The role of mindfulness in the workplace has emerged as a legitimate and growing area of
organizational scholarship.
T
he present research examined
the role of employee emotional
exhaustion in mediating the
relationship
of mindfulness with
turnover intentions
and task
performance
. Drawing on theory and empirical research
on both organizational behavior and
mindfulness,
w
e
predicted that more mindful employees would show lower turnover intentions
and higher task performance
and
that th
e
s
e
relationship
s
would be mediated by emotional
exhaustion.
We tested these
hypotheses
in two field studies in an Indian context.
Study 1 was
a
field study of
call center employees of a
multinational organization, an industry in which
turnover rates are very high.
This study found that mindfulness
was associated with lower
turnover intentions and less emotional exhaustion
,
and that emotional ex
haustion mediated the
relationship
between mindfulness and turnover intentions. Study 2 replicated these results in a
sample of employees based in major Indian cities and drawn from different industries.
In
addition,
it
showed that mindfulness was positive
ly related to supervisor
-
rated task performance,
with
e
motional exhaustion again
playing
a mediating role.
We discuss theoretical and practical
implications
of our findings
, as well as future research directions
.