Organizational Compassion Research Articles

The influence of organizational compassion on Job Crafting: A motivational resource facilitator?

This study aimed to analyse the relationship between the perception of compassion at work (consciousness, empathy, evaluation, response type) and compassionate “actions and organizational characteristics” on job crafting (increasing structural job resources, increasing social job resources, increasing challenging job demands, decreasing hindering job demands). The study collected quantitative data from 231 professionals from different economic sectors. The results indicated that only the dimensions: “evaluation” and “response type” of the compassion process, as well as compassionate “organizational characteristics”, showed a positive influence in the “increasing structural job resources”, “increasing social job resources” and “increasing challenging job demands”. There was no negative relationship between the dimensions of the compassion process and compassionate “organizational characteristics and actions” in “decreasing hindering job demands”. The mechanisms by which compassion at work could have positive effects on the job crafting processes are presented.

Organizational compassion, person-organization fit and discretionary behaviours in non-governmental organizations: a moderated model

PurposeThe authors proposed that Organizational Compassion and Person-Organization-Fit dimensions interactively predict Discretionary Behaviours among employees in the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) sector in Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ structural equation modelling to test hypotheses. The research was carried out in two studies; the second one was done six months after the first study. Two samples of respondents were drawn from NGOs operating in West Nile and Kampala regions, respectively.FindingsDiscretionary behaviours were significantly related to the cross-sectionally assessed predictors including organizational compassion and supplementary fit. Complementary fit did not significantly predict discretionary behaviours. Both supplementary fit and complementary fit moderated the association between organizational compassion and employee discretionary behaviours among both rural and urban setting placed NGOs.Practical implicationsIn order to boost employee exhibition of discretionary behaviours, leaders of NGOs should always endeavour to find viable organizational compassion-supplementary fit and organizational compassion-complementary fit blend that can add value to NGOs in Uganda.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies that have focused on testing the interaction effects of organizational compassion and person organization fit dimensions on discretionary behaviours. These results highlight both supplementary fit and complementary fit as key individual resources that promote the effects of organization compassion on discretionary behaviours among NGO workers in Uganda.

Leading with Compassion in Times of Change

Managers face various challenges and difficulties at work, especially in dealing with changes. The adverse events can be compounded when personal problems also put additional pressure on the manager. The compassionate leader can function to alleviate the stress. This study shows how leading with compassion, where leaders are sensitive to problems, feeling those difficulties, and are motivated to help. By referring to the positive organization literature, aspects, and processes of compassion in organizations are disclosed. Likewise, how compassionate leaders increase the attention and understanding, empathize with the needs of managers and their future are also explained. Furthermore, leaders can also be present in the various policies that they create. This study is useful for making leadership effective, especially in managing organizational change.

Organizational attractiveness after identity threats of crises: how potential employees anticipate social identity

ABSTRACT This study examines how organizations shape potential employees’ social identity prior to joining the organization. This is relevant in light of growing demands for knowledge workers together with a lack of knowledge about the determinants of employer attractiveness for this group. Our study uses different organizational crises as identity-threatening events and extends current research by showing how such events influence potential employees’ anticipations about social identity, as well as their perceptions of the organization’s attractiveness. Empirical evidence from our scenario-based experiments in the United Kingdom and the United States shows that identity changes occurring from organizational crises reduce organizational attractiveness and that anticipated self-continuity and anticipated self-esteem mediate this relationship. The effects become stronger with increasing crisis responsibility. More surprisingly, our qualitative data indicate that certain forms of crises can also attract certain types of employees by triggering organizational compassion, engagement to help the organization recover, and beliefs in learning and future improvements.

Self‐compassion in organizations: A review and future research agenda

SummaryBurgeoning organizational research has begun to explore how self‐compassion or the compassion individuals give to themselves in times of suffering may positively contribute to organizational outcomes. This review describes self‐compassion and its theoretical underpinnings in a workplace context, systematically reviews the current empirical literature on self‐compassion using samples of working adults, critically analyzes the current state of the literature, and provides recommendations for robust future research. In the process, we offer a dynamic, process‐based conceptualization of self‐compassion that aligns past research with current directions in organizational compassion and several suggestions for using a processual approach to improve theoretical and empirical rigor. We also guide future scholarly work surrounding self‐compassion in organizations by highlighting fundamental research questions that could advance our theoretical understanding of self‐compassion in organizational contexts.

