Enhancing Managerial Mindfulness: A Way for Middle Managers to Handle the Uncertain Situations

Abstract

Middle managers are often involved in complex, ambiguous and changing situations. Previous research found that middle managers who adapt to the uncertain environment successfully show high managerial mindfulness. To establish the generality of such finding, we develop a managerial mindfulness scale and examine the relationships between managerial mindfulness and two situational adaptation variables (i.e., reputational effectiveness and work-unit performance) and the moderating effects of two situational uncertainty variables (i.e., role conflict and role ambiguity). In Study 1, we obtain a three-factor scale of managerial mindfulness with good convergent validity and discriminant validity. In Study 2, we use this managerial mindfulness scale to test its relationship to situational adaptation. Results indicate that managerial mindfulness has positive effects on reputational effectiveness and work-unit performance when the situations are characterized by high role ambiguity, but the positive relationship disappears when role ambiguity is low. Findings enrich the existing research on mindfulness and adaptation.

Keywords: managerial mindfulness, role conflict, role ambiguity, reputational effectiveness, work-unit performance