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It’s so boring – or is it? Examining the role of mindfulness for work performance and attitudes in monotonous jobs

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

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Authors

Wihler, A 
Hülsheger, UR 
Reb, J 
Menges, JI 

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.

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Keywords

52 Psychology, 3505 Human Resources and Industrial Relations, 35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3507 Strategy, Management and Organisational Behaviour, Clinical Research

Journal Title

Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0963-1798
2044-8325

Volume Title

Publisher

Wiley