How Does Organizational Compassion Motivate Employee Innovative Behavior: A Cross-Level Mediation Model.

This study aims to explore the mediating mechanisms between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior by introducing perceived insider status and felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) as mediating variables. Drawing on cognitive-affective personality system theory, a cross-level mediation model was established. Data were collected via the online-based questionnaire from 420 employees of 12 enterprises in China. Multilevel path modeling was leveraged to examine hypotheses proposed in this study. The results indicate that FRCC mediates the relationship between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior. Moreover, perceived insider status and FRCC serially mediate the relationship between organizational compassion and employee innovative behavior. This study has significant theoretical and practical implications as it is the first study to investigate the value of organizational compassion to employee innovative behavior at the workplace.

Self-Compassion in Organizations: Future Directions in Practice and Research

This panel symposium brings leading self-compassion and organizational compassion scholars and practitioners into a conversation to explore how self-compassion could uniquely improve organizational functioning amidst current world challenges. Self-compassion – broadly defined as the compassion extended to oneself in instances of perceived inadequacy, failure, or suffering – has been proposed as an adaptive strategy for promoting well-being and positive psychological functioning, particularly in difficult times. Although prior work on self-compassion offers an essential first step toward understanding the potential benefits of self-compassion in the workplace, many organizational research opportunities have yet to be capitalized. The symposium will comprise a brief introduction to self-compassion and research related to key organizational constructs, a moderated discussion, and a question and answer session to facilitate connections and insights.

Organisational Compassion and Employee Engagement in Virtual Work Environments during Covid-19 Lockdown in Uganda and Rwanda

Purpose: This study attempted to study the dynamics between organisational compassion and employee engagement during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Uganda and Rwanda when workers were required to work from home and in Virtual work environments Methodology/approach: The study adopted a quantitative research design. Data was collected from a sample of staff in selected institutions of higher learning in Uganda and Rwanda using of an online questionnaire that was distributed both through social media and email correspondence. Findings: The findings indicated that organizational compassion was a significant predictor of the vigour component of employee engagement compared to dedication and absorption while working virtually. Moreover, for selected organisational compassion dimensions of mindfulness and kindness, Supervisor’s kindness towards employees and employees’ mindfulness of self to others were strong predictors of work engagement while working remotely. Originality/value: While organisational compassion and employee engagement have been studied in, in-person settings, the paper attempted to study these concepts in virtual and remote work spaces that had unique complexities. https://www.doi.org/10.53615/2232-5697.10.127-137

Creating a compassion system to achieve efficiency and quality in health care delivery

PurposeHealth care delivery is experiencing a multi-faceted epidemic of suffering among patients and care providers. Compassion is defined as noticing, feeling and responding to suffering. However, compassion is typically seen as an individual rather than a more systemic response to suffering and cannot match the scale of the problem as a result. The authors develop a model of a compassion system and details its antecedents (leader behaviors and a compassionate human resource (HR) bundle), its climate or the extent that the organization values, supports and rewards expression of compassion and the behaviors and practices through which it is enacted (standardization and customization) and its effects on efficiently reducing suffering and delivering high quality care.Design/methodology/approachThis paper uses a conceptual approach that synthesizes the literature in health services, HR management, organizational behavior and service operations to develop a new conceptual model.FindingsThe paper makes three key contributions. First, the authors theorize the central importance of compassion and a collective commitment to compassion (compassion system) to reducing pervasive patient and care provider suffering in health care. Second, the authors develop a model of an organizational compassion system that details its antecedents of leader behaviors and values as well as a compassionate HR bundle. Third, the authors theorize how compassion climate enhances collective employee well-being and increases standardization and customization behaviors that reduce suffering through more efficient and higher quality care, respectively.Originality/valueThis paper develops a novel model of how health care organizations can simultaneously achieve efficiency and quality through a compassion system. Specific leader behaviors and practices that enable compassion climate and the processes through which it achieves efficiency and quality are detailed. Future directions for how other service organizations can replicate a compassion system are discussed.

