Seeing Organizations Differently : Three Lenses on Compassion

One of the unspoken realities of life in organizations is that people suffer. Someone who has just been told that she has breast cancer confronts a jolt to her confidence and her sense of mortality that play out at work as well as in other spheres of her life. Someone who is dealing with dashed hopes of promotion or is feeling marginalized at work may experience sadness and deflation. Someone who is dealing with the breakdown of a personal relationship, or is struggling with difficult financial issues, or is working overtime to care for an ageing parent may feel a loss of control and a growing sense of hopelessness that affects his work, despite the expectation in many organizations that such emotions be checked at the door.

People with this burdens carry them wherever they go, regardless of expectations that suffering should not affect work? While organizational rules and policies can sometimes lessen or alleviate pain, compassion can help to make a heavy burden of suffering more bearable. This chapter is founded on the assumption that compassion is a healing force that is indispensable in organizations.

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