Sub-theme 45: Critical Perspectives on Corporate Mindfulness and Workplace Spirituality
Call for Papers
Who could argue with the virtue of becoming more 'mindful'? Only those, perhaps, who celebrate mindlessness. But might
it be that 'mindfulness' is being embraced rather mindlessly, if not cynically? We agree with Bhikkhu Bodhi that mindfulness
as a concept has become, as he put it, "so vague and elastic that it serves almost as a cipher into which one can read virtually
anything we want". Corporations and government agencies have jumped on the mindfulness and well-being bandwagon. Is that because
there is a deep appreciation of the spiritual traditions of mindfulness? Or might it be because a focus upon 'mindfulness'
as a means of performance improvement, conveniently shifting the burden onto the individual employee? Notably, stress is framed
as a personal problem, and mindfulness is offered as a necessary intervention to help employees work more efficiently and
calmly within toxic environments. It is prized as a way to relax, to reduce pressure, to let off steam – reduced to a technique
for coping with and adapting to the stresses of corporate life. If so, it is fully deserving of Zizek's acidic observation
that the Western Buddhist "meditative stance is arguably the most efficient way for us to fully participate in capitalist
dynamics while retaining the appearance of mental sanity".
The booming popularity of the mindfulness movement
has also turned it into a lucrative cottage industry. Consultants are marketing mindfulness training promising improvements
in work efficiency, reductions in absenteeism, and enhancements in the "soft skills" crucial to career success. Corporate
mindfulness proponents claim that mindfulness interventions are a "Trojan Horse" that will eventually reform even the most
dysfunctional companies into kinder, more compassionate and sustainable organizations. Organizational and social change is
predicated on methodological individualism, and a moral imperative that systemic and structural change is starts by "searching
inside oneself".
The corporate mindfulness movement is caught in an ironic paradox: mindfulness training may
offer employees some relief and personal benefits in the form of stress reduction and improved concentration while unthinkingly
ignoring the externalization of macro-tensions and structural inequalities. This myopic use of mindfulness training, Kevin
Healy noted, is creating "integrity bubbles", which "create glimpses of integrity – enough to enhance employee satisfaction
and brand image – even as they undermine the achievement of integrity in the broader context".
We welcome contributions
that offer critical perspectives on corporate mindfulness and workplace spirituality theories and practices. Contributions
may explore and interrogate assumptions and applications of mindfulness, well-being and workplace spirituality, particularly
in terms of whether such theories and practices are oriented toward cultural accommodation or more radical social transformation.
Theoretical papers may explore the extent to which Eastern/Buddhist and Western/modern concepts and practices of mindfulness
clash, converge, and influence each other.
Potential topics for submissions might include (but are not limited
to):
- Critical examinations of the corporate colonization and cultural appropriation of mindfulness
- Explorations of western historical, cultural, ideological sources and other ‘social imaginaries’ that inform the context of corporate mindfulness, well-being, happiness and workplace spirituality
- Analysis of the rhetorical strategies and modern discourses used in the process of altering, diminishing, obscuring, ignoring, decontextualizing and mystifying mindfulness' roots in spiritual traditions, such as Buddhism, as a means of selling spirituality, as well as tactics used for appealing to power and privilege
- Investigations of the ethical and moral dimensions of mindfulness, as well as de-ethicized forms of mindfulness
- Conceptualizing forms of socially engaged mindfulness programs that can offer a challenge, critique, and alternatives to modern corporate practices
- Theorizing the relations between individual-level mindfulness and organizational/social change
- The relevance of mindfulness for critical studies of organizing and alternative organizing practices