The DOI matches its Crossref record; 68 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Compassion in Organizational Life
Abstract
In this article, the authors explore compassion in work organizations. They discuss the prevalence and costs of pain in organizational life, and identify compassion as an important process that can occur in response to suffering. At the individual level, compassion takes place through three subprocesses: noticing another’s pain, experiencing an emotional reaction to the pain, and acting in response to the pain. The authors build on this framework to argue that organizational compassion exists when members of a system collectively notice, feel, and respond to pain experienced by members of that system. These processes become collective as features of an organization’s context legitimate them within the organization, propagate them among organizational members, and coordinate them across individuals.
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“Even though the year 1999 was selected as the base year for identifying studies based on the theme of compassionate leadership, most of the studies emerge from 2002 with several important contributions from (Frost et al. 2004; Kanov et al. 2004; Lilius et al. 2003) in the form of commentary and discussions.”
From Whither compassionate leadership? A systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as Kanov et al. 2004
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Metadata
- Authors
- Kanov, J. M., Maitlis, S., Worline, M. C., Dutton, J. E., Frost, P. J., & Lilius, J. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Venue
- American Behavioral Scientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-02
- Volume
- 47
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 808-827
- ISSN
- 0002-7642 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3381
- OpenAlex
- W2070452521
- Cited by
- 671
- References
- 72
- Citations by year
- 2026: 45 · 2025: 50 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 46 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 53 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 36 · 2015: 28 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 12.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Behavioral Scientist (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Cisco Systems
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Appreciative Inquiry and Organizational Change
- Keywords
- compassion, organizational compassion, work-related suffering, emotional response to pain, compassionate action, organizational legitimacy, organizational context
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