Compassion and Pro-social Behavior among Employees: Is It Due to Social Desirability or Morality?

Abstract

Other-oriented tendencies like Compassion have been shown to be an important factor for pro-social behavior. For instance, recent research has shown that compassionate feelings for the suffering environment promote the conservation of nature. We extend this notion and relate compassion for suffering humans to pro-social behavior. We propose a theoretical framework, modifying Pfattheicher et. al. (2016) model to explain how Compassion affects pro-social behavior. For this, we infer a mediating role of Social Desirability and Morality that enable companionate feelings in working for society. Furthermore, we applied this theory to employees working in healthcare organizations to suggest how their companionate tendencies can be used to improve their work intentions. Social factors included pro-environmental values, intentions, and donations. Empirical validity was established by conducting a survey using a close-ended questionnaire. Data was collected from 275 respondents and analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structured equation modeling. The results showed that compassion has a positive and significant effect on both moral actions and social desirability. Moreover, social desirability significantly and positively affects all three pro-environmental factors. However, Moral Actions seems to affect pro-environmental intentions. Hence, most of the prosocial behavior stems from Social desirability intentions as compared to Moral actions. Hence, managers are recommended to develop a platform and provide teachings to employees to be friendly and forgiving to others and be helpful in their difficulties.