Compassion in Organizations

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). The purpose of this dissertation is to review the current literature on compassion in organizations and extend research on compassion by exploring potential moderators of the relationship between compassionate feelings and compassionate responses from potential compassion givers. The moderators under investigation are in the form of individual (i.e., moral identity, moral disengagement), situational (i.e., cognitive appraisals) and organizational (i.e., ethical leadership, ethical climate) contextual variables. Findings from experimental and field studies are presented. Theoretical and practical implications of compassion in organizations are discussed, and areas for future research are identified