The effects of meditation on the performance and well-being of a company: A pilot study.

A Tibetan Meditation practice, done daily for 3 months by 12 of 229 employees at an Italian surface coating company, was associated with improvements in company performance and modest improvements in well-being among the 217 non-meditating coworkers. Quality of production rose 6.6%, nonconformity due to human mistakes fell 42.6%, and quarterly productivity increased 10.5%. Non-meditators showed significant improvements in social activities and emotional role limitations, and modest decreases in depression and hostility. The authors argue these results suggest meditation may beneficially influence the local environment, warranting further investigation.

Study at a glance

Abstract

The positive effects of meditation on individual well-being have been extensively investigated in the last few decades. The impact that meditation can have on the surrounding environment, including on the well-being of nearby non-meditators, has been mainly studied in regards to Transcendental Meditation and, more recently, through the purported phenomenon of "distant healing". The aim of the present study was to observe how a corporate environment would be affected when a small percentage of their employees meditated together. In an Italian surface coating company of 229 employees, 12 workers (5%) were trained in a Tibetan Meditation technique, which they practiced together daily for a period of 3 months. The effects of meditation were measured both in terms of company performance and in well-being of the non-meditators, the latter by using the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and Short Form 36 (SF36) questionnaires. In terms of company performance indexes, the experimental trimester compared to the previous trimester showed improvements in the quality of production (+6.6%), nonconformity of critical products to standards due to human factors (i.e. mistakes) (-42.6%), and in quarterly productivity (+10.5%). Comparing pre to post meditation periods, psychological well-being measures for non-meditators (N = 217) showed significant improvement in the SF36 sub-scales of social activities (t = -2.76, p < 0.05) and limitations in emotional roles (t = -2.44, p < 0.05), and they showed modest decreases for the POMS subscales of depression (t = 1.92, p = 0.06) and hostility (t = 1.88, p = 0.06). These results are in alignment with the hypothesis that meditation beneficially influences aspects of the local environment, warranting further investigation of this phenomenon.