Positive Psychology, Mindfulness, Psychotherapy and Philosophy

Biography

Biography: Wahab Shahbaz

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: In simplest terms, mindfulness is a state of being present in a particular way. In the organizations, the employee’s state of mindfulness can provide workplace benefits in terms of employee’s well-being, relationships, and performance. Although the literature on mindfulness has focused on the workplace benefits of mindfulness but relatively limited is known about the individual and work-related factors that might facilitate or hinder the state of mindfulness. In other words, it is not clear how specific context can impact the state mindfulness of employees. The purpose of this study is to explore the individual context to identify the factors associated with the state mindfulness of employees.

Methodology: The study adopts a phenomenological approach as a research strategy to understand the influence of context on the employee’s mindfulness from the perspectives and experiences of individuals in the workplace. The study intends to interview 30 professionals including faculty and staff of different Universities in New Zealand. The academic professionals will have a diversity of mindfulness experiences in terms of training and/or practice of mindfulness meditation. The interviews will be tape recorded after taking consent from the participants. The interview data will be analyzed using thematic analysis.

Significance: The findings of the study will expend literature on the context of mindfulness by underlining the individual and organizational factors that might impact the employee’s state of mindfulness. Practically, the study may benefit the organizational leaders to foster the state mindfulness of employees by incorporating the favorable and impeding the unfavorable contextual factors in order to obtain workplace benefits.