Effect of Mindfulness Practices

In the
Employees’ Job Performance

Research Proposal

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1. Background of Problem
When there is too much to complete and too less time and energy, then stress arises. Today,
Stress has become a very common phenomenon of human mind. The decisions about what role
an employee will play in the organization are always taken by the employer. Employees have to
function accordingly in the workplace. Each of these positions or roles occupied by an individual
is related with job responsibilities or demand standard behavior, as determined by the
organization. Whereas, how the employees understand and accept these roles determines the
level of stress in an individual. Also, failure to exhibit specific behavior leads to problems or
conflict. Every organization, may it be profit making, nonprofit making, government, private or
semi government organization has several types of workplace conflicts and every conflict is
certainly a costly proposition for organizations all over the world (Weerarathna R. , 2016). Also
mental ill health has become a cause of sickness absence, increase in common mental health
conditions, such as anxiety and depression. (Health and wellbeing at work, 2018) . Stress has
become the most important factor that is influencing individual efficacy and satisfaction in
modern day occupational settings. (Rayamajhi, Role-stress and mental health of government
officers of Nepal, 2016)

The performance and organizational effectiveness both will go side by side. Positive attitude
and behavior of the organization and at the same time employees’ mental health as well as their
behavior in the workplace are ultimately affected by overall health of the individual and the
organization (Rayamajhi, 2016).

In current years, research on mindfulness has increased across several lines of scholarship.
Nevertheless, very little empirical research has investigated mindfulness from a workplace
perspective, in Nepal. Where mindfulness can be used as a perfect solution to solve this
problem from root, most people doesn’t even know what mindfulness is. The whole world is
using this technique slowly in the workplace to create better job performance, but in
Nepal we are neglecting this concept as a whole and searching everywhere for the solution.
There are many organizations that provide special corporate level course for practice of
mindfulness and way to use it in

Nepalese are still unaware.

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1.1 Statement of Problem
When the resources of an individual are not sufficient to cope with the demands and
pressures of the situation, they start to feel stressed out. In this modern world, more often
than not, the workplace seems like an emotional roller coaster. Long hours, tight deadlines, and
ever-increasing demands have become a workplace reality almost everywhere. This can leave a
person feeling worried, drained, and overwhelmed. Little bit of stress is good as it brings
motivation to work harder when stress exceeds a certain limit and someone looses ability to
cope, it stops being helpful and starts causing damage to our mind and body, as well as job
satisfaction level.

Negative effect in mental health of employees can be observed from their day to day work
performances; their punctuality, involvement, interaction, reporting …etc. it is said that the
workplace which is extremely stressed leads to absenteeism, lack of involvement, lack of
participation in decision making, apathy and indifference, lack of creativity or motivation.
(Workplace Stress - General, 2008) In a research done in Nepal, Professionals such as
academicians, administrators, doctors and researchers etc. seem to have been facing this problem
as it directly affects the efficiency of the employee Mental ill health has become a cause of
sickness absence, increase in common mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression.
(health and wellbeing at work, 2018)

During the past decade, due to globalization and liberalization the banking sector of Nepal has
under gone rapid and striking changes. Due to the increase in competition among banks and
introduction of new technologies, the employees in the banking sector are exposed to various
pressures causing stress. (V. Rama Devi, 2016) Not only in the banking sector but in other many
industries workplace stress has become a major issue. The researches have been done to find out
the reason for such stress; however the solution is yet to be found in case of Nepal. Managing the
level of stress through mindfulness is being practiced all over the world.

The term “mindfulness” has been used to refer to a psychological state of awareness, a practice
that promotes this awareness, a mode of processing information, and a character logical trait.

It is the ability to understanding the present moment without judgment and is a self-directed
practice for relaxing the body and calming the mind through focusing on present moment

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awareness. So, the search for solutions to work stress in employees has led me to explore the
value of mindfulness to support employee well‐being and performance in Nepal as well.

1.2 Objective of the Study

Major Objectives:

 To explore the effect of mindfulness practices on the job performance.

