Mindfulness, an Important Concept for Organizations: A Book Review Essay on the Work of

Ellen Langer
Author(s): Stuart Albert
Source: The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Jan., 1990), pp. 154-159
Published by: Academy of Management
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 IJ V V \ I BOOK Walter R. Nord
REVIEWS Book Review Editor

Mindfulness, an Important tinual creation of new categories and distinc-

tions, (c) the exploration of (and attention to) mul-
Concept for Organizations: tiple perspectives, and (d) an awareness of con-
a Book Review Essay text. A close reading of her work reveals that
on the Work of Ellen Langer these characteristics represent a coherent and
interrelated set of attributes that define a partic-
StuartAlbert ular state of mind. When an individual acts
University of Minnesota mindfully, the entire person is engaged in an
active, creative task. Mindlessness, in contrast,
The intent of this essay is to review the work of
represents a state of reduced attention in which
Ellen Langer, principally her work on the psy-
behavior is rule-governed, rather than rule-
chology of control and the concept of mindful-
guided. An individual in a mindless state is be-
ness and mindlessness, which she has pio-
having in a more routine and passive manner,
neered. Dr. Langer, an experimental social psy-
relying on existing categories and distinctions:
chologist in the Department of Psychology at
In a mindless state, an individual acts like an
Harvard and author of the book Mindfulness,
automaton. Although Dr. Langer carefully dis-
has been working in these areas for more than
tinguishes mindfulness and mindlessness from
15 years, producing a brilliant stream of work
many concepts that might seem similar (e.g.,
that is theoretically provocative and method-
automatic or controlled processing, habit, role,
ologically sophisticated. Because this work is
set, schema, learned helplessness), this techni-
about significant real-world issues, it can have
cal detail is less important than highlighting
powerful practical applications. The purpose of
some of her research that concerns causes and
this review is to bring her work to the attention of
consequences of mindfulness/mindlessness,
management researchers in general and those
which may be important for researchers in man-
in the field of organizational behavior specifi-
agement and organizational behavior.
cally.
Even though mindlessness can be the result of
Her work can be divided into two related
repetition, Dr. Langer also demonstrates that it
streams of research, one dealing with the con-
can occur in "one trial," as the result of a prema-
cept of mindfulness versus mindlessness and
ture cognitive commitment. In a study with Ben-
one dealing with processes of control. This re-
zion Chanowitz (1981), Dr. Langer demonstrated
view begins with the former because of its im-
that if subjects received information about a vi-
plications for the latter.
sion abnormality that they thought did not apply
to them, they subsequently exhibited the deficit
Mindfulness/Mindlessness when it was "discovered" that they, in fact, had
Mindfulness, for Dr. Langer, is a state of alert- the condition. In essence, a first impression be-
ness and lively awareness that is characterized comes a last impression if the initial information
by: (a) active information processing, (b) the con- is absorbed uncritically, that is, mindlessly.

