Loving-kindness and compassion meditations in the workplace: A meta-analysis and future prospects.
Rong Wang, Xiaodan Gu, Yang Zhang, Kangzhou Luo, Xianglong Zeng
Stress and Health February 1, 2024 DOI: 10.1002/smi.3273 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Meta-analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Employees |
| Intervention | Loving-kindness and compassion meditation |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Compassion Employees Loving kindness Well-being Workplace |
| Key findings | Loving-kindness and compassion meditation effectively decreases employee burnout and stress and facilitates mindfulness, self-compassion, mental health, job attitudes, interpersonal relationships, and psychological resources. |
Abstract
Loving-kindness and compassion meditation (LKCM) have been well applied among employees to improve their health and well-being. Existing studies on LKCM have also provided supportive evidence of its benefits and effectiveness under organizational contexts. The current meta-analytical study aimed to systematically summarise the effects of LKCM in the workplace and to outline directions for future research and practice. Among 327 empirical studies on LKCM published until March 2022, 21 trials focussed on employees and provided sufficient information, which were included in the following meta-analysis. The results showed that LKCM benefited eight categories of workplace outcomes. Specifically, LKCM effectively decreased employees' burnout (g = 0.395, k = 10) and stress (g = 0.544, k = 10) and facilitated their mindfulness (g = 0.558, k = 14), self-compassion (g = 0.646, k = 12), personal mental health (g = 0.308, k = 13), job attitudes (g = 0.283, k = 4), interpersonal relationships (g = 0.381, k = 12), and psychological resources (g = 0.406, k = 6). The results of moderation analyses further indicated that the participants' job type, gender, and the focus of LKCM might differentially fluctuate the magnitude of LKCM effects. To advance research and best practice, we finally pointed out several issues that deserve attention, such as long-term effects, underlying mechanisms, potential moderators, and outcomes or influential factors at the organizational level.
Comparable studies
Other systematic reviews and meta-analyses on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meditation Programs for Psychological Stress and Well-being Diverse adult clinical populations | 2014 | Meta-analysis | n = 3,515 |
| Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Stress Management in Healthy People: A Review and Meta-Analysis Healthy subjects | 2009 | Systematic review and meta-analysis | |
| The psychological effects of meditation: A meta-analysis. Nonclinical groups of adult meditators | 2012 | Meta-analysis | n = 163 |
| Efficacy of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Prevention of Depressive Relapse Adults with recurrent depression in full or partial remission | 2016 | Meta-analysis of individual patient data from randomized controlled trials | n = 1,258 |
| Mindfulness‐Based Stress Reduction and Mindfulness‐Based Cognitive Therapy – a systematic review of randomized controlled trials | 2011 | Systematic review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- Kindness is lesser preferable than happiness: investigating interest in different effects of the loving-kindness and compassion meditations. BMC Psychology April 26, 2025
- Contemplative pathways to personal sustainability transformations: technique and practice of loving kindness Sustainability Science September 8, 2026
- A qualitative investigation of social service workers’ experiences with compassion training in the workplace Frontiers in Psychology February 2, 2026
- An Introduction to Ideal Psychology August 18, 2025
- The effects of loving-kindness interventions on positive and negative mental health outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review April 1, 2024
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