Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
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Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
Two studies reported by Reb et al. (2014) provided first evidence for a positive effect of leaders’ mindfulness on follower wellbeing and work performance.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
leader mindfulness > follower wellbeing > work performance
Drawing on the mindfulness literature, we propose that mindfulness in communication consists of three facets: (a) being present and paying attention in conversations, (b) an open, non-judging attitude, and (c) a calm, non-impulsive manner
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
mindfulness in communication
leaders’ mindfulness is reflected in a specific communication style (“mindfulness in communication”), which is positively related to followers’ satisfaction with their leaders.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
leader mindfulness > mindful communication > follower satisfaction
investigating how leader mindfulness may be reflected in visible leader behaviors, which, in turn, are expected to positively affect employee satisfaction.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
HOW leader mindfulness > manifests in communication > leader behavior
how leaders’ mindfulness manifests in actual behaviors that influence their interactions.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
don’t know HOW leader mindfulness > manifests in communication
Organizational behavior researchers typically study leadership communication from a transmissional perspective [see Fairhurst and Connaughton (2014) for a detailed discussion of this issue], describing it in terms of “the intentional creation of messages with particular influence outcomes in mind” (Ruben and Gigliotti, 2016, p. 470).
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
theory - leadership communication as transmissional - i.e. happens for effect
communication perspective of leadership (Fairhurst and Connaughton, 2014; Ruben and Gigliotti, 2016) and propose that the answer can be partly found in how leaders communicate, as perceived by followers.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
theory - communication perspective of leadership
, Reb et al. (2018) found a positive relationship between leader mindfulness and followers’ reports of leader–member (LMX) quality.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
leader mindfulness > follower LMX
mindfulness permits individuals to disidentify from their emotions and experience them as transient cognitive events rather than aspects of their self and thus as less threatening.
Frontiers | Mindfulness and Leadership: Communication as a Behavioral Correlate of Leader Mindfulness and Its Effect on Follower Satisfaction
mindfulness promotes decentering/ reperceiving