IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v50y2025i3p836-875.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Battling the barriers to compassion in organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Miia Paakkanen

    (University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland)

  • Frank Martela

    (Aalto University, Aalto, Finland)

  • Anne Birgitta Pessi

    (University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland)

Abstract

Compassion at work has been linked to many important work outcomes, including improved well-being, leadership capability, cooperation, and commitment. However, what prevents compassion at work has not been adequately studied, with only a few research studies on the barriers to compassion; those that exist are mainly limited to healthcare. This empirical article explores the barriers to compassion through interviews with 14 groups of managers and employees ( N  = 81) from five different organizations in a variety of fields. We identify barriers in five dimensions: mindset, behavior, culture, system, and leadership. Importantly, we have discovered that the barriers are often interrelated within and across dimensions, revealing their interdependence. Failing to recognize not only barriers as such but also their systemic interrelations may present a major barrier to the management of compassion at work. In fact, understanding the systemic nature of barriers can make the battle against barriers to compassion more effective and systems intelligent. We discuss the theoretical contributions as well as the practical implications of our findings for managers and offer a blueprint for optimizing compassion on an individual, community, and leadership levels. JEL Classification: O15 Human Resources/Human Development

Suggested Citation

  • Miia Paakkanen & Frank Martela & Anne Birgitta Pessi, 2025. "Battling the barriers to compassion in organizations," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 50(3), pages 836-875, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:50:y:2025:i:3:p:836-875
    DOI: 10.1177/03128962241286071
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/03128962241286071
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/03128962241286071?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:50:y:2025:i:3:p:836-875. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.