Mindfulness and Organizational Change: Where Is the Bridge?

Diin Fitri Ande

School of Management and Leadership, Tanri Abeng University, Swadarma Raya No.58 Ulujami-Pesangrahan,

Jakarta-Selatan, Indonesia

Keywords: Organizational Change, Mindfulness, Cognitive Abilities.

Abstract: The environment changes in fast pace that might lead to an increasing number of uncertainties and risks.

Studies of mindfulness are making an inroad into the management field, including its impact into

organizational change. However, the relation between mindfulness and organizational change is ambiguous.

It does not provide an easy understanding of how those two concepts are related. How being a present mindset

and attitude will impact organizational change. This is a literature review paper that aimed to understand the

rationale that previous studies have developed on relating mindfulness and organizational change and to learn

the impact of mindfulness on organizational change. As a result, it is shown that mindfulness related to

organizational change through various paths. First, through the mindfulness characteristic. Second, through

the cognitive aspect that will influence the behavior then influence the success of organization change. Third,

through the learning process. Fourth, through the member of organizations' transformation. Fifth, through the

change itself. Moreover, the results of how mindfulness is impacting organizational change show several

outcomes. First, the relation between mindfulness and resistance to change is indirect. Second, Mindfulness

leads to some behavior that smooth organization change. Third, if organizations changed viewed as a process,

then the process of changes can be done naturally.

1 INTRODUCTION

We experience how the environment changes at a fast

pace, technology makes the business environment

becomes a flux. For instance, since the consumers

have easy and cheap access to information in this

digital era, cultures and generation become more

homogenous, customers can easily learn from others

and change their preference (Gale and Aaroons,

2017). In short, customers easily change their demand

and expectation. Furthermore, as everything is

available online, thus, people will have depth,

comprehend, and updated information easily. It

means market changes in today will be instantly

available everywhere and change how companies

conduct their business. As a result, there is an

increasing number of uncertainties and risks. On the

other hand, most of the organizations are running

their business based on the previous pattern,

following routine, and tends to be automatic in which

characteristic of mindlessness, and lacking the

sensitivity of their environment (Aviles, 2012). These

acts might lead to some problems as they might

reduce the organization ability to meet the challenges

presented by change sensibly, or to transform the

organization in prompt ways to respond to challenges.

Mindlessness prevents organizations and their

members to respond to change in effective ways

(Langer, 1993; Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000). Fries

(2007) stated to meet the challenges of fast changes,

and it required heightened individual and

organizational awareness and cognition of the

environments. Moreover, Harari, (2018) stated that in

increasing complicated word, and the tendency of

group think or individual ignorance, mindfulness is

one way to cope with those problems.

Previous researches on mindfulness mostly in the

area of psychology that include psychology and

scientific application (Baer et al., 2006), social

psychology (Langer and Piper, 1987), health

(Valentine et al., 2010), and education (Langer and

Moldoveanu, 2000). The studies on mindfulness are

making inroad in the working environment and

management field (Fiol and O’Connor, 2003).

Previous scholars have studied the impact of

mindfulness in working environment such as the

study done by (Hülsheger et al., 2013) that contended

mindfulness practice promotes job satisfaction and

310

Ande, D.

Mindfulness and Organizational Change: Where is the Bridge?.

DOI: 10.5220/0008430703100318

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inclusive Business in the Changing World (ICIB 2019), pages 310-318

ISBN: 978-989-758-408-4

aids in the prevention of burnout from emotional

exhaustion. In addition, mindfulness practice also

leads to a positive impact on creativity, innovation,

resilience, work engagement, productivity,

communication skills, reduced conflict, absenteeism,

and turnover (Chaskalson, 2011).

Previous scholars also attempted to learn the

impact between, of mindfulness and organizational

change. Langer and Moldoveanu (2000) learned how

mindfulness help in providing the solution to current

and future problems due to demographic and

technology changes. Moreover, Higgs and Rowland

(2010) contended that change process is failed due to

the leaders whom lack of self-awareness, that makes

the leader either consciously or unconsciously

reinforce systematic patterns that cause the

organization to remain stuck and impair the

implementation of the change.

