Photo of four stick men, one holding a big heart

Compassionate Leadership

Roffey Park 1st August 2016

If you search the phrase ‘compassion at work’ on the internet you will find numerous articles calling for more compassionate workplaces. It seems that although we know the value of compassion in our lives, we somehow manage to ignore it and find it difficult to be compassionate when we are at work.

Some people may say that there is no place for personal issues at work. Others may think they are too busy to be compassionate or there are more important things in organisations to focus on than compassion. Noticing these things encouraged me to start working on this study and examine some of the common questions and doubts about compassion at work.

Key questions that I address in this paper are:

  • What is compassion?
  • Why is compassion so scarce in organisational life?
  • What is compssionate leadership?
  • Is there a business case for compassion?

Compassionate Leadership
by Meysam Poorkavoos