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This research aims to test the relationships between organisational mindfulness, social learning and opportunistic behaviour of small business leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six small business leaders from various sectors to explore and better grasp the unprecedented phenomenon. An online survey on small business owners and managers in Indonesia was then employed as the main study, resulting in 291 valid responses for further analysis. The data were analysed using regression on SmartPLS 3.0 software.

This research finds that organisational mindfulness and social learning have positive and significant associations with the ability of small business leaders to discover and exploit opportunities. The path analysis suggests that organisational mindfulness plays a pivotal role as it also partially mediates the relationship between social learning and opportunistic behaviour.

This is the first paper to test the relationships between organisational mindfulness, social learning and opportunistic behaviour, particularly in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This work also contributes by emphasising the critical linkages between internal and external capabilities triggered by small business leaders to survive the pandemic.

This paper is one of the first studies to examine specificities, including limits of mindfulness at work in an African organisational context, whilst dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. It specifically addresses the role of organisational and managerial support systems in restoring employee wellbeing, social connectedness and attachment to their organisations, in order to overcome the exclusion caused by the ongoing pandemic.

The study uses a qualitative research methodology that includes interviews as the main data source. The sample comprises of 20 entrepreneurs (organisational leaders) from Ghana and Nigeria.

The authors found that COVID-19-induced worries restricted the practice of mindfulness, and this was prevalent at the peak of the pandemic, particularly due to very tough economic conditions caused by reduction in salaries, and intensified by pre-existing general economic and social insecurities, and institutional voids in Africa. This aspect further resulted in lack of engagement and lack of commitment, which affected overall team performance and restricted employees’ mindfulness at work. Hence, quietness by employees even though can be linked to mindfulness was linked to larger psychological stress that they were facing. The authors also found leaders/manager’s emotional intelligence, social skills and organisational support systems to be helpful in such circumstances. However, their effectiveness varied among the cases.

This paper is one of the first studies to establish a link between the COVID-19 pandemic and mindfulness limitations. Moreover, it is a pioneering study specifically highlighting the damaging impact of COVID-19-induced concerns on leader–member exchange (LMX) and team–member exchange (TMX) relationships, particularly in the African context. It further brings in a unique discussion on the mitigating mechanisms of such COVID-19-induced concerns in organisations and highlights the roles of manager’s/leader’s emotional intelligence, social skills and supportive intervention patterns. Finally, the authors offer an in-depth assessment of the effectiveness of organisational interventions and supportive relational systems in restoring social connectedness following a social exclusion caused by COVID-19-induced worries.

Routines are the very material of human organization. But there is little guarantee that routines will be enacted flexibly enough to ensure that organization survives. Mindfulness has been offered as a guarantor of sorts, but it remains unclear exactly what people mean by mindfulness and how mindfulness might relate to routines. This chapter reviews evolving conceptions of mindfulness and routines—from Langer’s early work to routine dynamics to Levinthal and Rerup’s seminal debate with Weick and Sutcliffe. It puts forth the argument that the recent theory of mindfulness as metacognitive practice retains important insights from throughout this conceptual evolution, while resolving ambiguity and debate about the relation between mindfulness and routines in at least four critical areas related to agency, duality, flexibility, and social organization. This resolution, in turn, opens up further avenues to understand the social processes by which people come to understand their minds—and how this understanding embeds within organization itself.

Interest in employee mindfulness has increased dramatically in recent years, fueled by several important conceptual articles, numerous studies documenting the benefits of mindfulness for employee outcomes, and the adoption of mindfulness-based practices in many Fortune 500 organizations. Despite this growing interest, the vast majority of research on employee mindfulness has taken an intrapersonal focus, failing to appreciate the ways in which mindfulness may enhance work-related relational processes and outcomes. The authors explore possible associations between mindfulness and relationally oriented workplace phenomena, drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship examining mindfulness in romantic relationships, child–parent relationships, patient–healthcare provider relationships, and student–teacher relationships. A framework is proposed that links mindfulness to three distinct relationally oriented processes, which are expected to have downstream effects on work-related relational outcomes. The authors then take the proposed framework and discuss possible extensions to a variety of unique workplace relationships and discuss critical next steps in advancing the relational science of mindfulness.

This research aims to study the effects of mindfulness and self-compassion in addressing COVID-19 phobia issues. To date, not a single study has examined the influence of these constructs on COVID-19 phobia amongst frontline employees (FLEs) in the services sector. In this context, the present study examined the association between FLE’s trait mindfulness and COVID-19 phobia and the mediating effect of self-compassion on this relationship.

Data were collected using 335 FLEs working in the Indian services sector, and the analysis was undertaken using the PROCESS macro of Hayes (2018).

FLE's trait mindfulness was found to influence COVID-19 phobia negatively, and the mediation role of self-compassion was also noted. Findings for the COVID-19 phobia composite and its four facets are discussed.

