Communicating compassion in organizations: a conceptual review

Type of content
Journal Article
Thesis discipline
Degree name
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Language
Date
2023
Authors
McAllum, Kirstie
Fox S
Ford JL
Roeder AC
Abstract

This article explores the theoretical terrain surrounding compassion in organizational settings to clarify how conceptually (dis)similar concepts like social support, team care, and organizational compassion manifest different agentic perspectives on compassion. Toward this end, we articulate a working definition of compassion and suggest that a communicative frame focused on intersubjective sense-making and interpretation can deepen our understanding of who is responsible for care and compassion within organizations. Existing research on this subject considers who or what provides compassion—individuals, teams, policies—and how compassion can assuage suffering and promote individual and organizational flourishing. Extending this work, we document core dimensions of each form of compassion for greater conceptual clarity and precision, proposing a metaphor for each. Finally, we reflect on the implications of each type of compassion for resilience and the ways current notions of compassion typify the rationality/emotionality duality and gendered nature of emotion work in organizations.

Description
Citation
McAllum K, Fox S, Ford JL, Roeder AC (2023). Communicating compassion in organizations: a conceptual review. Frontiers in Communication. 8.
Keywords
compassion, organizational compassion, social support, team care, resilience, rationality, emotion work, gender and compassion
Ngā upoko tukutuku/Māori subject headings
ANZSRC fields of research
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3505 - Human resources and industrial relations::350503 - Human resources management
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3505 - Human resources and industrial relations::350507 - Workplace wellbeing and quality of working life
35 - Commerce, management, tourism and services::3507 - Strategy, management and organisational behaviour::350702 - Corporate social responsibility
Rights
© 2023 McAllum, Fox, Ford and Roeder. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.