However, the relation between mindfulness and

organizational change is ambiguous. It does not

provide an easy understanding of how those two

concepts are related. For instance, if people discuss

sales and marketing activities, people will easily and

automatically understand the relationship between

those two concepts. However, when people discuss

the impact of mindfulness and organizational change,

then people do not have a clear path or easier

understanding of how to relate mindfulness and

organizational change. Hyland et al., (2015)

contended that the most commonly cited definition of

mindfulness is the definition brought by Brown,

Ryan, & Creswell (2007) in which they stated that

mindfulness is "receptive attention to and awareness

of present moment events and experiences." Thus, it

leads to the questions on how being present mindset

and attitude will impact organizational change. For

those reasons, this paper aims to understand the logic

or the rationale that previous studies have developed

on relating mindfulness and organizational change.

Moreover, this paper will elaborate on the impact of

mindfulness on organizational change as done by

those scholars.

2 MINDFULNESS, A DEFINITION

In Buddhist practice, mindfulness is the act of seeing

a thing as it is in the present moment (Gunaratana

2002). In current practice, the concept of mindfulness

started to flourish with the study done by Jon Kabat-

Zinn in 1982 (Hyland, Andrew Lee, and Mills 2015)

in which he developed a mindfulness program to help

the patient in the hospital. There are varied definitions

of mindfulness such as "keeping one's consciousness

alive to the present reality" (Nhat 1976), "paying

attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the

present moment, and nonjudgmentally" (Kabat-Zinn

1994), "kind of non-elaborative, non-judgmental,

present-centered awareness in which each thought,

feeling or sensation that arises in the attentional field

is acknowledged and accepted as it is" (Bishop et al.

2004). The definition of mindfulness that most

commonly cited is the definition by Brown, Ryan, &

Creswell (2007) in which they stated that "receptive

attention to and awareness of present moment events

and experiences." Despite it is a varied definition,

mindfulness has three common elements (Hyland,

Andrew Lee, and Mills 2015). First, it is present-

focused consciousness, focus on here and now, that

requires giving full attention to the present (Dane

2011; Herndon 2008). Second, paying close intention

to internal and external phenomena (Brown et al.

2009; Dane 2011). Internal phenomena including

internal stimuli such as feeling, though and body

sensation whereas external stimuli include sights,

sounds, smells and events (Kabat-Zinn 2006). Third,

mindfulness involves an open and accepting way to

the stimuli without being judge or imposing any

perception (Glomb et al. 2011).

Previous studies have shown the several benefits

of mindfulness. The study done by Fiol & O'Connor

(2003) and Carolynn, (2017) shows that mindfulness

practice improve decision making as the individual

practicing mindfulness will be more likely to

understand the value of information for current

circumstances and (b) interpret unexpected results as

relevant rather than dismiss them, even when they do

not fall in line with current or past (familiar) practices

or finding. Moreover, mindfulness practice also

enhanced the ability to resist cognitive bias

(Hafenbrack, Kinias, and Barsade 2014).

Mindfulness practice also leads to a positive impact

on creativity, innovation, resilience, work

engagement, productivity, communication skills,

reduced conflict, absenteeism, and turnover

(Chaskalson 2011). Hülsheger et al. (2013) stated that

mindfulness practice promotes job satisfaction and

aids in the prevention of burnout from emotional

exhaustion,

The content of this paper will be explicated in four

sections. After the introduction, methods of data

gathering and analysis will be explicated followed by

discussion. In the end, this paper will be summarized

the topic in the conclusion section.

Mindfulness and Organizational Change: Where is the Bridge?

311

3 METHODS

This is a literature review paper, the data collected by

searching in computerized database in JSTOR,

ProQuest, Emerald, Springer, Science Direct, and

Google scholar using various combination of

"Organizational change and mindfulness",

"Mindfulness and organizational change",

"Organization change and mindfulness", and

"Mindfulness and organization change". The search

focuses only on the publication in the form of articles

and book section from 2013 to 2018. As a result, there

are three book sections and two articles as shown in

table.1

Table 1: Literature search results.

