Author: carina

I observe that many studies investigating “job satisfaction” utilise measures based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory.  This scale measures a number of discrete aspects that impact on job satisfaction; typically including autonomy, achievement and “emotional exhaustion” which may arise from “surface acting”.

Yet some years ago I surveyed a large staff group within a high-tech venture to ask what they wanted most from their work – the clear answer was recognition and responsibility.  Of course these employees were “empowered technical experts” – confident in their work and in their future.  Yet even here I can see that “autonomy” could code for responsibility and “achievement” would bring recognition.

(In fact back in the 1980s some software engineering books advocated “egoless programming” environments; so that groups would be more open about bugs…  however,  my own experience is that this issue was more relevant in “big company” Data Processing departments where concealment avoided retribution.  In entrepreneurial high tech environments,  I have found that most “techies” are keen to be associated with pieces of technology – and that encouraging such ownership means that they are always keen to right any problems.)

So, I understood the relevance of the autonomy and achievement measures – but what of “surface acting”?

Surface acting is when a person has to fake (or suppress) emotion or reaction to meet certain social or work rules.  Clearly a shop worker or a flight attendant may have to be very patient with a rude or demanding customer.  But where surface acting is most draining is when an employee feels unable to express their  opinions or to articulate their frustrations to colleagues or to managers – usually to avoid conflict or the risk irritating a superior (…leading to career ramifications).  In the longer term this can cause disempowerment and cynicism – and it is emotionally exhausting.

Yet, by becoming more resilient through developing mindfulness, employees can become more able to understand the “point of view” of others (e.g. of their employer or their manager).  The mindful employee will be able to  recognise that certain situations or issues may cause them to feel frustrated or disenchanted and they will become more able to control these reactions.  That’s not to say that employees shouldn’t speak up if they are unhappy or concerned – but again, to be effective, such feedback to a manager is best done in a clam and unemotional way.

So it seems that being more open, more able to empathise and building the skills to “avoid knee jerk emotional responses” really does reduce the need for surface acting; and hence can significantly improve job satisfaction.

Recently, I was chatting with a friend who is the CEO of a large retail organisation in the UK – with tens of thousands of employees.  As many of you will be aware, the shape of retail is changing very quickly now; so retailers need to be able to adapt rapidly to new consumer demands, buying habits and service expectations.  It seems the only thing that isn’t changing is the need to embrace change itself!

With this in mind I went back and looked a number of case studies and research publications investigating the impact of mindfulness training in support of large change management programmes.

These studies from “change management initiatives” demonstrate that training in mindfulness makes employees:

More open to new ideas – less resistant, less anxious, less denial

Better able to deal with stress and challenges

Improved self-confidence and self-esteem – to embrace change

Mindfulness studies showed: –

• 83% said meditation helped them through a significant change (processes, systems and jobs)
• Those who rated their resilience as “High” increased from 10% to 70%
• Those who rated their ability to handle stress  as “High” went from 11% to 66%
• Emotional awareness (11% to 89%) positivity (16% to 84%) feeling in control (28 to 72%)
• Prevents loss in trust and increase in job satisfaction

Moreover, it turns out that the major issues that reduce job satisfaction are:  “difficult relationships”, depersonalization (lack of control) and lack of personal accomplishment – especially as “change” may wash away the work and processes that staff have previously strived to implement or to master.  Yet mindfulness has been shown to improve each of these aspects.

So using “mindfulness to build resilience” must be a key activity when preparing for a period of corporate change.

An old Dutch saying reminds us that “Trust arrives on foot… but leaves on horseback” – and it turns out that  in an organisation, “change” can hit levels of trust very hard …as employees worry about their futures and often become resistant to new processes or roles.  Yet “resilience skills” can help to overcome this dilemma:

Here is a fascinating piece from the US  business publication “Chief Learning Officer”: Changing How People Feel About Change “Resilience training techniques can improve engagement and help people overcome their fears about change.”

The article explains that a 2017 report from the American Psychological Association says that “Americans who reported recent or current change were almost three times more likely to say they don’t trust their employer and more than three times as likely to say they intend to seek employment outside the organization within the next year.”

Yet CEOs  recognise that organisations need to change to grow or to compete… or  even just to survive. So the challenge is how to introduce change without losing trust and how to make employees positive about such change.

