Sign of the times: Workplace mindfulness as an empty signifier
Gazi Islam,
Marie Holm and
Mira Karjalainen
Additional contact information
Gazi Islam: MC - Management et Comportement - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management, IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie - USMB [Université de Savoie] [Université de Chambéry] - Université Savoie Mont Blanc
Marie Holm: ESCEM - Ecole supérieure de commerce et de management
Mira Karjalainen: Helsingin yliopisto = Helsingfors universitet = University of Helsinki
Post-Print from HAL
Abstract:
The rapid emergence of mindfulness programs within organizational settings reflects an amalgam of humanistic, spiritual, and managerial perspectives. While impact studies have focused on effects of mindfulness programs on employees, how such programs are implemented by trainers, managers, and employees and how the mindfulness concept operates within organizations are not well understood. In this study, we draw upon Laclau's notion of the 'empty signifier' to argue that mindfulness programs work to encode oppositional organizational elements, drawing on competing discourses that shape, in practice, how mindfulness evolves within organizations. Through an empirical qualitative study of organizational mindfulness practitioners, we show how practitioners leverage heterogeneous meanings to represent oppositions within organizations, and that in the course of mindfulness programs, these oppositions are framed to align with dominant managerial perspectives. We discuss the ramifications of these findings to understanding the uses of mindfulness for ideological purposes while speculating on the emancipatory possibilities of mindfulness as a solidaristic and collective practice.
Keywords: Appropriation; hegemony; Laclau; mindfulness; power; signifier; workplace spirituality (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec and nep-cdm
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01958800v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:
Published in Organization, 2022, 29 (1), pp.3-29. ⟨10.1177/1350508417740⟩
Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01958800v1/document (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-01958800
DOI: 10.1177/1350508417740
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().