Tittle

Contributions of mindfulness during

post-merger integration

Author Peerayuth Charoensukmongkol

Type Article

Years 2017

Publisher/

Journal

Journal of Managerial Psychology

Tittle

The Role of Mindfulness in Leading

Organizational Transformation

Author Peter R. Aviles & Eric B. Dent

Type Article

Years 2015

Publisher/

Journal

The Journal of Applied

Management and Entrepreneurship

Tittle

Situating the Concept of Organizational

Mindfulness: The Multiple Dimensions of

Organizational Learning. In Mindful Change in

times of permanent reorganization

Author Claus Rerup & Daniel A. Levinthal

Type Book Section

Years 2014

Publisher/

Journal

Springer

Tittle Mindfulness and Organizational Change

Author Rona Wilensky

Type Book Section

Years 2016

Publisher/

Journal

Springer

Tittle

Bringing Mindfulness and Joy to Work

Action Research on Organizational Change

Author

Kathryn Goldman Schuyler

Michelle Olsen Taylor

Orit M. Wolberger

Type Book Section

Years 2016

Publisher/

Journal

Springer

4 DISCUSSION

This section will elaborate on our finding from the

literature search. It will not only elaborate on the

rationale the scholar developed on connecting the

concept of mindfulness and organizational change but

also the results of their study.

4.1 Mindfulness and Resistance to

Change (Charoensukmongkol,

2017)

The article titled “contribution of mindfulness during

post-merger acquisition” (Charoensukmongkol,

2017) shows the relation of mindfulness in the frame

of mindfulness characteristic, and organizational

change in the lens of resistance change. The

characteristics that might be associated with

mindfulness are optimism and general self-efficacy

(Gärtner, 2013). The author postulated that Merger &

Acquisition might fail due to the resistance from the

employee. Previous studies have explored the

characteristic of the individuals and various

organizational factors that contribute to resistance to

change (Marks and Mirvis, 2011; Wickramasinghe

and Karunaratne, 2009). In addition, the author also

stated that mindfulness might enhance the readiness

to change (Gärtner, 2013). However, the author

posited the study that empirically focuses on the

relation of mindfulness and readiness for

organizational change, it has not been done yet.

The author argued that each of individuals has

different abilities and capabilities to cope with

change, and referring to appraisal theory, and

individuals will encounter two phases of appraisal in

a challenging situation or stress coping during

organizational change. The first phase, primary

appraisal in which they evaluate the threat. The

second phase, secondary appraisal where they

evaluate their capabilities to deal with the situation

(Fugate, Kinicki, and Prussia 2008). The results from

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these two steps of appraisals will impact on their

positive or negative attitude toward organizational

change.

In this article, the author did not directly connect

mindfulness with resistance to change, but, through

characters that associated with mindfulness;

optimism and general self-efficacy (Gärtner, 2013).

Optimism is essential during organizational change as

the employees whose have pessimist view will resist

changing as they believe that things will be getting

worse. On the other hand, the optimist employees will

perceive the organizational change as an opportunity.

The previous study has shown that mindfulness was

helping individuals to develop an optimistic attitude

(Kiken and Shook, 2011). Especially, in ways it

facilitates individuals to avoid seeing situation based

on the negative and habitual pattern. Furthermore,

mindfulness also reduces negative bias (the tendency

to value more negative information) (Kiken and

Shook, 2011). General self-efficacy defined as the

“belief in one’s capabilities to mobilize the

motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action

needed to meet given situational demands” (Wood

and Bandura, 1989). Self-efficacy helps individuals

to cope effectively with organizational change

(Cunningham et al., 2002). The role of self-efficacy

lays on the second appraisal stages, as when the

employees believe that their capabilities are lower

than capabilities required, then they will be reluctant

to change (Armenakis et al., 1993; Bandura, 1983).

The previous study shows that mindfulness promotes

individuals' self-efficacy through mental clarity and

emotional stability (Charoensukmongkol, 2014). In

addition, mindfulness allows individuals to control

negative emotions through perceived control and self-

regulation that lead to self-efficacy (Gärtner, 2013).

Furthermore, mindfulness enhances individuals’

ability to see thing nonjudgmentally that associated

with realistic perception, that will facilitate self-

efficacy development.

The sample of this study is full-time employees at

a subsidiary of a Japanese multination bank in

Bangkok that acquired a local institution. There were

141 respondents, and the survey was conducted after

one month of the official date of the merger. The

author contended that first-month post-integration

was the most stressful period for the employee as they

have to face many changes. The method to analyze

the data is partial least square. The framework and the

result of the study as shown in Figure.1

The result shows that mindfulness positively

relates to general self-efficacy, but not significantly

influence optimism. General self-efficacy

significantly influence optimism, but insignificantly

Figure 1: The results of the study.

influence resistance to organizational change, while

optimism negatively significant to resistance to

change. In short, the paper implied that the relation

between mindfulness and resistance to change is

indirect through general self-efficacy that impacting

to optimism that leads to resistance to change.