The CLO article continues: “ It’s not actually change that people hate. It’s the way they respond to and feel about change. In fact, that negative change response is completely natural. People have been conditioned to fear change over thousands of years of evolution. For early humans, that fear response was a matter of survival in a dangerous world. While the threats of today’s workplace are different, people still have an automatic and negative response to anything that is out of the normal!.”

By learning resilience skills then employees can come to change with their “logical brain “ rather than their “emotional brain”.

CLO explains: “While the emotional brain is powerful and can respond quickly to undermine thinking, the logical brain is actually more powerful when people have developed resilience skills. It’s what helps them be rational and solve problems. They can use it exert control over the emotional brain; to identify the triggers of stress and rein in the natural, emotional response. Resilience skills can help people beat negativity bias.”

IMO:  it make sense for any change management initiative to include a programme to boost resilience within the workforce at all levels.

This piece from The Guardian (Here) recounts a study carried out at the University of Cambridge – contrasting student who were given a self-help mindfulness course with those who were not.  The report says: “Researchers found the mindfulness participants were a third less likely to score above the threshold commonly regarded as meriting mental health support. Even during the most stressful period of the year, summer exams, distress scores for the mindfulness group fell below their baseline levels, as measured at the start of the study. The students without mindfulness training became increasingly stressed as the academic year progressed.”

It appears that the impact of the mindfulness course was persistent and the only thing missing was some analysis on the academic performance across the two groups – beside exam stress, it would seems likely that the more mindful students, suffering less stress, would learn more effectively through their courses.

Some years ago I recall reading about some research where scientists scanned the brains of London Cabbies before and after they had done “the knowledge” – the scans clearly showed that they had somehow reorganised their brains so that there was more space allotted to storing the knowledge of all the streets in London and their connectivity – while previous functions had been moved elsewhere!

This week I was alerted to this Harvard University study using brain scans to showing how the brain is changed through an eight week mindfulness course.  This may also explain how such a source seem to have a persisting effect on those who try it. (Published in: Harvard University Press and  Journal of Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging)

See:
https://news.harvard.edu/…/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004979/

The Harvard Business Review reports on “A small but intriguing new survey by a pair of British consultants confirms the importance of resilience to business success…”

https://hbr.org/2015/01/what-resilience-means-and-why-it-matters

To be competitive most organisations face a future of almost perpetual change – and so having resilient employees is key.  Yet this study shows how resilience can be easily sapped – especially when people are required to “manage difficult people”.  Besides building up their resilience, one wonders if such “difficult employees” require some kind of counselling to understand their behaviours and to reduce their role in sapping resilience.

This morning The Times reported that Bristol University has had 10 student suicides over the last 3 years – and the BBC published the piece (Here ) to highlight “A Universities UK report found some students risked “slipping through the gaps” due to a lack of co-ordination between the NHS and universities.”

Rather than wonder about the “snowflake generation” and how they cope – it is clear that much more needs to be done to support students – to avoid harm, reduced drop-out rates and to help them to study better and to be able to deal with their exams.

Here are some finding from a Yougov poll (UK) in 2017:

• Over 1 in 4 (27%) of students report a Common Mental Disorder (CMD) higher than in whole pop – 19% male v 34% female
• Of these 77% have symptoms of depression and 75% have symptoms on anxiety (– about 50% have both)
• 6 in 10 students (63%) say they experience stress interfering with their daily life and  performance
• Causes of stress: 77% “fear of failure; 71% course work; 39% employment prospects; 35% family, 23% relationships and 23% friends
• 31% of students say they are lonely

and

• At 16 years:  70% are regularly sad or anxious; 22% everyday (Barnardos)
• 16 years  stress factors: school (83%); future (80%) (then home, bullying, weight) (Barnardos)
• FE Students: only 9% confident about their exams (PushOn/Ryman)
• FE Student stress factors: themselves (70%); teachers (68%); parents (39%) (PushOn/Ryman)

Helping students to avoid such problems and supporting them achieve better results is one of our objectives at Carina Sciences.  Building resilience from mindfulness will help – but the colleges also need to invest in the pastoral care and emergency support to avoid tragic outcomes.

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