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Introduction
Today, the world of work is impacted by increasing globalization, constant technological developments, complex, competitive and changing environments that culminate in heavy workloads and looming deadlines on multiple projects. Employees and organizations consistently encounter demands for high performance – an ongoing problem in most workplaces considering that customer satisfaction, sustainable financial growth and success hinge on high performance (Swanson, 1999). Consequently, balancing and juggling numerous work and personal roles become difficult to manage. In some instances, employees are pressured by demanding work conditions that result in anxiety, stress, emotional exhaustion and burnout that negatively influence employee learning and performance and organizational effectiveness (Bakker et al., 2005; Schaufeli et al., 2008). Over the years, employee exhaustion, stress and burnout have been well documented in the academic literature (Bakker et al., 2005; Schaufeli et al., 2008). Furthermore, a number of employees experience poor health because of the impact of extreme work conditions (Van Gordon et al., 2013). Despite the stress associated with continuous change in organizations, employers do little to promote employee well-being (Rumbles and Rees, 2013). Human resource development (HRD) professionals can play a role in facilitating activities to help employees better maintain their well-being for optimal functioning in organizations.
Employee well-being is one of the greatest challenges encountered by organizational leaders today and has become an important concern in the workplace. Employee well-being calls attention to the quality of employees’ experiences and how they function on the job (Garg, 2017; Pawar, 2016). Organizations rely on different practices to promote employee well-being because of its importance on work outcomes and life, in general. Research and practice on workplace spirituality have been increasing because of the positive influence on employee well-being (emotional, psychological, social and spiritual) (Pawar, 2016). More attention is given to workplace spirituality because of its effectiveness to aid with issues of employees’ quality of work life that benefits the organization as well as society (Sheep, 2006).
More recently, there has been an increasing interest from researchers and practitioners across various disciplines on the applications and practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness applications have been found to be beneficial for a variety of mental and physical conditions, including anxiety, depression, stress, substance use, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder (Davidson and Kaszniak,...