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Mindfulness and Its Impact on Ethical Behavior in Companies

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Personal Flourishing in Organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter is to show how mindfulness promotes more ethical behavior by improving the levels of awareness, and serves as a support for the development of the fundamental virtues. First of all, we provide an overview of mindfulness. After, we examine the relationship between mindfulness, consciousness and ethical decisions. Then we focus on character strengths and the impact that mindfulness can have on the development of virtues. Finally, we reflect briefly on some of the implications for companies.

Many of us go through life waiting for something to happen in order to make us happy or content. We miss experiencing life as it happens. True well-being is not going through life on autopilot, but being aware and present moment to moment to truly experience your life as it unfolds.

Ellen Langer, Harvard

We only have moments to live.

John Kabat-Zinn

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this respect, we should note that mindfulness and meditation are not the same thing, though they are often confused. The former is a state, while the second is one of the tools—albeit not the only one—that can be used to achieve a state of mindfulness.

  2. 2.

    As a term from the field of psychology, consciousness is clearly different from conscience, which is a concept from philosophical anthropology or ethics that refers to inner knowledge of good and evil.

  3. 3.

    Baer proposes five characteristics or common factors. We adopted Kabat Zinn’s list.

  4. 4.

    There are important coincidences with the effects of the “inner game” described in the study by Federica Bergamino, “Coaching for the Development of the Human Person: History and Anthropological Foundations”.

  5. 5.

    The amygdala is composed of two almond-shape masses inside the brain’s temporal lobes.

  6. 6.

    This refers to a kind of meditation that revolves around compassion towards oneself and others.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CEU Educational Group, Madrid, Spain

    José Luis Guillén

  2. Business Ethics Department, IESE Business School, Barcelona, Spain

    Joan Fontrodona

Authors
  1. José Luis Guillén
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  2. Joan Fontrodona
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Correspondence to Joan Fontrodona .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Philosophy, Pontifical University of Santa Croce, Rome, Italy

    Juan A. Mercado

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Guillén, J.L., Fontrodona, J. (2018). Mindfulness and Its Impact on Ethical Behavior in Companies. In: Mercado, J. (eds) Personal Flourishing in Organizations. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57702-9_7

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