Mindful leadership and organisational resilience post COVID-19: The case of environmental SMEs governance

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Abstract

This study investigates the impact of mindful leadership on organizational resilience in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam’s environmental technology sector. SMEs are central to sustainable development but remain vulnerable to shocks, resource constraints, and market volatility, particularly in the post-COVID-19 era (Erdiaw-Kwasie et al., 2023). Mindful leadership, emphasizing self-awareness, compassion, and situational understanding, offers a promising pathway but has been underexplored in emerging economies (Zheng et al., 2022). The purpose of this research is to examine how mindful leadership influences two dimensions of resilience: situation awareness and adaptive capacity. A quantitative design was employed, with data collected through an online survey of employees and mid-level managers in environmental technology SMEs in Hanoi. Our findings reveal that compassion has a significant positive effect on both situation awareness and adaptive capacity, while self-awareness has a weaker influence, significant only for situation awareness. These results highlight compassion’s critical role in fostering trust, cohesion, and adaptability. The study extends mindful leadership research to Vietnamese SMEs and offers practical implications for managers seeking to strengthen resilience in dynamic environments.

Keywords: Mindful Leadership, Organizational Resilience, Self-Awareness, Compassion, Situation Awareness, Adaptive Capacity

Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Methodology — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Software — T.T.H.H.; Formal Analysis — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Writing — Original Draft — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Writing — Review & Editing — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Visualization — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.; Supervision — T.T.H.H. and H.T.T.D.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

JEL Classification: M14, L26, Q56, H12, O33

Received: 22.05.2025
Revised: 15.09.2025; 26.12.2025
Accepted: 27.01.2026
Published online: 30.01.2026

How to cite this paper: Hoang, T. T. H., & Do, H. T. T. (2026). Mindful leadership and organisational resilience post COVID-19: The case of environmental SMEs governance. Journal of Governance and Regulation, 15(1), 220–232. https://doi.org/10.22495/jgrv15i1art20