Building Organizational Resilience in Higher Education Institutions: The Role of Mindfulness, Job Crafting, and Trust

This study aims to explore the impact of mindfulness on organizational resilience, focusing on the mediating role of job crafting and the moderating role of trust in the organization. By examining these relationships, the research seeks to provide actionable insights into how individual and organizational factors interact to enhance resilience in educational institutions viz. universities. The purpose of this research is, thus, to examine (1) the relationship between ‘mindfulness’ and ‘organizational resilience’ through ‘job crafting’ and (2) the moderating role of ‘trust in organization’ in this relationship. The study employs a cross-sectional moderated mediation model. Data of this research was obtained from 24 higher education institutions in Türkiye. Findings confirmed the mediating role of ‘job-crafting’ and moderating role of ‘trust in organization’ and suggest that ‘mindfulness’ and ‘job-crafting’ are desirable traits that higher education leaders would like to improve in their academic staff. Findings also suggest that ‘trust in organization’ strengthens the positive link between ‘mindfulness’ and ‘job crafting’ and that the barriers to developing increased resilience in organizations can be overcome easily when employees develop themselves via job-crafting during quiet and predictable times as well as in times of crises. This study has significant implications for recruitment processes and training programs or workshops with a caution that costly mindfulness interventions may also turn out to be useless if leaders fail to cultivate trust in the organization.