Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
3-2022
Abstract
We examine the role of employee mindfulness in the context of highly monotonous work conditions. Integrating research on task monotony with theorizing on mindfulness, we hypothesized that mindfulness is negatively associated with the extent to which employees feel generally bored by their jobs. We further hypothesized that this lower employee boredom would relate to downstream outcomes in the form of job attitudes (job satisfaction and turnover intentions) and task performance. We examined both objective task performance quality and quantity to shed light on the complexity of the mindfulness-task performance relation, which has so far mostly been investigated using subjective supervisor ratings. In a sample of 174 blue-collar workers in a Mexican company, results showed that employee mindfulness was negatively related to boredom. Further, mindfulness was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively to turnover intentions, partly mediated through boredom. Mindfulness turned out to be a double-edged sword for task performance in monotonous jobs: Mindfulness was positively related to task performance quality but negatively related to quantity. Practitioner points In repetitive, monotonous jobs held by millions of people worldwide, more mindful employees perceive their job as less boring. Furthermore, mindful employees have higher job satisfaction and are less likely to quit. With regard to objective job performance, mindfulness can be a double-edged sword: It positively affects objective performance quality via boredom, but negatively affects objective performance quantity directly.
Keywords
boredom, job satisfaction, mindfulness, monotonous jobs, task performance
Discipline
Human Resources Management | Organizational Behavior and Theory
Research Areas
Organisational Behaviour and Human Resources
Publication
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology
Volume
95
Issue
1
First Page
131
Last Page
154
ISSN
0963-1798
Identifier
10.1111/joop.12370
Publisher
Wiley: 12 months
Citation
WIHLER, Andreas; HULSHEGER, Ute R.; REB, Jochen; and MENGES, Jochen I..
It's so boring - or is it? Examining the role of mindfulness for work performance and attitudes in monotonous jobs. (2022). Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 95, (1), 131-154.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7070
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12370