Mindfulness for Performance and Wellbeing in the Police: Linking Individual and Organizational Outcomes

Abstract

This article reports on the largest randomized control trial (with followup) to examine the effects of mindfulness among police officers and staff. The benefits of mindfulness for wellbeing are established, but less is known about long-term impact on employee wellbeing and the implications of individual outcomes at organizational level. In the RCT, both the wellbeing and performance of users of two mindfulness apps over 24 weeks improved as compared to a control group. In responding to calls for consideration of relevance alongside rigor in public administration field experiments, the study also investigated how a large-scale wellbeing intervention was implemented and applied cost-effectiveness methodology to link individual and organizational outcomes and demonstrate cost savings. This additional contextualization showed how to improve implementation of wellbeing interventions for public personnel and demonstrated a method for rigorously assessing whether interventions deliver on both an individual and organizational level.