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 Her work on mindfulness, apart from the few is the power of her interventions designed to cre-
conceptual pieces, can be categorized by the ate a state of mindfulness. For example, Dr.
range of phenomena for which her cognitive in- Langer and her colleagues (Alexander, Langer,
terventions (intended to induce a state of mind- Newman, Chandler, & Davies, in press) demon-
fulness) yield dramatic results. These include strated that a mindfulness intervention can have
aging, discrimination, work, creativity, and the effect of increasing life span. In this study,
health. What follows are some selected high- elderly subjects spent 20 minutes producing
lights. Also referenced are her new book, Mind- new words by thinking of a word that began
fulness, and several review articles that can with the last letter of a previous word, thinking of
bring the reader up to date. unusual uses for common objects, arguing a
side contrary to an established opinion, and so
Mindfulness and Aging
forth. Engaging in this kind of mindful activity
One part of Dr. Langer's work focuses on the twice a day for 12 weeks was associated with an
elderly. On the surface it appears that this work increased life span relative to a group that spent
has little relevance to the study of organizations the same amount of time in a relaxation task.
and management, but in fact the implications After three years, 87.5 percent of the mindful-
for these areas are profound. As soon as re- ness group were alive versus 62.5 percent for the
searchers realize that many managerial situa- relaxation group.
tions are characterized by a loss of control, by
Prejudice
diminished capacity, and by other functional
equivalents of the aging process, Dr. Langer's Two trends, an increasingly heterogeneous
research takes on new relevance. and multiethnic work force and the growing glo-
For example, to demonstrate the deleterious balization of the economy, make understanding
effect of mindlessness, Dr. Langer and her col- prejudice and learning the means to reduce it of
leagues (Langer, Perlmuter, Chanowitz, & Ru- growing importance for managers and scholars
bin, 1989) compared elderly subjects who had alike. One experiment in this area (Langer,
lived with a grandparent before they were two Bashner, & Chanowitz, 1985) seems particularly
years old with those who lived with a grandpar- provocative. Mindfulness training was expected
ent only after they were thirteen. She found that to result in less indiscriminate discrimination.
the former (who presumably formed a different The training consisted of encouraging the cre-
early opinion about what old age means be- ation of new categories and distinctions by hav-
cause the grandparents of two year olds were ing subjects supply multiple responses (versus
likely to have been younger and look stronger one response) to slides of handicapped and non-
and bigger than the grandparents of 13 year handicapped individuals. After this training,
olds) were rated as more alert, active, and in- subjects indicated who they wanted on their
dependent. Dr. Langer argues that ideas about team for activities such as checkers, soccer, and
aging (and, in another study, alcoholism), so on, for which a given handicap might or
which are mindlessly acquired during child- might not be relevant. The results indicated that
hood, can predictably affect a person's own ag- those given training in making mindful distinc-
ing. Her work describes first impressions that be- tions learned that handicaps are function-
come last impressions. What individuals experi- specific and not people-specific; in short, they
ence when they first enter an organization, or learned that disability depends on context. Al-
what the organization experiences early in its though the subjects in this experiment were chil-
life cycle, may have crucial implications for its dren, the procedures can be easily generalized
functioning many years later. to adults.
One very significant part of Dr. Langer's work Langer's work on prejudice is also important

