Impressive, Inspiring, and Profound Mindfulness Movement in Organizations: Boosting Productivity, Cultivating Joy, and Sharping Awareness

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Introduction

In the “Handbook of research on clinical applications of meditation and mindfulness-based interventions in mental health”, Sanjeev Kumar Gupta, from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, in India, highlights the importance of mental health for all individuals that are part of our society, pointing out that the COVID-19 pandemic has managed to shed a new light on the manner in which people’s mental health needs to be analyzed and needs to be addressed, especially when considering the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the “societal well-being” (Gupta, 2022). In continuation, it should be mentioned that Kay Fielden interestingly regards mindfulness as a highly “essential quality of integrated wisdom” in the book chapter entitled “Mindfulness: an essential quality of integrated wisdom” (Fielden, 2005). Also, according to Kay Fielden, there is a very powerful connection and relationship between mindfulness and organizations’ level of knowledge, which goes beyond the rational level and reaches new and more profound dimensions, such as the emotional, the psychological, and the spiritual perspectives, which ought to be considered more in-depth in a society continuously challenged and constantly faced with major and core changes (Fielden, 2005). Knowledge Management (KM) seems to represent a decisive component of today’s entities, especially when centering the attention on key concepts, such as, mindfulness, wisdom, knowledge-based organizations, knowledge-based societies, learning and inquiring organizations, which require a finer understanding of multilayered development solutions and techniques that are capable to promote the achievement Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as well as individuals well-being, mental health, creative and innovative powers and perceptions (Fielden, 2005).

The specialists Nancy Kymn Harvin Rutigliano (State University of New York Empire State College, USA), Roger M. Samson (Texas State University, USA), and Alexandria S. Frye (Texas State University, USA) have mentioned in their scientific work entitled very suggestively “Mindfulness: spiriting effective strategic leadership and management” the fact that mindfulness should be seen as “a cognitive strategy” that might be successfully used by leaders and managers, at the level of their organizations, in order to cope with all the negative energies and, most likely, unbearable pressure that comes with their daily tasks, in a business environment that reaches, sometimes, overwhelming levels of stress, and constant overflowing levels of data and information (Rutigliano et al. 2017). In particular, it ought to be emphasized that according to the work of Nancy Kymn Harvin Rutigliano (State University of New York Empire State College, USA), Roger M. Samson (Texas State University, USA), and Alexandria S. Frye (Texas State University, USA), mindfulness should represent an impressive and an immense instrument that could lead entities to obtain the highest levels of “strategic leadership and management”, thus accomplishing “individual and organizational success” on the long run (Rutigliano et al. 2017) (see, in this matter, Figure 1. Specific Links and Connections between the Impressive, Inspiring, and Profound Mindfulness Movement in Organizations and the Desiderate of Boosting productivity, Cultivating joy, and Sharping awareness, on the Road of Building Inclusive Global Knowledge Societies for Sustainable Development (SD), while Targeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)).

Figure 1.

Specific links and connections between the impressive, inspiring, and profound mindfulness movement in organizations and the desiderate of boosting productivity, cultivating joy, and sharping awareness, on the road of building inclusive global knowledge societies for sustainable development (SD), while targeting the sustainable development goals (SDGs)

Source: The authors, based on the references highlighted above and mentioned in the references section of this book chapter entitled “Impressive, inspiring, and profound mindfulness movement in organizations: boosting productivity, cultivating joy, and sharping awareness”, which represents an integrating part of the “Handbook of Research on Building Inclusive Global Knowledge Societies for Sustainable Development”

Key Terms in this Chapter

Mindfulness Movement in Organizations: Represents a very powerful manner in which, these days, individuals become integrating part of mindfulness practices all around the world, learning to center – in a peaceful and non-judgmental way – on the present moment; in essence, the importance of mindfulness practices resides in learning how to achieve inner calm, how to develop a positive mindset, how to acquire the targeted goals while managing to heal from the day to day stress and inevitable pressure that both society and entities put on people.

Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID): These days, all the international organizations worldwide and all the prominent leaders worldwide are turning their attention to accomplishing green, resilient, and inclusive development (GRID) for all individuals and for all societies, due to the overwhelming and highly alarming levels of air pollution, land pollution, and water pollution, due to the pollution-related deaths – which are usually believed to occur, according to the most recent statistics, in low-income, and middle-income countries, and, also, due to climate change, immigration stresses, poverty, and homelessness challenges; according to specialists, long-term sustainability is based on fostering green, resilient, and inclusive development (GRID) which represent healthier solutions and healthier ways that different societies have to adopt in order to encompass the major problems with which they have confronted themselves with and which lead to growing structural weaknesses over the last decades – especially lately, due to the new changes, challenges, and perspectives that were brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis.

