard Barrett's corporate transformation model, and William Torbert's action inquiry model – with the aim of presenting an integrated account of the stages of OD.

Integral theory is used as the basis for considering the theoretical scope of these other models of OD. The integral framework is specifically designed to recognise the valid insights of other models of organisational change and, as such, is well suited for situating those insights in a comprehensive and coherent approach for mapping the developmental paths of organisations. The models considered represent some of the more innovative OD approaches.

From the comparative analysis an integral model for OD is described. The description includes a new definition of OD which is based on integral theory's core developmental principles.

The proposed framework provides a means for assessing the scope and specificity of other approaches to OD. It also provides criteria for distinguishing between those approaches that are concerned with incremental or continuous change and those that focus on transformative development.

The comparative analysis and resulting framework will assist practitioners and consultants in the OD field in developing a better understanding of the relationships between various stage‐based approaches to OD.

This paper provides a comprehensive framework that can assist in comparing and situating the many approaches to OD that are currently available.

Discusses the importance of bringing to the awareness of all employees the “unwritten ground rules” (UGRs) that operate in an organization. UGRs can be used to transform an organization’s culture to a new set of ground rules that directly reinforce behaviours that contribute to strategic organizational objectives and excellent customer service. Defines and describes unwritten ground rules and then discusses their relevance to customer service and the achievement of organizational objectives. Examples of negative and positive unwritten ground rules that were described by staff to be at the core of their organization’s actions are provided. Provides a model that defines unwritten ground rules in four quadrants of organizational activities and suggests that all four quadrants need to have effective ground rules for an organization to succeed. Finally, it provides an UGR change process that involves seven elements for changing the UGRs to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives and a truly “balanced scorecard”.

Ken Wilber’s spectrum of consciousness, holons and four facets of reality theories are recent concepts that integrate science, psychology, and western and eastern philosophy. These are used to describe how individuals, teams and organization development (OD) need to occur in a balanced way through the four quadrants and levels of development defined by Wilber. The historical emphases of OD are also seen through these four quadrants. Suggestions are made as to how leaders and change agents can use this model to implement a practical yet spiritual way to work. Many modern management practices such as the balanced scorecard, vision statements, team‐building activities and other activities can be easily realigned to this new integrated model. The article concludes by suggesting that evolution is Spirit unfolding itself through time/space and that the work of human organizations is to join in this creative emergence of Spirit. The central role of leadership is described as the development of Spirit at an individual, team and organizational level.

This paper seeks to develop a self‐report instrument completed by team members, the Integral Team Effectiveness Measure (ITEM), in order to assess team strengths and weaknesses based on a review of research and models of effective teams. The ability of the instrument, based on an “integral” or holistic framework, to capture a latent factor relevant to team success is tested. Based on two studies, support for the construct and predictive validity of the ITEM measure is provided.

Psychometric evaluation of a survey instrument is described. A quasi‐experiment to see whether an objective measure of team performance can be predicted from the instrument and multi‐level modelling was also incorporated.

Although there are many elements necessary for good teamwork, there is nevertheless an underlying common theme. This underlying theme or construct of integral team effectiveness can be measured with a self‐report instrument, which successfully predicted subsequent team performance in a sample of 45 teams.

The Integral Team Effectiveness Measure (ITEM) is an instrument that captures an important underlying quality of teams. Organisations relying on teams may benefit from using the ITEM to diagnose weaknesses and to design corrective interventions.

Although many previous studies have described variables which impact team performance, integral team effectiveness is an original contribution in that it describes and measures an underlying essence of teamwork. Managers and team members may find integral team effectiveness valuable for overcoming the apparent complexities and contradictions that confound sincere efforts to improve team performance.