Employee’s Mindfulness and Work Engagement: The Mediating Effect of Emotion Regulation among Financial Workers in Korea

Abstract

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The rapidly changing business environment and the ever-increasing competition between and within business sectors often cause employees to resign, complaining of stress and decease in employees’ work engagement. Especially in Korea, the high stress in financial workers is causing many diseases. To cope with this, recently mindfulness intervention and mindful trait have been paid to taking care of the issue. The relevant studies still lasted with limited numbers, especially working related outcomes. The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between mindfulness and work engagement by adopting the concepts and basis of mindfulness in attention to Monitoring and Acceptance Theory (MAT theory). The mediating effect of emotion regulation is based on its recent neurological research achievements from previous research for reaching the understanding of the mechanism of the work-related outcome of mindfulness. The results of the study were identified as follows: first, the relationship between mindfulness (awareness and acceptance) and work engagement demonstrated to be significant, and both dimensions of mindfulness predicted work engagement. Second, awareness positively predicted cognitive reappraisal in this study. Third, cognitive reappraisal positively mediated the relationship between mindfulness with awareness and work engagement. The conclusion of the study is that mindfulness is positively related to work engagement through emotional regulation strategy, cognitive reappraisal. In organizations that try to set up a new mindfulness training program, it is better to bear in mind that your mindfulness program can bring emotional suppression and cultivate positive reappraisal your fast memories. It is expected that this study could provide a theoretical understanding of mindfulness with work related outcomes to an individual who wants to learn the effect of mindfulness on their work or organization considering employee training for employees’ wellness.