Coaching With Compassion: Inspiring Health, Well-Being, and Development in Organizations
Abstract
Compassion involves noticing another’s need, empathizing, and acting to enhance their well-being. In response to another’s pain, the motivation is to increase hedonic well-being or the absence of pain. In response to another’s desire to grow, the motivation is to increase eudaimonic well-being or helping them develop. We argue that compassion includes both. Our expanded view suggests that coaching with compassion will lead to desired change, enhanced health, and well-being. We propose a model saying coaching with compassion invokes a psychophysiological state that enables a person to be open to new possibilities and learning. In contrast, coaching for compliance (i.e., toward how the coach or the organization believe the person should act) and deficiency-based coaching invoke the opposite state—resulting in a person being defensive, reducing cognitive functioning. We theorize how coaching with compassion can enhance adaptability of the organization through creating norms and relationships of caring and development.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
Ashby F. G., Isen A. M., Turken A. U. (1999). A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological Review, 106, 529-550.
Ashton-James C. E., Ashkanasy N. M. (2005). What lies beneath? A process analysis of affective events theory. In Ashkanasy N. M., Zerbe W. J., Härtel C. E. J. (Eds.), Research on emotion in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 23-46). Oxford, England: Elsevier.
Barsade S. G. (2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 644-675.
Barsade S. G., Gibson D. E. (2007). Why does affect matter in organizations? Academy of Management Perspectives, 21, 36-59.
Batson C. D., Early S., Salvarani G. (1997). Perspective taking: Imagining how another feels versus imaging how you would feel. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 751-758.
Batson C. D., Shaw L. L. (1991). Evidence for altruism: Toward a pluralism of prosocial motives. Psychological Inquiry, 2, 107-122.
Baumeister R. F., Bratslavsky E., Finkenauer C., Vohs K. D. (2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323-370.
Bower G. H., Forgas J. P. (2001). Mood and social memory. In Forgas J. P. (Ed.), Handbook of affect and social cognition (pp. 95-120). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bowlby J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1: Attachment. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Boyatzis R. E. (2008). Leadership development from a complexity perspective. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 60, 298-313.
Boyatzis R. E., Akrivou K. (2006). The ideal self as the driver of intentional change. Journal of Management Development, 25, 624-642.
Boyatzis R. E., Jack A., Cesaro R., Khawaja M., Passarelli A. (2010, August). Coaching with compassion: An fMRI study of coaching to the positive or negative emotional attractor. Presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Boyatzis R. E., Smith M. L., Blaize N. (2006). Developing sustainable leaders through coaching and compassion. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 5, 8-24.
Brockner J., Higgins E. T. (2001). Regulatory focus theory: Implications for the study of emotions at work. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 35-66.
Brotman L. E., Liberi W. P., Wasylyshyn K. M. (1998). Executive coaching: The need for standards of competence. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 50, 40-46.
Buber M. (1971). I and thou. New York, NY: Touchstone.
Buckner R. L., Andrews-Hanna J. R., Schacter D. L. (2008). The brain’s default network: Anatomy, function, and relevance to disease. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1124, 1-38.
Cacioppo J. T., Fowler J. H., Christakis N. A. (2009). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 977-991.
Cattaneo L., Rizzolatti G. (2009). The mirror neuron system. Archives of Neurology, 66, 557-560.
Coseru C. (2011). Mind in Indian Buddhist philosophy (Zalta E. N., Ed.). Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Stanford, CA: Stanford University.
Curry L. A., Snyder C. R., Cook D. L., Ruby B. C., Rehm M. (1997). Role of hope in academic and sport achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 1257-1267.
DeQuattro V., Feng M. (2002). The sympathetic nervous system: The muse of primary hypertension. Journal of Human Hypertension, 16(Suppl 1), S64-S69.
Dickerson S. S., Kemeny M. E. (2004). Acute stressors and cortisol responses: A theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research. Psychological Bulletin, 130, 355-391.
Dirks K. T., Ferrin D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 611-628.
Dutton J. E., Heaphy E. D. (2003). The power of high-quality connections. In Cameron K. S., Dutton J. E., Quinn R. E. (Eds.), Positive organizational scholarship: Foundations of a new discipline (pp. 263-278). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Dutton J. E., Worline M. C., Frost P. J., Lilius J. M. (2006). Explaining compassion organizing. Administrative Science Quarterly, 51, 59-96.
Eisenberger R., Huntington R., Hutchison S., Sowa D. (1986). Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 500-507.
Érdi P. (2008). Complexity explained. Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Eriksson P. S., Perfilieva E., Bjork-Eriksson T., Alborn A-M., Nordborg C., Peterson D. A., Gage F. H. (1998). Neurogenesis in the adult human hippocampus. Nature Medicine, 4, 1313-1317.
