Mindful Members: Developing a Mindset for Reliable Performance in Extreme Contexts

Abstract

This paper aims to describe how organizational members develop a mindset that enables mindful operations in extreme contexts. Scholars have been divided over how collective mindfulness can be achieved. The literature on High Reliability Organizations (HROs) argues for heterogeneity through promoting skepticism, diversity, and dissent. Yet, studies on organizing in extreme contexts emphasize cohesion as a precondition for collective action under extreme circumstances. Thus, organizational members face competing needs for cohesion (integration) and heterogeneity (diversity). This longitudinal study of military officers joining Dutch crisis management organizations shows how they resolve this tension. Mindful members combine functional distance with social integration, mediated by a considerate approach based on sensitivity, tact, and trust. This mindset is gradually developed after a process that is initially characterized by fragmentation and inner struggles. When successful, organizational members cultivate a mindful mindset and contribute to reliable performance in extreme contexts.