The bright and dark sides of employee mindfulness: Leadership style and employee well‐being

Abstract

In this study, we use a social information processing perspective to propose that employee mindfulness will boost the positive relationship between transformational leadership and employee well-being and will amplify the negative relationship between abusive supervision and employee well-being. We found, using a time-lagged survey of 246 employees (controlling for baseline well-being), that employee mindfulness strengthened the positive relationship between transformational leadership and psychological well-being. Furthermore, employee mindfulness intensified the relationship between abusive supervision and employee psychological well-being. This study shows the benefits of employee mindfulness in certain contexts and reveals one potential dark side of mindfulness at work. We conclude with a general discussion of this study and outline future directions for research.