Mindfulness: Represents a highly influential concept today, since more and more individuals, and more and more specialists worldwide recommend the exercises, meditation, and practices which are specific to maintaining moment-by-moment awareness of people’s thoughts, feelings, sensations, in accordance to the surroundings and the environment where the people try to be part of; in essence, the vital characteristic of mindfulness that ought to be highlighted is that all the situations that individuals are facing should be taken without any form of judgment, should be accepted as such, in order for the individuals to be able to find the inner strength and the inner solutions to cope with those situations and be able to go to the next levels of their lives, their carriers, their proposed stages in terms of goals, objectives, and targets.

Mindfulness Into the Business Environment: Represents probably the most challenging and the most novel approach that can be provided these days in organizations, in terms of creating, ensuring, and fostering long-term individual awareness, well-being, and mental health while referring to the people’s work climate and business surroundings; in continuation, it should be highlighted that the approach and analysis of mindfulness into the business environment departs from the necessity of ensuring resilient, robust, and sustainable development (SD) strategies at the level of entities worldwide, in order to promote global knowledge societies (GKS) for sustainable development (SD), as well as green, resilient, and inclusive development (GRID), while targeting the accomplishment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the long-run; furthermore, by introducing and maintaining mindfulness into the business environment, especially in the times governed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis, entities worldwide are helped to deal with competitive, demographic, global, economic, legal, political, social, and technological adjustments, advances, and provocations, which will essentially come to represent one of the best and, probably, one of the most successful, solutions to ensuring high levels of financial well-being, performance, and profitability of businesses in the Post-COVID-19 Era.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Represent an integrating part of the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD)”, which has been adopted by all United Nations (UN) Member States in 2015, and have the capacity to provide a common blueprint that mainly focuses on world peace and global prosperity for all the people worldwide as well as the planet, now and into the future (United Nations (UN), 2015); in continuation, it should be highlighted that the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), represent according to the “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SD)” an important and urgent desiderate for action due to be taken by all developed and developing countries all around the world, as a result of “a global partnership”, having as key priorities “ending poverty and other deprivations”, while addressing common and strong “strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests” (United Nations (UN), 2015).

Resilience and Inclusive Growth: Are two of the most important issues targeted by the agenda of highly influential and major international organizations, such as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) agency, and the Climate Change Committee (CCC), thorough different types of programs, like the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) or the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the framework of the 2030 Agenda; based on the most recent literature in the field, resilience and inclusive growth make reference to the most popular and the most successful instruments, methods, models, and tools that are capable to empower regions and countries at a global level to create and to foster inclusive growth models (such as, for instance, the European inclusive growth model, or the OECD Inclusive Growth Project), which have become, over time, essential to supporting the economic development (ED); in essence, according to prominent economic, political, and social leaders worldwide, inclusive growth stands for economic growth that has been distributed in a fair way across society and which has the power to generate new opportunities for all individuals and for all entities, since it is based on several main pillars, among which could be mentioned the following ones: (a) fostering high, efficient, and sustained growth meant to create, on the one hand, productive jobs for all, and, on the other hand, economic opportunities for all; (b) investing in the most relevant domains of our society, such as education, health, other social services, thus expanding people’s capacity to be healthy, productive, and have an adequate state of well-being, and either diminishing or eliminating market and institutional failures and social exclusion at all levels of the society; and (c) establishing social safety nets which would become capable to protect the poor individuals of our society and to mitigate the risks of different but inevitable societal shocks (economic, financial, demographic shocks, which could be associated with different types of crisis, such as, the COVID-19 pandemic and the COVID-19 crisis).

Global Knowledge Societies (GKS) for Sustainable Development (SD): Represent, on the one hand, a defining feature of the Post-COVID-19 Era, and constitute, on the other hand, a valuable characteristic of the continuously developing and constantly growing societies which have successfully placed a high degree of importance on preparing people for an inclusive and sustainable future and world, that ought to be governed by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), thus managing to be in line with the newest global competence frameworks that are generated with the aid of individuals’ which need to become more and more aware of their potential in terms of mindfulness, well-being, mental health, work climate, and business environment; what is more, these days, the development of people’s social and emotional skills represents a crucial asset for our society, since values such as respect, self-confidence and a sense of belonging, are rapidly growing in importance, and are meant to generate new and impressive opportunities for all individuals, thus contributing to the advancement of our society and to the promotion of the assessment of individuals’ global competence, which enables the processes of fostering global competence for more inclusive, more robust, and more resilient societies for all.

Promoting Mental Health: Represents, on the one hand, a real challenge for specialists these days, and, in the same time, on the other hand, an essential step for a better and more safer environment for all individuals, especially in the context in which several prominent organizations, among which could be successfully mentioned the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United Nations (UN) agency, and the World Health Organization (WHO) have shown more and more interest in understanding the causes that lead to mental illnesses and the actions and the solutions due to be taken in order to promote human development and to obtain human development indicators that “may help describe the effectiveness of macro policies on mental health” (World Health Organization (WHO), 2005, p. 200).