Experimentation in the face of ambiguity: How mindful leaders develop emotional capabilities for change in teams

Strategic change in organizations prompts pervasive ambiguity. As initiatives cascade down the hierarchy, they can be met with habitual, inertial responses that ultimately generate negatively charged emotions—or prompt novel, experimental behaviors forestall them. What remains unclear, however, is which factors drive teams, and leaders guide them, toward or away from this negative emotional reaction to change. In study, we integrate social cognitive theory research on mindfulness unpack collective through a field study 88 teams mortgage industry firm undergoing strategic We theorize that, when faced ambiguous goals, team low mindful attention will lack necessary capabilities enact behaviors—as neither have clear external goals senior managers nor internal dispositions their into noticing novel information eliciting unscripted responses. contrast, of who are high not affected by goals—and leaders, turn, greater within team, thereby lowering team's Finding support for these hypotheses, our contributes dynamic managerial capabilities, organizational change, mindfulness.