Corporate leaders could encourage mindfulness and self-compassion training helping in buffering the negative issues associated with COVID-19 phobia among FLEs.

It is one of the few studies conducted in the South-Asian context that highlights how mindfulness can help enhance self-compassion among frontline service sector employees while guiding them to overcome COVID-19 phobia. This could be the first study to examine the mediating effects of self-compassion in the relationships between mindfulness and COVID-19 phobia.

The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationships between leaders' communication competence, mindfulness, self-compassion and job satisfaction. Barge and Hirokawa's (1989) communication-centered theoretical approach of leadership and Gilbert's (2005) social mentality offered frameworks to examine mindfulness and self-compassion as co-mediators of the relationship between business leaders' communication competence and job satisfaction.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 219 business leaders in the USA via snowball sampling.

The results showed that communication competence served as an antecedent of mindfulness and self-compassion. Additionally, self-compassion served as a significant mediator between the positive relationship between communication competence and job satisfaction.

Managers and business leaders may gain insights about the benefit of developing self-compassion and communication competence skills to enhance their job satisfaction via courses, workshops and certifications.

This study is the first to examine the effect of two well-being constructs (self-compassion and mindfulness) on the relationship between leaders' communication competence and job satisfaction.

Despite widespread recognition of the importance of mindfulness in organizational science literature, little is known about how mindfulness motivates individuals to configure information processing and team member exchange relationships to increase creative process engagement. Drawing on motivated information processing theory, this study conceptualizes and empirically examines whether and how mindfulness motivates individuals toward creative process engagement.

The authors collected data through an online survey from 311 respondents working in the Research and Development (R&D) departments of organizations in multiple industries in Pakistan. For analytical purposes, the authors have applied the structural equation modeling technique.

This study advances a different view of individual mindfulness on the creative process engagement in the following ways. First, mindfulness enables individuals to self-regulate in specific situations and become effective in fostering creative process engagement. Second, this study extends research on relational information processing by linking it to mindfulness and creative process engagement. Relational information processing partially mediates the relationship between mindfulness and creative process engagement. Third, this study highlights that mindfulness motivates individuals to focus more on developing quality working relationships, but they seem less willing to participate in idea generation and problem-solving solutions.

The study findings provide implications for research on mindfulness, creativity and motivated information processing to enhance individuals’ creative process engagements. The authors also discuss the implications for executives on the relational and creative benefits of mindfulness.

Based on a need to utilize strategies and develop social-emotional competency skills of school administrators, the purpose of this paper is to explore the influence of Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE), a mindfulness-based professional development program, on the leadership and well-being of 13 school administrators.

The empirical data consist of in-depth interviews with 13 administrators before and after the implementation of CARE program, observation notes from shadowing their activities during school time and attending the CARE program as a participant observer. Employing the pro-social classroom model (Jennings and Greenberg, 2009) as a theoretical foundation, the paper is based on an ongoing, iterative data analysis process, following the coding and interpretive techniques of grounded theory.

The positive outcomes that emerged from the data relate to improved leadership skills, such as increased self-reflection, better relationships and attendance to self-care. These skills are tied to increased self-awareness, self-management and self-compassion. Participants also reported an improved ability to recognize their emotional reactions, which enabled them to better understand their leadership roles in shaping their school climates.

The findings reveal significant insights about the implementation of social-emotional, mindfulness-based professional development with school administrators and potential outcomes. Implications for professional development that fosters school administrators’ social-emotional competencies are discussed.

As a study of one of the first implementations of mindfulness-based professional development programs among school principals, this research illuminates the specific benefits of such programs for school leaders and how mindfulness could be integral in their lives and education. Specifically, this study is one of the first to reveal how the CARE professional development program influences principals’ well-being and leadership.

This study investigates the potential of utilizing mindfulness practices to regulate emotions in libraries. Libraries are emotionally stressful environments characterized by continuous change and uncertainty. Working with the public and with colleagues can lead to emotional strain and exhaustion. Mindfulness offers librarians a means to achieve a degree of emotional control so they do not identify with emotions, allowing them to focus more fully on their work. This study examines the scientific research that has been conducted on mindfulness and the effect it has on emotions. The research is drawn from the fields of psychology and related fields such as medicine. The findings are applied to the library field to examine what the potential implications might be. Psychological studies have shown that mindfulness has the potential to effectively manage emotions in the workplace and in organizational settings. Mindfulness practices help individuals manage emotions by a process of attuning to and dis-identifying with affective content, leaving them free to concentrate on the task at hand. Psychological science has found mindfulness to be useful for managing emotions. These findings have potential implications for libraries. By applying mindfulness to the library setting, this study provides librarians with an effective strategy for regulating emotions and coping with work-related stress.