Developing mindful leaders : a scoping review of the role of mindfulness in leadership development
Abstract
Background and objective: Today, in our VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) there is a need for excellent leadership. However, current leadership development theories and methods often prove to be inadequate in meeting the challenges of the present age. While mindfulness is hypothesised to be efficacious in leadership development, the literature that describes mindfulness in this context is diverse, spanning multi-disciplinary science and a variety of spiritual/religious systems as well as popular psychology books and magazines. The objective of this study was to review and scope the published literature to gain clarity of the mechanisms and themes of mindfulness pertaining to leadership development while identifying evidence gaps and offering recommendations for future research. Methods: A scoping review methodology was deemed to be well-suited to this study due to the diverse and complex nature of the literature pertaining to this topic. Five electronic databases were searched. Articles were included if they were written in English and published after the year 2000 and represented non-parochial, secular descriptions of mindfulness in the context of leadership development. Results: The database search was focussed on five databases: Science Direct, Pub Med, Psychinfo, American Mindfulness Research Association (AMRA) and Sabinet. Through various levels of abstraction 36 articles were included in the study. The scoping review methodology and thematic analysis noted that 36% of the articles represented qualitative findings, 33% quantitative, 11% mixed method and 19% expert opinions. Furthermore, 47% of the articles were published within a three-year period (2016-2018) and 83% of them originated in USA and Europe depicting a Western viewpoint. Various forms of leadership and the commensurate mechanisms of mindfulness were exposed, including seven themes: (1) self-regulation, (2) non-attachment and non-judgement, (3) present-moment awareness and acceptance, (4) self-awareness, (5) emotional intelligence, (6) metacognition, and (7) experiential practice-embodiment. These themes elucidated the scope of the role of mindfulness in leadership development. Conclusions: The study concluded that mindfulness practice has the potential to contribute significantly to enhanced leadership capabilities. It further highlighted the mechanisms that demonstrated this efficacy as well as the depiction of the value of mindfulness as a secular adjunct to leadership development.
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- Health Sciences [2060]