Mindful together: examining the effect of mindfulness congruence on the quality of leader-follower relationships

Extensive research has demonstrated the positive effects of mindfulness on individual well-being and performance within organizational settings. Yet, its impact on interpersonal dynamics, particularly between leaders and followers, has not been thoroughly explored. Drawing upon research in mindfulness and person-supervisor (P-S) fit, this study examines the congruence effect of leader and follower dispositional mindfulness on their relationship quality, conceptualized here as leader-member exchange (LMX) quality. Moreover, we explore the question of which pro-relationship behavior on part of the follower carries the proposed mindfulness congruence effect. Using cross-level polynomial regressions across 189 leader-follower dyads, our findings corroborate a theoretical framework that associates the congruence of leader-follower mindfulness with enhanced relationship quality. This relationship is mediated by followers’ engagement in relationship-directed voice behavior—a form of upward influence behavior specifically investigated for its role in this context and validated across three further samples (N = 434). By examining both the joint effects of leader and follower mindfulness and the behavioral mechanisms underlying these effects, our research contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of mindfulness’s role in shaping leadership dynamics and improving leader-follower relationships.