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in pointing out that there are advantages in not Mindfulness and the Media
overlooking a disability in some contexts. For
example, a deaf person may be a better job can- In a study with Alison Piper (Langer & Piper,
didate for a noisy factory than one of normal 1987), Dr. Langer took one of the most "mindless"
hearing (assuming, of course, that there are no activities, watching television, and demon-
unsolvable safety issues involved); a person in a strated the impact of a mindfulness intervention.
wheelchair may be perfect for a very sedentary Specifically, she instructed subjects to view a TV
job, and so on. Thus, a mindful manager is one program while imagining themselves to be a
who understands how incompetence in one set- lawyer, a child, a physician, and so on, that is,
ting represents competence in another. to mindfully watch the program. (A control
group viewed the program in the normal man-
Education in the Workplace ner.) The result was that "mindful" individuals
Having documented both the positive benefits saw the TV characters as more complex, saw
of increasing mindfulness and the debilitating more subplots in the episode, and had better
effects of a mindless state, Dr. Langer then makes memory for the details contained in the episode.
many useful suggestions about how to combat It is not merely that the content of much TV is
the negative effects of mindlessness. For exam- mindless, but that people mindlessly watch
ple, Langer and Piper (1987) demonstrated how what is presented, which is part of the problem.
presenting information in a conditional versus Of course, with respect to this particular inter-
an unconditional mode (could be versus is) can vention, I should confess some bias. My own
be used to increase the chances of innovation. work with David Whetten (Albert & Whetten,
Indeed, her work is perfect for helping individ- 1985) on extended metaphor analysis, in which
uals shed outworn mindsets and invest new and we analyzed a university as both a business and
creative ways for tackling difficult problems. a religion, fits perfectly with the major objective
of Dr. Langer's work-namely, to look beyond
Mindfulness and the Bottom Line the habitual categories by which we understand
There is a tendency in business to focus on the the world to new ways of framing and, hence,
bottom line, that is, the measurable outcome. understanding experience.
Dr. Langer points out the dysfunctional aspects Langer noted that rules and routines are func-
of doing so. Paradoxically, by focusing on pro- tional, provided that they are not followed mind-
cess and not outcome, one may improve both. lessly. Could there be benefits of a "mindfulness
One section in Mindfulness is particularly rele- increasing" intervention for people trapped in a
vant here. Dr. Langer states that "when we envy routine that has become mindless? For example,
other people's assets, accomplishments, or because one of the benefits of increasing mind-
characteristics, it is often because we are mak- fulness is to increase an individual's sense of
ing a faulty comparison. We may be looking at control over his or her environment, perhaps it is
the results of their efforts rather than the process possible to improve safety by employing some of
they went through on the way" (p. 46). In indus- her many operationalizations of the mindfulness
try this is done all the time. Outcomes are com- construct.
pared and the processes that produced superior
results are copied. A mindful alternative is to The Psychology of Control
seek processes which, even if they fail in one
context, would yield superior results in another A second body of work, summarized in The
context. 3M's experience with Post-It Notes is a Psychology of Control (Langer, 1983), deals with
case in point: A glue that did not stick became a the causes and consequences of a person's ex-
huge success. periencing control over his or her life and envi-

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ronment. Dr. Langer's concepts of control and chances of winning (indicating that they were
mindfulness have an interactive and reciprocal more confident in the outcome) than individuals
relationship to each other. In Langer's view con- who were simply issued their lottery tickets with
trol is only really felt when it is mindful. Mind- no choice. In a third study, subjects given prac-
lessly turning on and off a light switch engen- tice on a chance task were more confident of
ders no feeling of control. Becoming mindful, in their future success than those given no prac-
contrast, is likely to lead to feelings of control tice. In yet another study, even sophisticated
because the individual may discover alterna- subjects were led to feel greater confidence in
tives and options that can create a sense of con- their ability to predict a coin toss if they had an
trol. early run of successes than if they had met with
One set of Langer's studies in this area deals either an early failure followed by subsequent
with factors that contribute to the illusion of con- improvement or a random series of outcomes.
trol when objective evidence suggests that con- This line of research is clearly relevant to studies
trol is unlikely; a second set deals with the fa- of motivation, aspiration level, commitment to a
vorable effects of increasing perceived control. course of action, and the attribution of success
and failure, to name just a few areas.
The Illusion of Control
Control and Aging
Nowhere is the importance of presenting at In one of the most dramatic studies, which
least the appearance of being in control more was a large programmatic effort on understand-
important than in managerial life. Managers try ing the process of aging, Langer and Rodin
to establish control over their immediate and (1976) gave nursing home residents more control
larger organizational environments. In one set over everyday activities. An experimental
of studies (summarized in The Psychology of group was encouraged to make decisions: They
Control), Dr. Langer identified a series of factors were provided with house plants so that they
that led individuals to believe that they had had to choose when and how much to water
some control over events, even when control them, whereas the members of a control group
was not apparent. Because the perception of were encouraged to ask the staff to help them
control is often a critical determinant of a per- with all decisions. Not only were members of the
son's behavior, knowing what factors lead to the experimental group judged to be more alert,
illusion of control is very important. happier, and so forth, but also at the end of 18
Dr. Langer has demonstrated that when fac- months, the experimental group had a lower
tors associated with skill situations such as the mortality rate (15 percent versus 30 percent). Be-
presence of competition, choice, involvement, cause the choices made by the experimental
stimulus familiarity (knowledge of the outcome group concerned novel information, Langer in-
to be controlled), and practice are introduced terpreted the results of this research within the
into settings that are governed exclusively by context of her work on mindfulness.
chance, individuals began to behave as if they
had control. For example, subjects bet more in a
completely chance-determined
General Characteristics
card game
when they were playing against an opponent
of Langer's Work
who appeared awkward and nervous than One of the pleasures of reading Dr. Langer's
against an opponent who appeared confident. work is that she engages the real world: She
In another study participants in a lottery who studies a subject without destroying it, and she
were given the opportunity to choose their tick- brings phenomena into the laboratory without
ets were less likely to attempt to improve their contrivance. Of course, if the traditional critique

