Mindful leadership : the Impact of mindfulness on managers’ ethical responsibility

Abstract

Many publications highlight the importance of mindfulness in today’s world. However, it is vital to link this topic with organizational performance and ultimately with leadership, since leaders do not only directly influence employee but eventually also corporate performance. Companies are facing challenges regarding performance, pressure on the workforce is rising dramatically, since companies need to remain competitive and are thus trying to do more with less. Therefore, people are working more and harder while paying less attention to detail. With a constant flow of information, individuals can get overwhelmed quickly. Thus, it can be a challenge to focus on a particular matter and more importantly, to set priorities. This pace of life requires being mindful of activities from moment to moment, particularly in times where people are pressured to act against their own values. Studies show that times of pressure and stress can lead to unethical behavior and drastic measures. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate how mindfulness impacts leadership, with regards to the ecological dimension of the leadership model as well as the triple corporate responsibility model. The emphasis, in this case, lays on the intrinsic responsibility, rather than managers solely being compliant with corporate standards. An increasing number of businesses is providing mindfulness training programs for their employees, such as the company SAP. Hence, it is to be evaluated, whether mindfulness impact…