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Abstract
Expanding literature links mindfulness – present-moment, non-judgmental awareness and attention – to employee wellbeing. Particularly, mindfulness is positively associated with emotion regulation, job satisfaction and reduced symptoms of stress and burnout. Mindfulness scholars suggest these benefits are attributed to downstream effects of mindfulness across cognitive, affective, and behavioral processes. Yet, empirical evidence for mechanisms that explain the influence of mindfulness on wellbeing remain underdeveloped. Leveraging insights from whole trait theory, I propose greater awareness and conscious reactivity inherent to mindfulness enhance wellbeing through change in the characteristic cognitive, emotional, and behavioral default patterns that constitute personality. I test this idea in the current study by assessing the mediating role of state personality in the relationship between state mindfulness and employee wellbeing. Using a 2-week experience sampling design, I examined these relationships between naturally occurring fluctuations in morning mindfulness and afternoon personality and wellbeing states. During the second week, I introduced a brief mindfulness-based intervention to better establish that mindfulness is indeed driving the personality state that influences wellbeing. Results support predictions indicating that dynamic personality states across all five Big-Five traits mediate the relationship between mindfulness and at least one measure of employee wellbeing. However, there is minimal evidence suggesting the mindfulness intervention induced mindfulness nor personality states that were associated with daily wellbeing. Implications for further research and workplace wellbeing interventions are discussed.