Compassion capability in resource-limited organizations in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTCompassion in organizations benefits the giver and receiver of compassion, and the organization as a whole. Organizations with resource limitations, however, face risks and liabilities for compassion organizing. In South Africa, an emerging economy with a challenged socioeconomic environment, human service organizations face resource limitations. Organizations providing health and social services, such as home-based care, child- and youth care and medicine, in the context of a high burden of disease and limited material resources, face personal resource limitations, such as compassion fatigue and burnout. This article discusses individual staff capacities required for compassion in organizations in resource-limited human service organizations. It applies individual and participatory sensemaking, with embodied experience, as capacities to distinguish between the experiences of empathic concern and personal distress when working with others who are suffering. It serves as a foundation for professional development and supervision of agents working in these circumstances – and should be of primary concern to the HR and Coaching fraternities.