General Objectives:

 To examine the best ways to handle and help employees find work life balance;
 To find out applicable methods for improvement in job performance through mindfulness
in future.

1.3 Research Questions

The research questions are based on research hyporesearch paper

 What is the relationship between mindfulness practice and willingness to perform? What is
the relationship between mindfulness practice and capacity to perform?
 What is the relationship between mindfulness practice and positive attitude?
 What is the affect of mindfulness practices in performance?

1.4 Hypothesis
What is the impact of Mindfulness on Job performance of employees?” hence included the
following hypothesis

(H1) There is a significant relationship between willingness to perform and mindfulness practice.

(H2) There is a significant relationship between capacity to perform and mindfulness practice

(H3) There is a significant relationship between positive attitude and mindfulness practice

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study will try to show the connection between a state of mindfulness in employees and its
impact on their job performance.

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To an Individual: Better job performance helps a person in career growth. Also when the job
performance is getting improved through reduction in stress, work life balance becomes easier
for a person.

To high level managers: High level managers are mostly into the pressure of upper as well as
lower level workers and subordinates. They have to balance both the levels and they are getting
sandwiched in this. In such a state taking big decisions and leading even lower level employees
can be stressful for both. Mindfulness practice can bring ease into it and reduce stress and
increase capacity to cope with this and work in managers.

To the organization: Happier workers are more energized, more engaged, more creative, they
solve problems more effectively and collaborate better with their colleagues. Practice of
mindfulness can bring all these to an organization in any industry or sector.

1.6 Limitation of the Study

The Limitations of this study are:

 Only three determinants; Willingness to Perform, Capacity to Perform and Positive

attitude will be used as determinants of Job performance.
 Some factors like stress, willingness are qualitative factors, so measurement of these
factors might not be as accurate

2. Literature review

Mindfulness has various definitions revolving around bringing non-judgmental consciousness to

the present experience, so it can be considered the art of conscious living. According to (Marlatt
&Kristeller, 1999), mindfulness is bringing one’s absolute attention to the present experience on
a moment-to-moment basis. It is also the psychological process of bringing one's attention to
experiences occurring in the present moment (Baer, 2003), which one can develop through the
practice of meditation and through other training.

Although Mindfulness has only been recently embraced by Western psychology, its practices

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and techniques have been part of many Eastern philosophies, such as Buddhism, Taoism, Tai

Chi, Hinduism, and most martial arts, for thousands of years (Chiesa & Malinowski, 2011).

According to (Kabat-Zinn, 2003) In 2013 Kabat-Zinn wrote this definition: “Mindfulness is the
psychological process of bringing one’s attention to the internal and external experiences

occurring in the present moment, which may be achieved through the practice of meditation and

Other training.” It is a process of consciously bringing awareness to your here-and-now

experience, with openness, interest, and receptiveness (Harris, 2006).

Training in mindfulness attempts to increase awareness of thoughts, emotions, and maladaptive

ways of responding to stress, thereby helping practitioners learn and cope with stress in healthier,
more effective ways (Shapiro, Astin, Bishop, & Cordova, 2005).

Job performance is studied academically as part of industrial and organizational psychology

along with a part of human resources management. It is an important criterion for organizational
outcomes and success as improvement of employee job performance has been an issue of interest
in the fields of management, occupational health, and organizational psychology. (Campbell,
McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993) described job performance as an individual-level variable, or
something a single person does which differentiates it from more encompassing constructs such
as organizational performance or national performance, which are higher-level variables.

One promising intervention that may improve individual job performance is meditation practice
as meditation training has been used as a tool in psychotherapy, and has recently been introduced
to the field of business. Practice of Mindfulness through meditation may have a positive impact
on concentration, memory, creativity, emotional intelligence, and motivation as there are
increasing evidences from the field of neuroscience suggesting that meditation practice can
enhance employees’ job performance via its influence on the autonomic nervous and endocrine
systems (Shiba, Nishimoto, Sugimoto, & Ishikawa, 2015).

