The many facets of mindfulness as a tool to manage work-related stress: from the implications under neoliberalism to the struggle of "being" in a capitalistic world.

Abstract

The main object of my dissertation is mindfulness at the corporate level. The reason why I decided to analyze this phenomenon is to discover and have a broader understanding of the way a Buddhist rooted practice has evolved and transformed overtime to enter the Western world and more specifically, the world of business. Clearly, following globalization, the world has undergone significant changes, people have been required to develop the ability to adapt to a constantly changing environment, technological progress has reached and progressively affected many countries modifying as a consequence workplaces, working conditions and work relationships. As a result, workplace stress appears to be on the rise amongst employees, with companies registering high degrees of absenteeism, low engagement levels and diseases such as depression or heart-related problems appear to be a major issue. To deal with these kinds of problems, mindfulness-based interventions have been and are recently being implemented within organizations in order to keep the rising levels of stress and anxiety under control. Consequently, I find it interesting to see if companies have felt the need to reorganize around human capital, to redesign the policies to be adopted by and within the firm and to promote wellness programs in order to manage work-related stress. Additionally, this thesis aims to explore the effects of mindfulness under neoliberalism, and how it needs to be adjusted to fit into societies and economies characterized by policies of economic liberalization such as deregulation, free trade, privatization, globalization and reductions in government spending to increase the role of the private sector within the economy and society. Lastly, my analysis wants to detect or try to at least, any relevant trend in the spread of mindfulness depending on the different varieties of capitalism, that is to say, understanding whether or not the fact that mindfulness interventions are more present or needed in some countries is due to the form of capitalism of that specific country. In other words, I would like to analyze the bond between mindfulness and capitalism that makes it possible for the two to coexist.