Estrada C. A., Isen A. M., Young M. J. (1994). Positive affect improves creative problem solving and influences reported source of practice satisfaction in physicians. Motivation and Emotion, 18, 285-299.
Feldman D. C., Lankau M. J. (2005). Executive coaching: A review and agenda for future research. Journal of Management, 31, 829-848.
Folkman S., Moskowitz J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55, 647-654.
Fowler J. H., Christakis N. A. (2008). Dynamic spread of happiness in a large social network: Longitudinal analysis over 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study. British Medical Journal, 337, a2338.
Fowler J. H., Christakis N. A. (2010). Cooperative behavior cascades in human social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 5334-5338.
Fredrickson B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions? Review of General Psychology, 2, 300-319.
Fredrickson B. L. (2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology. American Psychologist, 56, 218-226.
Fredrickson B. L., Branigan C. (2003). Positive emotions broaden the scope of attention and thought-action repertoires. Cognition & Emotion, 19, 313-332.
Fredrickson B. L., Joiner T. (2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13, 172-175.
Frost P. J., Dutton J. E., Worline M. C., Wilson A. (2000). Narratives of compassion in organizations. In Fineman S. (Ed.), Emotion in organizations (2nd ed., pp. 25-45). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Goetz J. L., Keltner D., Simon-Thomas E. (2010). Compassion: An evolutionary analysis and empirical review. Psychological Bulletin, 136, 351-374.
Gottman J. M., Murray J. D., Swanson C., Tyson R., Swanson K. R. (2002). The mathematics of marriage: Dynamic nonlinear models. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Graen G. B., Uhl-Bien M. (1995). Relationship-based approach to leadership: Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. Leadership Quarterly, 6, 219-247.
de Haan E., Culpin V., Curd J. (2011). Executive coaching in practice: What determines helpfulness for clients of coaching? Personnel Review, 40, 24-44.
Haidt J., Rozin P., Mccauley C., Imada S. (1997). Body, psyche, and culture: The relationship between disgust and morality. Psychology and Developing Societies, 9, 107-131.
Hatfield E., Cacioppo J. T., Rapson R. L. (1993). Emotional contagion. Studies in emotion and social interaction. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Heaphy E. D., Dutton J. E. (2008). Positive social interactions and the human body at work: Linking organizations and physiology. Academy of Management Review, 33, 137-162.
Higgins E. T. (1987). Self-discrepancy: A theory relating self and affect. Psychological Review, 94, 319-340.
Higgins E. T., Roney C. J. R., Crowe E., Hymes C. (1994). Ideal versus ought predilections for approach and avoidance distinct self-regulatory systems. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 276-286.
Hofstede G. (1991). Culture and organizations: Software of the mind. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Iacoboni M. (2009). Imitation, empathy, and mirror neurons. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 653-670.
Insel T. R. (1997). A neurobiological basis of social attachment. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 726-735.
Isen A. M., Daubman K. A., Nowicki G. P. (1987). Positive affect facilitates creative problem solving. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1122-1131.
Janig W., Habler H-J. (1999). Organization of the autonomic nervous system: Structure and function. In Appenzeller O. (Ed.), The autonomic nervous system, Part I: Normal functions, Handbook of clinical neurology (Vol. 74, pp. 1-52). New York, NY: Elsevier.
Kampa-Kokesch S., Anderson M. Z. (2001). Executive coaching: A comprehensive review of the literature. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 53, 205-228.
Kanov J. M., Maitlis S., Worline M. C., Dutton J. E., Frost P. J., Lilius J. M. (2004). Compassion in organizational life. American Behavioral Scientist, 47, 808-827.
Khawaja M. S. (2011). The mediating role of positive and negative emotional attractors between psychosocial correlates of doctor-patient relationship and treatment adherence in type 2 diabetes (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH.
Koestner R., Franz C., Weinberger J. (1990). The family origins of empathic concern: A 26-year longitudinal study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 709-717.
LeDoux J. E. (2002). Synaptic self: How our brains become who we are. New York, NY: Viking.
Levenson R. W., Ruef A. M. (1992). Empathy: A physiological substrate. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 234-246.
Liao H., Rupp D. E. (2005). The impact of justice climate and justice orientation on work outcomes: A cross-level multifoci framework. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 242-256.
Lilius J. M., Worline M. C., Maitlis S., Kanov J. M., Dutton J. E., Frost P. J. (2008). The contours and consequences of compassion at work. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 193-218.
Losada M., Heaphy E. D. (2004). The role of positivity and connectivity in the performance of business teams: A nonlinear dynamics model. American Behavioral Scientist, 47, 740-765.
McEwen B. S. (1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England Journal of Medicine, 338, 171-179.
