Can Mindfulness Improve Organizational Citizenship and Innovative Behaviors Through its Impact on Well-Being Among Academics?

Abstract

Mindfulness has received considerable interest due to its positive outcomes for individuals however our understanding of how it may also result in positive outcomes for organizations is not fully understood. Using data collected from university academics (N = 255) in Northern Cyprus, we examine mindfulness as a factor that leads to Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and Innovative Work Behaviors (IWB). We expect that eudaimonic well-being serves as the mechanism that links mindfulness to IWB and OCB. Our results show mindfulness improves eudaimonic well-being. Eudaimonic well-being fully mediates the Mindfulness-IWB relationship and partially mediates the Mindfulness-OCB relationship. Since the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of OCB and IWB for universities, our study has important implications for university managers and policymakers.