Awakening Compassion in Managers\u2014a New Emotional Skills Intervention to Improve Managerial Compassion

Compassion is in high demand within organizational research, with important implications for leadership, well-being, and productivity. However, thus far only meditation-based interventions have been implemented to increase compassion in organizations. Our aim was to explore whether compassion could be increased among managers through improving their emotional skills. We implemented a quasi-randomized controlled trial with pre-test and post-test design of a new emotional skills cultivation training among managers, measuring the treatment group (N = 68), the control group (N = 90), and their followers (N = 85 and N = 72). Compared to the control group, the managers exhibited significantly increased sense of emotional skills, with some evidence for an improved sense of compassion. We also found that emotional skills mediated the impact of participating in the intervention group and compassion. Additionally, servant leadership behaviors in the intervention group improved following the intervention. These results demonstrate that instead of being something innate, compassion is a skill that can be increased through training emotional skills, with observable benefits for the organization.

The Compassion Process and Cognitive Appraisals

Research on compassion in organizations has grown over the last decade, however, there is still a need for empirical work on the topic before we truly understand compassion and the various factors that influence it in everyday organizational life (Atkins & Parker, 2012; Dutton, Workman & Hardin, 2014). An important question from this literature that still remains is what leads someone who witnesses another’s suffering to respond with compassionate action? This paper explores this question by investigating the occurrence of cognitive appraisals as moderators of the relationship between compassionate feelings and compassionate responses. Results from two experimental studies and one field study provide empirical support for the role of cognitive appraisals in the compassionate feeling compassionate responding relationship. Theoretical and practical implications of compassion in organizations are discussed, and areas for future research are identified.

The Experience of Working for Traumatic Stress Sufferers: Work as Therapy or Trigger?

While a return to work following trauma exposure can be therapeutic, this is not always so. As with many topics related to traumatic stress in organizations, several contingency factors complicate the effort to draw an overarching conclusion about whether returning to work is therapeutic. The goals of this paper are twofold. First, it presents important determinants of whether work is therapeutic or triggering for those with traumatic stress conditions. Second, the need for contingency approaches in the study of traumatic stress in organizations is illustrated. Three of the key determinants of whether a return to work is therapeutic or triggering for traumatic stress sufferers are (a) the type of traumatic event experienced, (b) the stress condition developed, and (c) the nature of the work setting. For instance, task-related traumas are more likely than natural disasters to make a return to work triggering. Additionally, while individuals with treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorders may exhibit very similar symptoms to those with acute stress disorders, acute stress disorders are more likely to respond favorably to a return to work. Finally, organizational compassion, managerial actions, and the presence or absence of culprits can affect how therapeutic an employee’s return to work posttrauma is.

“It is Those People”: Religious Scripts Organizing for Compassion

Drawing from an ethnographic and longitudinal qualitative case study in a faith-based institution, this paper analyzes how religious scripts encode and enact organizational compassion. The organizational script is often described as acquired through institutional orders, practice or observation. However, how religious behavior is triggered not only by cognitive schemata but also by emotions, values and personal experiences, are less described. In this article, a process of acknowledging the religious history, noticing pain and living ethical spirituality is identified as forming compassionate behavior. The experience of pain, suffering and inequality can be a pervasive aspect of organizational spiritual life and frame organizational activities to reproduces and replicate organizational religious scripts and moral engagement of reaching out to sick and marginalized.

Building organizational compassion among teams delivering end-of-life care in the intensive care unit: The 3 Wishes Project