4.2 The Role of Mindfulness in Leading

Organizational Transformation

(Aviles and Dent, 2015)

This paper aims to study the cognitive strategy that

will examine and scan all facets in the environments

that lead to changing behavior that might increase the

success rate of organization change. The authors

argue that much of organizational behavior is

mindless that based only on the routine or based on

the learned behavior that gained from experience,

socialization, and symbolic management. This

mindless behavior will negatively impact the success

of the organizational change. Therefore, to increase

the success of organizational change, it needs a

different approach that moves beyond the current

process. The authors contended that Socio-cognitive

aspect of change could determine the success of the

change. Thus, the authors explored the usefulness of

mindfulness to enhance the success of the

organizational change.

The authors categorized this paper into four

research questions; how may mindfulness alter

behaviors in organizations, how may

mindfulness/mindlessness affect change in

organizations, strategies to improve mindfulness in

organization change, and actions to reduce

organizational mindlessness. Due to the focus of this

study that centers on the connection of mindfulness

and organizational change, then, this paper only

focuses on the second question of the study done by

(Aviles and Dent, 2015)

The method used in this paper is a literature

review using evidence-based research involving

systematic review. The time frame is until 2015.

There were 828 articles gathered. However, only 25

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313

articles categorized as business, management, and

social science.

The result shows that mindfulness positively

contributes to change in the organization through

some aspects. First, mindfulness enhances creativity,

decreases accidents, and improves better retention of

information (Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000) that

helps the organization to face the challenges. For

instance, one of the organizational challenged faced

by the organization in the USA is a change in

demography such as "graying of America." It makes

it hard for the organization to retain institutional

knowledge. Thus, (Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000)

suggested that mindfulness helps to turn the tacit

knowledge into explicit knowledge to retain

institutional knowledge. In addition, due to the fast

pace change of environment and technology that

required a new approach or problem solving that

cannot be achieved by a mindless approach.

Second, mindfulness help organization change

through better communication. The concept of

mindfulness is being present, that allows individual to

fully paying attention at the present moment, helps to

reduce the misunderstanding or miscommunication, a

misperception that will be harmful to the organization

change. Third, mindfulness improves readiness to

change. Organization change can be succeeded if the

members of the organization are ready to change. To

improve readiness to change, the members should

identify and adjust current practice that can be done

through mindfulness. Mindfulness defined as "the

combination of ongoing scrutiny of existing

expectation, continuous refinements and

differentiation" (Langer, 1993). Fourth, the

mindfulness of the leaders affects the result of the

change initiative. The study done by Higgs and

Rowland (2010) shows that less successful change

effort was more prominent in the leader-centric

approach, on the contrary, self-aware leaders used

their presence in mindful, not impulsive ways.

4.3 Organizational

Mindful/Mindlessness, and

Organizational Learning and

Change (Rerup and Levinthal,

2014)

The paper aimed to elaborate on the relevancy of

organizational mindfulness and mindlessness, into

organizational learning and change. The unit analysis

in this study is the mindful organization that reflected

in a high reliable organization. The author contended

that learning is important as it will impact on the

success of change in products, structures, schemas

faster or cheaper than competitors. Furthermore, the

authors posited that the inability or unwillingness to

change is related to the learning process. Normally,

organizations more focus on exploitation rather than

exploration, as exploitation provides a more

optimistic reward with familiar knowledge and

condition. On the other hand, the exploration might

bring uncertainty to the organization. Managing

tension between exploration and exploitation is part

of a learning process as (Fiol and Lyles, 1985) stated

that “the process of learning involves the creation and

manipulation of this tension between constancy and

change."

The authors proposed three dimensions

theoretical framework that integrates; the period of

learning occurs (rare-often), the extensiveness of the

object learning (local-global), and the degree of

cognitive intensity in the learning process (inert of

reflective). This framework is both overlap and

distinctive. Overlap in the way its focus not only on

seizing the importance of retrospective and, but also

the focus on a proactive aspect of organizational

learning and change. Distinctive as it captures a

unique aspect of organizational learning. Thus, this

framework allows conceptual integration involving

cost and benefit in retrospective and less-mindful vs.

more proactive and mindful learning of the change.

For instance, the organization may wait and see until

some events are coming and change is necessary, then

brace the impact. Alternatively, the organization may

proactively scan the environment through realizing

unexpected, rare event that emits signals, even the

weak one, that predict that something might happen

and develop a system to detect and learn from those

signals. Both will bring some costs and provides

some benefits; the question will be in which approach

will bring more benefits compared to cost.

