The Role of Mindfulness in Predicting Individual Performance

Mindfulness refers to an individual difference variable regarding the degree to which a person is in the present moment (K. W. Brown & R. M. Ryan, 2003). Despite a growing interest in the benefits of mindfulness in health and clinical outcomes, little research has explored whether mindfulness relates to individual performance. The authors examined whether mindfulness was related to performance among a group of MBA students (N = 149). The results show that mindfulness interacted with gender to predict performance. Specifically, the positive association between mindfulness and performance was stronger for women than for men. Implications and future directions are discussed.