Nickerson C. (2006). Theory/analysis mismatch: Comment on Fredrickson and Joiner’s (2002) test of the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. Journal of Happiness Studies, 8, 537-561.
Olson C. (2009). Historical dictionary of Buddhism (New Ed.). Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
Organ D. W., Ryan K. (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 48, 775-802.
Parker P., Hall D. T., Kram K. E. (2008). Peer coaching: A relational process for accelerating career learning. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7, 487-503.
Porges S. W. (2001). The polyvagal theory: Phylogenetic substrates of a social nervous system. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 42, 123-146.
Roberts L. M., Dutton J. E., Spreitzer G. M., Heaphy E. D., Quinn R. E. (2005). Composing the reflected best-self portrait: Building pathways for becoming extraordinary in work organizations. Academy of Management Review, 30, 712-736.
Roffe L., Schmidt K., Ernst E. (2005). A systematic review of guided imagery as an adjuvant cancer therapy. Psycho-Oncology, 14, 607-617.
Russell J. A., Carroll J. M. (1999). On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 3-30.
Ryan R. M., Deci E. L. (2001). On happiness and human potentials: A review of research on hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 141-166.
Sapolsky R. M. (2004). Why zebras don’t get ulcers (3rd ed.). New York, NY: Henry Holt.
Schulkin J. (1999). The neuroendocrine regulation of behavior. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
Segers J., Vloeberghs D., Henderickx E., Inceoglu I. (2011). Structuring and understanding the coaching industry: The Coaching Cube. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 10, 204-221.
Shaver P., Schwartz J., Kirson D., O’Connor C. (1987). Emotion knowledge: Further exploration of a prototype approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 1061-1086.
Smith M. L., Van Oosten E. B., Boyatzis R. E. (2009). Coaching for sustained desired change. In Woodman R. W., Pasmore W. A., Shani A. B. (Eds.), Research in organizational change and development (Vol. 17, pp. 145-173). Bingley, England: Emerald Group.
Snyder C. R., Rand K. L., Sigmon D. R. (2002). Hope theory: A member of the positive psychology family. In Snyder C. R., Lopez S. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 257-276). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Sue-Chan C., Wood R. E., Latham G. P. (2012). Effect of a coach’s regulatory focus and an individual’s implicit person theory on individual performance. Journal of Management, 38, 809-835.
Talarico J. M., Berntsen D., Rubin D. C. (2009). Positive emotions enhance recall of peripheral details. Cognition & Emotion, 23, 380-398.
Weiss H. M., Beal D. J. (2005). Reflections on affective events theory. In Ashkanasy N. M., Zerbe W. J., Härtel C. E. J. (Eds.), Research on emotion in organizations (Vol. 1, pp. 1-21). Oxford, England: Elsevier.
Weiss H. M., Cropanzano R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in Organization Behavior, 18, 1-74.
Biographies
Richard E. Boyatzis is Distinguished University Professor, professor in Departments of Organizational Behavior, Psychology, and Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University, Adjunct Professor at ESADE. Having authored more than 150 articles, his books include The Competent Manager, and two international best-sellers: Primal Leadership with Daniel Goleman & Annie McKee; and Resonant Leadership, with McKee. His current research is focused on neurological studies of coaching.
Melvin L. Smith is an Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior and Faculty Director of Executive Education at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management. He received his PhD in Organizational Behavior from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include the development and use of human and social capital, social exchange relationships in organizations, and workplace well-being.
‘Alim J. Beveridge is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University. Broadly speaking, he is interested in altruism and benevolence, at the individual and organizational levels. His research focuses on distinguishing different levels of commitment to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability and understanding the diffusion of social innovations and sustainability practices. He obtained his Master’s degree in Education and Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, both from Stanford University.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published online: November 1, 2012
Issue published: June 2013
Keywords
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science.
View All Journal MetricsArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 9442
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 64 view articles Opens in new tab
Crossref: 70
- A model of managerial coach learning and development
- The Leadership Spectrum
- Environmental Leadership in a VUCA Era
- Through the Narrows: The Meaning and Enactment of Interpersonal Holding
- Unveiling the nature of peer development groups: A systematic review, conceptual framework, and research pathways
- Professional Development Experiences Aligned to the Ideal Self: A Positive Psychology Perspective on Individual Development
- Compassion, secure flourishing, and organizational commitment of managers
- Managerial coaching and subordinates’ psychological distress: a cross-level moderated mediation study
- The Future of Knowledge Management
- Enabling the Phronetically Enacted Self: A Path toward Spiritual Knowledge Management
- View More
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
I am signed in as:
View my profileSign out
I can access personal subscriptions, purchases, paired institutional access and free tools such as favourite journals, email alerts and saved searches.
loading institutional access options
NTL members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
NTL members can access this journal content using society membership credentials.
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
