Darren Good Co-Authors Major Study in Journal of Organizational Behavior Rebutting Workplace Mindfulness Skepticism

In a newly published Counterpoint article in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Pepperdine Graziadio Business School faculty member Dr. Darren Good and his co-authors advance a rigorous defense of workplace mindfulness, responding directly to high profile scholarly skepticism in organizational science. Co-authored with Christopher J. Lyddy (Providence College) alongside mindfulness researcher Kirk Warren Brown (Carnegie Mellon University), the invited piece enters an ongoing debate with prominent critics, including University of Lausanne professor John Antonakis, regarding the empirical validity and organizational value of mindfulness interventions.

Addressing methodological critiques raised by skeptics, Good and his co-authors argue that dismissing workplace mindfulness overlooks a vast, multidisciplinary body of high quality evidence spanning neuroscience, psychology, and medicine. The authors highlight that mindfulness research routinely meets or exceeds standard organizational behavior research practices, pointing to robust randomized controlled trials demonstrating that present moment attention and awareness yield replicable improvements in employee well-being, social dynamics, and job performance.

Rather than viewing mindfulness through a narrow or uncritical lens, the authors present a forward-looking theoretical framework, termed Contemplative Management Theory (CMT), that emphasizes the necessity of contextualizing mindfulness within workplace environments. Good and his team outline how future inquiry must explore how mindfulness interacts with organizational cognition, task complexity, and workplace culture to determine when and why mindfulness yields optimal results. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that mindfulness remains a benign, beneficial, and scientifically supported capacity worthy of sustained scholarly and organizational investment.

Read the full article here.