NEWS & INSIGHT
MINDFULNESS MINIMISES MONOTONY COUNTRY: UK SCHOOL: University of Exeter Business School
DOES ACTION LEARNING WORK IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABILITY
TEACHING? COUNTRY: Brazil SCHOOL: Insper
While mindfulness initiatives are becoming commonplace in white-collar industries, what impact does mindfulness have on those working more manual jobs, often characterised by monotony? Research conducted with people who have ‘monotonous’ jobs in Mexico found that employees who were mindful found their jobs less boring and were less likely to quit than their co-workers. Mindful employees were more likely to produce higher-quality work, but interestingly, the quantity of work produced went down. The employees’ attitude to work also differed: those with higher levels of mindfulness displayed greater levels of job satisfaction. The findings suggest that employers should be investing in mindfulness initiatives for workers who do monotonous jobs. However, the researchers advised that employers should not wholly rely on mindfulness programmes to enhance employee satisfaction, instead focusing on issues that have been linked to monotonous jobs, such as poor pay and design. They suggested that the mindfulness training should be carried out in a way that is respectful of participants’ lives and founded on ethical intentions. The research was based on a study of 174 blue-collar workers at a Mexican manufacturing plant which makes discount coupons for US retailers – where employees received no additional incentives for preforming their tasks well. Researchers measured the workers mindfulness and boredom levels, as well as their attitudes to work. After four months, they collected data about the quality and quantity of the work these employees had produced. The study, entitled, It’s so boring – or is it? Examining the role of mindfulness for work performance and attitudes in monotonous jobs was published in the Journal of Occupational and Organisational Psychology . It was co-authored by Andreas Wihler of the University of Exeter Business School, Ute Regina Hülsheger of Maastricht University, Jochen Reb of Singapore Management University, and Jochen Menges of the University of Zurich and Cambridge Judge Business School. (EB)
What is the most effective way to help emerging leaders develop professional skills oriented towards sustainability? Priscila Claro, an associate professor at Insper who teaches courses on strategy, sustainability and social business, wanted to address concerns raised in previous studies that the learning process at many business schools fails to explore the complexity of real life. This is because it fails to use a teaching approach that favours the development of sustainability-oriented capabilities (SOCs). Together with Insper PhD candidate Nathalia Ramajo Esteves, Claro set out to analyse the impact of the active learning approach when teaching about sustainability. The main problem she identified was a lack of concrete results to support the idea that active learning methods are effective in leading students to engage in social and environmental questioning. Central to their findings, now published in the International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education , was that active learning yielded improved student engagement in a group project that called for learners to propose effective sustainability actions. This heightened engagement was shown to have a positive influence on grades. The project was undertaken by undergraduate students in business at Insper across two years. It drew on both active and more traditional teacher- led learning activities, with results measured both quantitatively (grades) and qualitatively (for example, through teacher notes). As the paper concluded: “Working with real problems was crucial for students to develop skills in sustainability. Implementing changes in the courses, focusing on collaboration among students and teachers, was also decisive for the success of the activity.” It also pointed to the value of involving external stakeholders in students’ projects, as they contributed to validating the applicability of the business models proposed by the students in the study. (TBD)
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