In short,

this paper proposed that mindfulness and mindless

organization should be integrated to enhance

organizational learning and change. In addition,

mindfulness and the mindful process should be

viewed as co-constitutive phenomena, not as parallel

or separate processes as both mindful and

mindfulness process are essential for organizations

notice and understand the context and situation in

which they in.

4.4 Mindfulness and Organizational

Change (Wilensky, 2016)

This paper relates the mindfulness with

organizational change through the bridge of

individual changes. Wilensky (2016) emphasized that

individual behavior as essential to organizational

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change. Institutional change must align with the

changes in the ways the individuals’ function, and

interact.

The change models utilized in this paper are the

immunity to change model (Kegan and Lahey, 2011)

and constructive listening (Weissglass, 1998). The

immunity to change model emphasizes on the

questions of why people in the organization do not

want to change, even when they have good rationale

and commitment. The theory suggests that

individuals that do not change due to two reasons

behind it. First, individuals usually have to compete,

but the unconscious commitment to their

dysfunctional behavior based on unexamined

previous experience. Second, the big assumptions on

how the individuals see the worlds that again based

on previous experience. These big assumptions and

competing for commitment impacting the daily

activities of the individuals. For instance, it enables

individuals to create blind spots about their selves,

others, and the worlds. In addition, it ables to pulling

to the direction that perhaps the individual wants to

take. Kegan and Lahey (2011) provide the

intervention to reveal the individuals' competing for

commitments and big assumption in which they call

"immunity map" that divided into four categories;

new behavior, doing/not doing instead, hidden

competing commitments, and big assumption. The

second model, constructive listening (Weissglass,

1998) emphasized that effort in organizational change

should provide equal priority to addressing and

supporting the change in individual thinking and

behavior. Failure in individual change entrenched in

the cognitive, emotional and behavioral consequence

of past trauma. Thus, it necessary for individuals to

be given the save opportunity to release the felling.

This is the basic intervention of Weissglass (1998), to

provide the individuals structured opportunities to be

listened attentively. In addition, Wilensky (2016)

proposed that Mindfulness will help the individuals

in doing immunity map and constructive listening

through two primary ways; strengthen ones self-

awareness and increasing the ability of individuals to

cope or tolerate with emotional discomfort. Change

in individuals will enhance the success of the

organizational change.

4.5 Silent Transformation, Another

Approach of Change (Goldman

Schuyler Et Al., 2018)

This a book section, “Bringing Mindfulness and Joy

to Work Action Research on Organizational Change”

(Goldman Schuyler et al., 2018) shows how

organizational change can be done naturally, without

forcing the members to attends some training, or

forced to do something. This paper showed how

organizational transformation-in this case to a

mindful organization- can be done gradually without

any force or pressure. In the beginning, the author

explained the views of organizational change, and

their rationale on how change should be done in fluid

ways or viewed as a process rather than a thing, and

how mindfulness fits of the process of view of

change, then the results of the action research.

Traditional views on organizational change

described a linear model of change that engaging

predictable steps that can be planned and managed

(Graetz and Smith, 2010). On the other hand, it has

been more than fifteen years the scholars in

organization behavior aware that change is a non-

linear process, it is a continues process. In the

constant flux world, planned change is less

appropriate (MacKay Bradley and Chia, 2013). Van

De Ven and Poole (2005) categorized scholar in

organizational changed into two categorized; ones see

the organization as comprised of thing, while others

emphasize on organizing as a process. Van De Ven

and Poole (2005) traced these different opinions

based the Greek philosophers; Democritus and

Heraclitus. Democritus described all of nature as

comprised of stable materials substance or objects

that do not change. However, they are changed only

in their development and adaptation to other

dimensions and properties. On the other hand,

Heraclitus described that reality not as of a collection

of things, but one of the process. Thus, there are

groups of scholars that see the change in a more fluid

way. "Change is an intrinsic feature of reality, and

we need to find new ways in which change may be

studied and reported” (Antonacopoulou and Tsoukas,

2002; Van De Ven and Poole, 2005). Some scholars

drew interest to the fluidity, pervasiveness, open-

endedness, and indivisibility of change such as the

study done by (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002; Van De Ven

and Poole, 2005). In addition, Chia (2014) suggested

to perceived changed as an organic process that can

be managed through the acts adaptation to ongoing,

ever-changing, and naturally occurring phenomenon.

