Battling the barriers to compassion in organizations

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.