How and when team average individual mindfulness facilitates team mindfulness: The roles of team relational stress and team individual mindfulness diversity

Although mindfulness has attracted increasing attention from scholars and practitioners, we do not have a clear understanding of whether, how, and when individual mindfulness composites may shape team mindfulness. Based on the input-process-output (IPO) model and integrating mindfulness theory and team composition perspective, we propose a team-level model theorizing that the additive accumulation of individual mindfulness among members (i.e., the mean level of individual trait mindfulness within a team) reduces team relational stress and that this reduction in turn enhances team mindfulness. Furthermore, team individual mindfulness diversity (i.e., the variability of individual trait mindfulness within a team) serves as a moderator, such that the indirect effect of team average individual mindfulness on team mindfulness via reduced relational stress is stronger when team individual mindfulness diversity is low rather than high. The results from a three-wave field survey data support our hypotheses. Our findings resolve important unanswered questions relating to how and when individual mindfulness composites shape team mindfulness, and illuminate critical implications for managerial practice.