How and When Team Mindfulness Enables Us to Navigate Adversity: Survey and Field Experimental Evidence

We developed and tested a model that illustrates the benefits of team mindfulness with respect to helping teams resist and bounce back from adversity. Based on the literature on team dynamics and conservation of resources (COR) theory, we propose that team mindfulness can facilitate task‐ and emotion-related interpersonal interactions, thus laying a solid foundation for team members to employ and acquire additional resources to cope with adverse events. We also explore the role of team task interdependence in these processes. We conducted two studies in an automobile manufacturing enterprise that was undergoing a business transformation: (1) a multi-wave, multisource survey of 176 manufacturing teams and (2) a field experiment in which 84 sales teams were assigned to either a mindfulness intervention or a control condition. The results largely support our model. Team mindfulness increases team resilience via team emotional support and information sharing. Team task interdependence amplifies the positive effects of team mindfulness on emotional support and information sharing such that the indirect effect of team mindfulness on resilience is strengthened when the level of task interdependence is high (rather than low). Our research extends the mindfulness literature and provides useful insights into ways of cultivating resilient teams.