Battling the barriers - a systems intelligent way of increasing compassion     — ASN Events
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Battling the barriers - a systems intelligent way of increasing compassion     (#297)

Miia Paakkanen 1 , Frank Martela 2 , Anne Birgitta Pessi 1
  1. University of Helsinki, Helsinki, HELSINKI, Finland
  2. Aalto University, Espoo

Background

Compassion at work has been linked to many positive impacts including improved well-being, leadership capability, cooperation, and commitment. Yet, studies on the barriers to compassion at work are few and they are mainly limited to healthcare.

Aims and method

This empirical paper explores the barriers to compassion by interviewing 14 groups of managers and employees (N = 81) from five different organizations from a variety of different fields which have been exposed to training in compassion one year before.

Results

We identify barriers in five dimensions: mindset, behavior, culture, system, and leadership. Importantly, we find that the barriers are often interrelated both within and across dimensions. The paper presents a conceptual model of the systemic sources and interrelations of the barriers to compassion in organizations.

Conclusion

Failing to recognize not only the multidimensional sources of the barriers but these systemic interrelations between them may present a major barrier to compassion on its own – a novel finding from this study. On the contrary, understanding them could make the battling of the barriers to compassion more systems intelligent. We discuss the theoretical contributions and practical implications for managers, and offer a blueprint for optimizing compassion on an individual, community, and leadership levels.

  1. Dutton JE, Workman KM and Hardin AE (2014) Compassion at work. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior 1(1): 277–304. doi:10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091221.
  2. Saarinen E and Hämäläinen RP 2004. Systems intelligence: Connecting engineering thinking with human sensitivity. In Systems intelligence: Discovering a hidden competence in human action and organizational life, Raimo P Hämäläinen and Esa Saarinen, eds., Helsinki University of Technology: 9-38.
  3. Vogus, T., McClelland, L., Lee, Y., McFadden, K. & Hu, X. (2021). Creating a compassion system to achieve efficiency and quality in health care delivery. Journal of Service Management, 32(4), 560-580.
  4. Baumeister, R., Bratslavsky, E., Finkenauer, C. & de Vohs, K. (2001) Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5(4), 323-370.
  5. Dev, V. Fernando, A. T., Kirby, J. N., & Consedine, N. S. (2019). Variation in the barriers to compassion across healthcare training and disciplines: A cross-sectional study of doctors, nurses, and medical students. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 90, 2019, 1-10.
  • Please select up to 3 keywords from the following list to best describe your submission content: Business and Organizations, Positive emotions, Systems
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