Organizations carry an important role in transforming sustainable systems, not least their leaders as they can influence the well-being of employees. Implementing Mindfulness Practices (MPs) within organizations could therefore have a positive influence on several levels throughout the organization for making sustainable change.  As meetings are the playing field for decision-making in organizations, mindfulness is a way to engage people in meetings, to help participants rise to the opportunity of making sustainable decisions. Building on the existing research on organizations and mindfulness, this study aims to provide a descriptive account of the perceptions and experiences of individuals within a team when a short MP is incorporated at the beginning of meetings, resulting in a Mindfulness Meeting (MM). The research took a multi-method qualitative approach by conducting semi-structured interviews and participant observations on two teams from different organizations. Two interviews were conducted, on both leaders and followers, one focusing on general meeting perceptions, and a second focusing on the perceptions of the MMs. The findings of the research indicate that a MP, when conducted in the right format, helps cultivate and strengthen the cognitive processes critical for work environments. In particular the factors perceived as positive for achieving meeting goals were a sense of being present, aware, having clarity of thought, and regulating interactions with others. However, this study is just a starting place for the future of MM within organizations and the work they must do to transition towards sustainable systems.

The research seeks to explore the leadership development approach within a civil society organisation (CSO) in a developing country and the connection to the Inner Development Goals (IDGs). Constructive- developmental theory and transcendent leadership provide the lens through which to explore how developing inner capacities can shape constructing new meanings of the world around us with a heightened understanding and awareness of complexity and interconnectedness. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of a CSO in the Philippines to gain insight into their perspectives of their own leadership development while engaging in the CSO. The study has uncovered the significant role that the CSO's leadership development approach plays in the development of the mental complexities of its members and leaders. This equips them with the capabilities required to navigate adaptive challenges and co-create sustainable solutions. These skills and capabilities are closely aligned with the IDGs.

Collaborative care is a philosophy which guides the work of interdisciplinary teams and patients and their families internationally. It has been demonstrated to improve quality of care, safety, and patient and staff satisfaction, yet applying this philosophy still requires much investigation. This thesis describes processes of change directed towards a vision to enhance collaborative care relationships with patients and families within one hospital site of a non-acute academic health science centre in Ontario, Canada. By building focused conversations around existing patient and family centred education and using an initial conceptual framework of customer service, healthcare providers, mid- and senior level leaders shared their perspectives, negotiated meanings and created innovations to enhance collaborative relationships within the organization. Based within the critical paradigm, a critical collaborative ethnography was constructed with the use of sequential and mixed research methodologies. The ethnography evolved over three phases in a step-wise and additive design during the three year period of study. Phase 1 examined the perspectives of healthcare providers in an exploratory case study which contributed to mid-level leaders’ discussions in Phase 2. Cumulative findings from Phases 1 and 2 were brought to discussions with senior leaders in Phase 3. Members of a participative action research team assisted with research design and study processes. Shared meanings and innovative change ideas were developed and captured through the use of semi-structured focus groups and interviews, survey, participant observation and inductive analysis. A conceptual framework of ‘partners-in-care’ emerged and was used to assist participants to make sense of the values and factors important in their work with respect to collaborative relationships. The research processes facilitated the development of many innovations to enhance collaborative practice within the hospital. The organization was described by the research as undergoing directed change to enhance collaborative care as evidenced through participant self-reports, observed initiatives and the ethnographic descriptions. / Thesis (Ph.D, Rehabilitation Science) -- Queen's University, 2012-06-25 15:06:24.687