The Impact of Mindfulness and Self-compassion on Job Outcomes: Mediating Role of Psychological Capital and Positive Emotions

Abstract

The emergence of positive psychology led to the advent of positive organizational behaviour which emphasizes the exploration of positive psychological capacities in relation to job attitudes and behaviours. Positive psychology has adopted ancient Buddhist concepts such as mindfulness and self-compassion and organization scholars have begun to explore these constructs in organizational settings. This thesis is positioned in this positive organizational behaviour domain and has three main objectives. Firstly, to study the impact of mindfulness and self-compassion on work engagement, job performance and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Secondly, to examine the mediating role of psychological capital and positive emotions in determining this relationship. Finally, to analyse the moderating effects of psychological empowerment on the mediating role of psychological capital and positive emotions in determining the relationship of mindfulness and self-compassion with work engagement, job performance and OCB. Two studies were conducted sequentially. First study was a cross-sectional study while second study was a two-wave longitudinal study where first wave of data was analysed separately as a cross-sectional dataset. Data was collected from both non-academic and academic staff respectively working in the academic sector of Pakistan by employing survey methodology and snow-ball sampling technique. Two cross-sectional datasets (n = 157, n = 530) were analysed utilizing path analysis and SEM respectively. The results revealed that mindfulness and self-compassion have salutary effects on work engagement and job performance of both academic and non-academic staff. Both psychological capital and positive emotions mediated this relationship for academic staff while only psychological capital emerged as a significant mediator for non-academic staff. Psychological empowerment moderated the mediating effects of psychological capital in determining the relationship of mindfulness and self-compassion with job performance and OCB (non-academic staff), and work engagement and job performance (academic staff). The two-wave longitudinal data (n = 196) targeting the academic staff was analysed by utilizing cross-lagged path analysis and the results revealed that only self-compassion has a positive consistent effect on work engagement and job performance over time and psychological capital and positive emotions mediate this relationship. The moderating effects of psychological empowerment were not apparent in the longitudinal data. The theoretical and practical implications, limitations and future research directions are discussed.

Date of Award	1 Aug 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Sheena Johnson (Supervisor) & Sara Willis (Supervisor)