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of experimental studies is examined mindfully, a an extremely sensitive discussion about experi-
somewhat different conclusion about generaliz- mental procedure and technique.
ability than is customary emerges; namely, that If Dr. Langer's themes, the power and benefits
contrived and artificial experiments merely gen- of a continual creative restructuring of the world
eralize to contrived and artificial real-world set- and the importance of exercising mindful con-
tings (settings in which normal individuals know trol, strike a resonant cord, then a more detailed
that things are not as they seem, that is, the reading of her extensive work is in order. Re-
environment is clearly man-made, rather than searchers who study stress, job design, change,
natural). Settings that have such characteristics prejudice, health, leadership, and motivation,
are, of course, quite common (e.g., political set- among other topics, should definitely be aware
tings, advertising promotions, etc.). of her work. It is my hope that this brief introduc-
Seeing something beyond what is convention- tion will whet their appetites because her work is
ally apparent can be very important for manag- extraordinarily creative and powerful.
ers. This is what makes Dr. Langer's work must
reading, that is, her talent for designing rela- References
tively simple cognitive interventions of extraor-
dinary power. As an experimentalist she artfully Albert, S., & Whetten, D. (1985) Organizational identity. In
demonstrates that small differences can have B. M. Staw & L. L. Cummings (Eds.), Research in organi-
large consequences. zational behavior (Vol. 7, pp. 263-295). Greenwich, CT:
By temperament, Dr. Langer is an optimist. JAIPress.
She argues against the notion of fixed capacity, Alexander, C., Langer, E., Newman, H., Chandler, H., &
preferring instead to talk about unknown capac- Davies, J. (in press) Aging, mindfulness, and transcenden-
tal meditation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychol-
ity. She is skilled in showing how much more ogy.
people can do if they are given the chance.
Chanowitz, B., & Langer, E. (1980) Knowing more (or less)
than you can show: Understanding control through the
A Guide to Her Work mindlessness/mindfulness distinction. In M. E. P. Selig-
man & J. Garber (Eds.), Human helplessness (pp. 97-129).
As is the case for many theorists who work in New York: Academic Press.
an area for a long time, Dr. Langer has modified Chanowitz, B., & Langer, E. (1981) Premature cognitive com-
her ideas. For this reason, the best starting point mitment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 41,
for management and organizational behavior 1051- 1063.
researchers is to begin with her latest work. Langer, E. (1983) The psychology of control. Beverly Hills,
Thus, even though Mindfulness is a summary of CA: Sage.
empirical studies, rather than their presenta- Langer, E. (1989) Mindfulness. New York: Addison-Wesley.
tion, it would make an excellent introduction Langer, E. (1989) Minding matters: The consequences of
(see especially, chapter 8, "Mindfulness on the mindlessness/mindfulness. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Ad-
Job," which briefly references work on leader- vances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 22, pp.
137-173). New York: Academic Press.
ship, burnout, and innovation).
A good starting point for her work on control is Langer, E., Bashner, R., & Chanowitz, B. (1985) Decreasing
prejudice by increasing discrimination. Journal of Person-
The Psychology of Control (1983). An excellent ality and Social Psychology, 49, 113-120.
theoretical piece that deals both with control
Langer, E., Perlmuter, L., Chanowitz, B., & Rubin, R. (1988)
and the mindfulness/mindlessness distinction is Two new applications of mindlessness theory. Journal of
found in her article (coauthored by Benzion Aging Studies 2(3), 289-299.
Chanowitz) "Knowing More (or Less) than You Langer, E., & Piper, A. (1987). The prevention of mindless-
Can Show: Understanding Control through the ness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53,
Mindlessness/Mindfulness Distinction." This is 280-287.

