Effectiveness of Mindfulness in business education: Evidence from a controlled experiment

Mindfulness has evolved into a four billion dollar industry and has inevitably attracted attention of businesses and business schools. Scholars in the fields of business tend to agree that psychological and pedagogic assertions in the field of mindfulness can be grounded within the context of cutting-edge theories and findings within Organisation Science and Education Science. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of mindfulness on learning of business analysis and decision making which is a staple in MBA programmes of business schools across the world. Business schools use case study method for teaching business analysis and decision making which engages the students in real-world experiences in a controlled manner and according to Experiential Learning theory increases self-efficacy. In a randomised controlled experiment, 293 MBA students of four business schools participated. The intervention group received a standardised mindfulness training of 20 weeks as a consequence of which their mindfulness score on Mindful Attention Awareness Scale increased significantly while the stress level declined. The study found that increase in mindfulness is a highly significant predictor of increase in the marks obtained by the students in business case study tests and that stress mediates between mindfulness and the marks obtained.