Background: The 3 Wishes Project is a semistructured program that improves the quality of care for patients dying in the intensive care unit by eliciting and implementing wishes. This simple intervention honors the legacy of patients and eases family grief, forging human connections between family members and clinicians. Aim: To examine how the 3 Wishes Project enables collective patterns of compassion between patients, families, clinicians, and managerial leaders in the intensive care unit. Design: Using a qualitative descriptive approach, interviews and focus groups were used to collect data from family members of dying patients, clinicians, and institutional leaders. Unconstrained directed qualitative content analysis was performed using Organizational Compassion as the analytic framework. Setting/participants: Four North American intensive care units, participants were 74 family members of dying patients, 72 frontline clinicians, and 20 managerial leaders. Results: The policies and processes of the 3 Wishes Project exemplify organizational compassion by supporting individuals in the intensive care unit to collectively notice, feel, and respond to suffering. As an intervention that enables and empowers clinicians to engage in acts of kindness to enhance end-of-life care, the 3 Wishes Project is particularly well situated to encourage collective responses to suffering and promote compassion between patients, family members, and clinicians. Conclusions: Examining the 3 Wishes Project through the lens of organizational compassion reveals the potential of this program to cultivate the capacity for people to collectively notice, feel, and respond to suffering. Our data document multidirectional demonstrations of compassion between clinicians and family members, forging the type of human connections that may foster resilience.

The Degree of Practicing Resonant Leadership Among Kindergarten Female Principals in Gaza Governorates and Its Relation to Their Level of Organizational Virtuousness

This research aimed at identifying the degree of practicing resonant leadership among kindergarten female principals in Gaza governorates, and its relation to their level of organizational virtuousness, from the female kindergarten teachers point of view, by using the descriptive/ correlation approach and referring to previous literature review. A questionnaire was designed consisted of (58) items distributed on (8) axes: mindfulness, hope, compassion, organizational optimism, organizational trust, organizational compassion, organizational integrity and organizational forgiveness, and after verifying its validity and reliability, the questionnaire has been applied to a stratified random sample of (252) female kindergarten teachers. The research found that the degree of kindergarten female principals' practice of resonant leadership was intermediate, and that the level of organizational virtuousness is also intermediate, there was also revealed a positive correlation statistically significant at (α≥ 0.05) between the degree of practicing resonant leadership among kindergarten female principals in Gaza governorates and their level of organizational virtuousness.The research recommended the necessity of developing an integrated plan to spread the two cultures of resonant leadership and organizational virtuousness in kindergartens and organizing awareness meetings for kindergarten female principals to increase their knowledge of the two entrances to resonant leadership and organizational virtuousness and their impact on organizational development.

Does Organizational Compassion Matter? A Cross-sectional Survey of Nurses.

To examine factors that influence nurses' perceptions of organizational compassion and their engagement with the organization. Despite agreement about the importance of compassionate healthcare, it is difficult for employees to consistently act compassionately when organizational leaders, managers, and systems of care fail to support compassion as a value. The study used a cross-sectional design, and quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an online survey of nurses. Higher individual compassion and team compassion were associated with higher perceived organizational compassion, and higher organizational compassion was associated with greater engagement with the hospital. In contrast, high turnover rates and inadequate staffing were associated with lower perceived organizational compassion and lower engagement with one's organization. Adequate staffing, resource allocation, and practices that contribute to the sense that one is a supported member of a caring team focused on addressing patients' needs build the capacity for compassion within an organization.

Compassion capability in resource-limited organizations in South Africa

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.

Exploring the Potential of AI-Assisted Organizational Compassion

We explore the implications for enhancing organizational compassion capabilities by employing Artificial Intelligence (AI). To this end we develop a model for considering how AI might enable the fo...

Cultivating organizational compassion in healthcare

AbstractThe compassion of healthcare workers towards patients is widely recognized, but research suggests a dearth of compassion among co-workers. Indeed, workplace bullying and negative employee outcomes are over-represented in the healthcare sector (including burnout and substantial staff turnover). In this paper, we discuss the cultivation of compassion for healthcare workers, using the lens of positive organizational scholarship. Our concern is not only with the individual level compassion (i.e. between employees), we also consider how compassion can be cultivated systemically across healthcare institutions at the organizational level. More specifically, we present a proposed Noticing, Empathising, Assessing and Responding Mechanisms Model of Organizational Compassion as a tool for consciously cultivating workplace compassion in healthcare organizations.

Wide Awake Housekeepers on Duty: The Institutional Logic of Compassion in a Faith-based Organization

Wide Awake Housekeepers on Duty: The Institutional Logic of Compassion in a Faith-based Organization