Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Empathic Expressions: A Communication Perspective

Suwinyattichaiporn, Tara; Guerrero, Laura K.; Generous, Mark A.

doi:10.1080/10510974.2021.1899009

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 41 publications

(51 reference statements)

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“…Our results lay the foundation for quantitative studies to survey human resources and talent or organizational development departments about the empathic qualities of their trainers. For a review of possible empathetic communication, measurements to use in quantitative studies, see Suwinyattichaiporn (2016). Furthermore, we believe that this future research could also provide insight into the essential skills of business consultants generally.…”

Section: Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 90%

Empathy as an essential skill for talent development consultants

Helens‐Hart

Engstrom

2020

JWL

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Purpose This study aims to present empathy as an ideal characteristic of consultants for talent development (CTD). It provides a contextualized look at how empathy manifests in CTD practice and offers practical guidance for improving CTD empathy skills, and thus their performance in the corporate classroom. Design/methodology/approach In total, 34 interviews with talent development professionals were analyzed using a qualitative coding process. Findings Apart from functional and industry knowledge, a collection of soft skill themes emerged from the analysis, including active listening, perspective taking, audience adaptation and communication style. These themes coalesced around the construct of empathy and provided a framework with which to understand how empathy is expressed and leveraged in talent development consulting. Originality/value While business research has explored the importance of empathy in some workplaces, to the knowledge, this is the first study focusing on the empathy of CTDs. In addition, literature paints a fractured and anecdotal picture of soft skills for the ideal consultant. This research helps CTDs, those who hire them and business educators target essential skills for facilitating workplace learning.

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“…Third, the dyadic nature of empathic expression and reception, and the possible “sender-receiver gap” further limited and complicated the quantitative efforts to accurately measure empathic expression. Specifically for example, Suwinyattichaiporn (2017) developed the empathic expressions scales and rated empathic expression quantitatively based on group members’ self-report. While this was a meaningful preliminary attempt, researchers (e.g., Shao et al, 2018) critiqued that self-reported empathy (from the sender) did not accurately match the actual empathy (perceived by the receiver): That is, when Person A reported a high level of empathic understanding toward B, B didn’t necessarily report the same level of empathy received from A.…”

Section: Empathy and Group Outcomementioning

confidence: 99%

“I get you”: A qualitative study on group members’ empathic expression.

Jin

Fan

et al. 2022

Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice

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Objectives: This study investigated the content of group members' empathic expression, and how it changes as group develops. Method: Participants were 10 group leaders and 42 university student members from six unstructured, interpersonal process groups aimed at helping students with their academic problems and interpersonal functioning. Fifteen transcripts of actual group sessions were coded using consensual qualitative research method. Results: Data analyses identified four domains: Cognitions, Emotions, Similarity, and Group. Members expressed empathy mostly on cognitive level, and least on group-as-a-whole level. Moreover, sharing similarity was a unique way of group members' empathic expression, which was not documented in previous literature on group leaders' expression of empathy. The occurrence of "cognitions" and "similarity" domains showed significant association with group periods, suggesting the change of group focus from connection to deeper understanding in line with the group development. Discussion: The results provided a qualitative description of how group members expressed empathy and may inform group leaders what aspects to focus on at different periods of the group to facilitate the empathic exchanges among members. Highlights and Implications• Group members express their empathy mostly in four types: On the Cognition level, on the Emotion level, disclosing Similarity, and commenting on the Group process.• Members express empathy mostly on cognitive level, and least on group-as-a-whole level. Moreover, sharing similarity is a unique way of members' empathic expression.• Group members show empathy by disclosing Similarity primarily at the beginning of the group, and along with the progression of group there is an increasing expression of empathy on the cognitive level by the members.• The results would inform group leaders which areas to focus on at different periods of the group to facilitate the expression of empathy amongst group members and deepen empathy in group.

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Conceptualizing and Operationalizing Empathic Expressions: A Communication Perspective

Cited by 3 publications

References 41 publications

Empathy as an essential skill for talent development consultants

“I get you”: A qualitative study on group members’ empathic expression.

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