From mindfulness to work engagement: The mediating roles of work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence.
Liang Chen, Xiaobei Li, Lu Xing
Frontiers in Psychology October 26, 2022 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.997638 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Quasi-experimental study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 129 |
| Population | Employees participating in a workplace mindfulness training quasi-experiment (77 experimental group, 59 control group) |
| Intervention | Mindfulness training |
| Duration | Six-wave quasi-experimental design |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Emotion regulation Work engagement Work meaningfulness Job competence |
| Key findings | Mindfulness training was reported to increase employees' work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence, and these three psychological states simultaneously mediated the effect of mindfulness on work engagement. The authors argue that these states are important mechanisms linking mindfulness to work engagement and that mindfulness training is an effective workplace tool for developing engagement. |
Abstract
Drawing from the grounded theory of work engagement, this research aims to explore three essential yet previously unexamined pathways-work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence in simultaneously transmitting the effects of mindfulness training to employee experience of work engagement. We employed a six-wave quasi-experimental design and recruited 129 employees (77 from experimental group and 59 from control group) to participate in the quasi-experiment, and tested our simultaneous mediating models using the structural equation modeling. Results showed that mindfulness facilitated employees' work meaningfulness, emotion regulation, and job competence, which in turn enhanced employee work engagement. By doing so, we add to the mindfulness literature by showing that the three essential psychological states are important machanims that link mindfulness to work engagement. Practicially, this research reveals that mindfulness training is an effective tool to influence employees' psychological states (e.g., meaningfulness, competence), which ultimately develop their work engagement in the workplace.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |
Citations in the library
Cites 10
- The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 2003
- Using Self-Report Assessment Methods to Explore Facets of Mindfulness Assessment January 27, 2006
- Mechanisms of mindfulness Journal of Clinical Psychology December 29, 2005
- Mindfulness: Theoretical Foundations and Evidence for its Salutary Effects Psychological Inquiry October 19, 2007
- Contemplating Mindfulness at Work Journal of Management November 19, 2015
and 5 more in the library