Disentangling Mindfulness: Exploring Distinct Mechanisms in the Workplace Stress Process

ABSTRACT

Although mindfulness is widely associated with reduced stress, organizational research has predominantly emphasized its direct effects, offering limited theoretical insight into the mechanisms through which mindfulness shapes stress processes. Drawing on Monitor and Acceptance Theory, we conceptualize mindfulness as a bi-dimensional construct comprising mindful awareness and mindful acceptance and develop a process model specifying their distinct roles in employee stress resilience. We theorize that mindful acceptance attenuates stress reactivity by weakening the relationship between workload and experienced stress, whereas mindful awareness facilitates stress regulation by buffering the negative effects of stress on task performance. We test these predictions across two experience sampling studies capturing within-person fluctuations in daily mindfulness, workload, stress, and performance, including both self- and supervisor-reported outcomes. Results consistently support the moderating role of mindful acceptance in reducing stress reactivity and its downstream performance consequences. Evidence for mindful awareness as a moderator of the stress–performance relationship is mixed but directionally consistent. By unpacking mindfulness into its constituent dimensions and locating its effects within a dynamic stress process, this research advances organizational theory by moving beyond main-effect perspectives and clarifying how mindfulness shapes employees’ responses to workplace demands.