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Langer, E., & Rodin, J. (1976) The effects of enhanced per- This volume brings together the contributions
sonal responsibility for the aged: A field experiment in an of many of those analysts who are visible as
institutional setting. Journal of Personality and Social Psy-
chology, 34, 191-198.
investigators of charismatic/transformational or-
ganizational leadership, characterized by ener-
gizing followers. As the first authors note in their
Charismatic Leadership: The Elusive introductory chapter, this interest is compara-
tively new in the organizational sphere, pro-
Factor in Organizational Effectiveness, moted by a few scholars and with a relative
by Jay A. Conger, Rabindra N. Ka- paucity of empirical research. Briefly, their
nungo, and Associates. San Francisco: stated purposes are to show the current state of
Jossey-Bass, 1988, 352 + xxii pp., $28.95, knowledge on the subject from different disci-
cloth. plinary perspectives, to delineate boundaries
that distinguish charismatic forms of organiza-
tional leadership from its other forms, and to
Reviewed by Edwin P. Hollander, CUNY Indus-
chart directions for further research and man-
trial Organization/Psychology doctoral pro-
agement practice regarding charismatic leader-
gram, Baruch College, New York, NY 10016.
ship in organizations. Ultimately, their hope is
"to stimulate further thought, debate, and in-
The heroic figure has long held a central quiry into what has long been considered an
place as the dynamo in one construction of his- elusive phenomenon. [Tihere is little doubt that
tory. Proponents of that tradition generated the charismatic leadership has profound implica-
"Great Man" theory of leadership with its lavish tions-both positive and negative-for organi-
attention to the qualities of such larger-than-life zational effectiveness" (p. 335).
figures. We now see resurgent interest in the The 11 contributed chapters are arrayed in
qualities of leaders, especially those possessing four parts: the nature and dynamics of charis-
charisma. But at least two departures from tra- matic leadership, strategic vision and the char-
dition are evident, as the principal authors here ismatic leader, sources and limitations of charis-
point out: more attention to the leadership con- ma, and development of charismatic leaders.
text, and to the attributions followers make about Two chapters are by the first authors, in addition
leaders. Yet, overall, this informative book re- to their introduction and conclusion, plus a ro-
veals that the characteristics of the leader are bust opening chapter on theory by Conger him-
still the riveting focus of work on charisma. self. Given the range of contributors, no charac-
Although the term charisma has become de- terization of their views would be applicable to
based as jargon in the politico-journalistic com- all. However, because many of the chapters re-
plex, often equated with glamour, celebrity, or veal considerable enthusiasm about the power
star quality, serious organization analysts are and virtue of charismatic leaders, one quickly
now studying its sources and consequences in gains the impression that charisma is what real-
action. In particular, there is interest in how cha- ly counts, and leaders without it are somehow
risma engenders favorable leadership out- deficient. Indeed, while Conger and Kanungo
comes, such as organizational effectiveness, state in their introduction that charisma is an-
found in the subtitle. Harking back to Max We- other dimension of leadership, they mainly see
ber, the originator of the charismatic leadership its effects with favor, though making passing ref-
concept, these analysts consider charisma to be erence to negative cases.
a special quality of leaders whose purposes, Among the 15 contributors are such estimable
powers, and extraordinary determination set figures as Bernard Bass, Robert House, Manfred
them apart from others. Kets de Vries, Henry Mintzberg, and Marshall

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