From commanding to compassionate: examining the changing face of leadership, communication and the post-pandemic workplace

The COVID-19 virus has united mankind in unprecedented ways. People have learnt to empathise with fellow beings beyond the confines of class and caste. Studies show that empathy is not sufficient; to be of real help, there must be a deep desire to alleviate the suffering of another, followed by concrete action towards that desire. This paper deliberates, empirically, that compassion is the way forward in the post pandemic workplace. Findings from the study suggest that employees are gauging the workplace in terms of its culture - they prefer the supportive over the competitive; compassionate over driven and organisations that value people over profits. Inferences drawn using the binomial proportion statistical framework indicate that compassion is emerging as a mandatory trait in all spheres of work. As people recover from personal and professional upheavals after the pandemic, they seek a leader who is respectful, kind and sensitive to their needs. That creates a new paradigm for leadership and communication at the workplace. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on compassion with the added lens of the pandemic.