2.1 Theoretical Framework

Dimensions of Job Performance such as Willingness to perform, assurance, Opportunity to

perform and positive attitude will be studied to establish and find out the impact of job
performance on job performance. Dimensions of Job performance are expected to be positively

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correlated to job performance. For empirical analysis Mindfulness will be used as an independent
variable and Job performance will be used as a dependent variable.

Mindfulness practice in employees through meditation and Yoga is expected to lead to better Job
performance. There are two variables that will be involved in the study; Job Performance and its
various constructs are Capacity to Perform, Assurance, Willingness to Perform and Opportunity
to Perform as independent variable and dependent variable is Mindfulness.

Independent Variable Dependent Variables

Enhance Willingness

Mindfulness Enhance Job

Enhance Capacity
practices Performance

Enhance positive
Attitude

3. Research Methodology
This research will focus on studying the benefits of mindfulness practice through meditation
and yoga on Job performance of employees. Survey method will be used for this study using
the structured questionnaire as data collection instrument. The sample group will be the
employees of different jobs like corporate, doctors, engineers, etc. Questionnaires will be
adapted from scales already used for previous studies in the literature. The final questionnaire
will consist of two sections. The first section contains items regarding dependent and
independent variables of the study, and will be divided into three parts such as Willingness to
Perform, Opportunity to Perform, Capacity to Perform, etc.

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The type of the research is an applied research based on previously established concepts, theories
and experiences rather than developing new one. It is a descriptive research design that simply
describes what is happening in the organizations and how it reacts to mindfulness practice. Also
a quantitative data analysis technique will attempt to quantify the data and generalize result from
selected sample study. It will be conducted among the employees in corporate houses and other
job industries with high work load and stress.

3.2 Data Collection

In this study, both primary as well as secondary source of data will be used. It will be collected
through the distribution of questionnaires to the employees from private as well as public sectors.
These employees may be from different sectors like health, banks, corporate etc. Secondary data
will be collected from journals, news, bulletins and published articles and books.

3.3 Data Processing and Analysis

Coding and editing of each questionnaire is going to be carried out in order to identify errors and
correct them if possible. For data analysis descriptive as well as inferential analysis will be
performed. Under descriptive analysis, mean, central tendency, dispersion etc. will be used.
Under inferential analysis, several testing operations such as regression analysis will be used.

The data collected through questionnaires will be processed through SPSS software and
Microsoft excels to measure the quantitative data. They will be used for data entry, sorting,
editing, coding, and proper data processing and management. Data is going to be entered
into SPSS for performing statistical operations and analysis in order to determine
relationships between dependent and independent variables.

Various frequency tables, percentage tables, graphs and charts will be used to determine and
study various characteristics of the sample in a descriptive analysis study. Different statistical
analysis tools and techniques would be used to achieve the stated research objective. Mainly,
frequency and Regression Analysis were used to determine the acceptance or rejection of
stated hyporesearch paper.

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References
A, W. R. (2016). The Relationship between Conflicts and Employee Performance: Case of Sri
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_Employee_Performance_Case_of_Sri_Lanka

Baer, R. A. (2003). Mindfulness Training as a Clinical Intervention: A Conceptual and

Empirical Review. Lexington, Kentucky: AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.

Campbell, J., McCloy, R., Oppler, S., & Sager, C. (1993). A theory of performance: In N.

Schmitt & W. C. Borman (Eds.). Personnel Selection in Organizations, , 35-70.

Chiesa, A., & Malinowski, P. (2011). Mindfulness-Based Approaches: Are They All the
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Harris, R. (2006). Embracing Your Demons: an Overview of Acceptance. Melbourne:

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(2018). health and wellbeing at work. CIPD.

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Shapiro, S. L., Astin, J. A., Bishop, S. R., & Cordova, M. (2005). Mindfulness-Based Stress
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Shiba, K., Nishimoto, M., Sugimoto, M., & Ishikawa, Y. (2015). The Association between
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OR_An_Empirical_Study_in_Nepal

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