He proposed to see change as a state of being. Thus,

managing change does not require active intervention

that can be lead to anxiety and resistance.

Furthermore, he proposed the notion of letting

happen, as “the world is perpetually changing, and

that uncertainty, incompleteness of understanding

and even lack of coherence lies at the core of all

human endeavors” (Chia, 2014). In his view the

traditional approach is "effort-intensive, energy-

Mindfulness and Organizational Change: Where is the Bridge?

315

wasteful and, therefore, highly costly; much heat and

friction are generated and wasted in overcoming

incipient resistance". Therefore, he suggested that a

strategic approach to let the change happen that

involves effortless and quiet infusion of silent

transformation.

Seeing the rationale above, then the authors stated

that If change is seen as an ongoing state of being,

then mindfulness is able to contribute significantly.

Mindfulness emphasizes of being present that helps

individual to respond to change (as a consequence of

interaction) in genuinely novel ways as mindfulness

"allow the mind to relax again objectlessness

attention or to let go and simply rest our minds in

bare attention” (Rinpoche and Swanson, 2010). In

addition, in managing change, the leaders convey a

direction and engage the employees in exploring

options, and let change happen (Chia, 2014).

The

authors conducted action research on Utah Valley

University’s Student Affairs (UVU) to explore the

value of mindfulness in the organization. The

research did not force the mindfulness practice, but,

only asking the members of the department to notice

moments in their lives when they were more present.

As the author stated that the important aspect is the

mindset of all members of the department. The leader,

lead in being mindful and compassionate, not being

an expert in methods for becoming

The result shows that before the practice, the

participants experienced burnout, fatigue, and hard to

find work-life balance. Even the authors still

analyzing the data in depth ( as the book published),

the authors already see how the reflective practice

effect the participants that change them in three

levels; how they related to here and now, they

connected with the meaning and purpose of work, and

how they connected with others. More importantly,

the data revealed that the process change emerging in

a continuous, open-ended, collective, and self-

organizing way.

5 CONCLUSION

The unit of analysis of mindfulness in organization

categorized in two units; organization and individual.

The scholar develops various method to connect

mindfulness and organization change. First, through

the mindfulness characteristic such as optimists and

self-efficacy and resistance to change

(Charoensukmongkol, 2017). Second, through the

cognitive aspect that will influence the behavior then

influence the success of organization change (Aviles

and Dent, 2015). For instance, the concept of being

present allows the individuals to attentively paying

attention to present moments, to speakers that might

decrease the misunderstanding or

miscommunication, the misperception that will be

harmful to the organization change. Third, through

the learning process (Rerup and Levinthal, 2014).

Fiol and Lyles (1985) stated that "the process of

learning involves the creation and manipulation of

this tension between constancy and change" or in

other words between exploitation and exploration or

between mindlessness vs. mindfulness. Fourth,

through the member of organizations' individual

transformation (Wilensky, 2016). Institutional

change must align with the changes in the ways the

individuals' function, and interact. The organizations

should provide some opportunities for individual

change and reduced their unconscious barrier to

change that based on previous experience. Fifth,

through the change itself (Goldman Schuyler et al.,

2018). If we view change as a process, not in a

predictable model, then a change should be done in

fluid ways and how mindfulness fits in the process of

view of change.

The results of these studies show the impact of the

organizational change in several outcomes. First, it

shows that relation between mindfulness and

resistance to change is indirect through general self-

efficacy that impacting to optimism that leads to

resistance to change (Charoensukmongkol, 2017).

Second, Mindfulness leads to some behavior that

smooth organization change such as; optimism, better

retention of information, creativity, better

communication, self-awareness of the leaders (Aviles

and Dent, 2015; Wilensky, 2016). Third, When

organizations changed viewed as a process, not a

thing, as we see the river as ever-changing flow, not

as a river, then the process of changes can be done

naturally without any force. The actions research

shows how mindfulness smooth the natural

organization change in Utah Valley University's

Student Affairs (UVU) that consist of a thousand

employee (Goldman Schuyler et al., 2018)

However, even though previous scholars have

developed paths to connect mindfulness and

organizational change, the correlation might be still

ambiguous for certain people, but, it might be

understandable for the ones whose practice

mindfulness that already experience the benefits of

mindfulness.

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