Kindness among colleagues; identifying and exploring the gaps in employment contexts

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to model and explore kindness as a factor in employment contexts. “Kindness among colleagues” is a particular context for the scientific study of kindness which has been under-researched. There is scope within the burgeoning study of kindness for research concerned with employment contexts and colleagues, adopting an employment context appropriate construct of kindness, generating and considering evidence that might be evaluated rigorously in the employment context where kindness is both advocated and critiqued. Design/methodology/approach The literature review identifies and explores the gaps in kindness research in the employment context. A construct distinguishing a set of antecedents of kindness among colleagues was developed to address these gaps. The relevance and usefulness of the construct was tested in semi-structured interviews among some work colleagues in a specific organization setting. Findings The results show that the four antecedents of kindness can be used to capture and explore perceptions and experiences of kindness among colleagues. There is scope for analysis at the levels of individuals, teams and organizations using data about these antecedents which allows for individual and more general workplace dynamics to be described and explored. Research limitations/implications The antecedents of kindness construct are validated to an extent by this initial study. The potential of this for describing and analyzing kindness and workplace relevant themes makes it worth further development; to refine and validate an instrument for measuring kindness among colleagues. Practical implications Kindness among colleagues, if understood in the nuanced way presented here, can help individuals, teams and organizations review and evaluate themselves in diverse contexts. Contexts can be expected to vary with workforce demographics, leadership style and organization cultures. Social implications Kindness is a burgeoning theme and concern across diverse social and cultural contexts for various reasons. The scientific contribution to the advocacy or critique of kindness, in this case kindness among colleagues, provides value in rigor, operationalization and evidencing of the case for and against advocacy of the value of kindness in general. Originality/value This is a focused review and study of kindness among colleagues which contributes to the nomological and methodological development of a scientific approach to organizational analysis concerns with this important theme in contemporary times.

Cultivating Compassion and Reducing Stress and Mental Ill-Health in Employees—A Randomized Controlled Study

“…Compassion in the workplace may act as an emotionally uplifting mechanism, because it can transform and regulate difficult emotions and instead motivate employees toward finding joy in feeling connected to others. Indeed, compassion in the workplace alters the "felt connection" between people, and is associated with such positive attitudes and behaviors as justice, responsibility, and kindness (Lilius et al, 2008;Gibb and Rahman, 2018). In addition, individuals' capacity can increase through embracing adverse events with courage, engagement, wisdom and emotional warmth, instead of with catastrophic thinking, judgment or self-loathing (Tsoukas and Knudsen, 2005).…”

The Prosocial-Culture-Work Nexus: An Integrative Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

“…The two other types of research in organization culture possible are defined here as the etic type of study and the emic type of study [ 23 ]. Etic approaches to organization culture research are analyst-centered, adopting operationalizations of constructs which are deemed to be relevant and valid, and are thought to be generalizable, regardless of the context of a study’s participant population, work sector, or place and nation [ 24 ]. Here, the aim is to capture culture member’s ideas and sentiments, the experience of what organization members tend to think and feel when accounting for ‘how things are done around here’.…”

Untying the Text: Organizational Prosociality and Kindness

“…Despite the scarcity of research into kindness in organizational settings, within the literature that exists, the concept of kindness lacks clarity, and it is often left undefined [76] or used interchangeably with other terms that fit under its umbrella, such as compassion [79], benevolence [80], altruism [81], and prosociality [51,82]. For example, Allen [83] offered a definition that seems to align with Malti's [68] definition reviewed earlier: kindness involves being, doing, and feeling, and also has a motivational factor.…”

“…Coller [76] (p. 16), however, provided a narrower definition that is confined to behaviors, and excludes the multitude of dispositions and tendencies that fall under its remit: "acts by individuals that are relational (i.e., actions to promote change in others) and discretionary (i.e., recognition that others are in need) in nature". Gibb and Rahman's [79] (p. 584) focused in their analysis on four dimensions associated with kindness: "kindness associated with an ethics of care; kindness as an interpersonal trait within agreeableness; kindness as reflecting the expectation of reciprocal gain; and kindness as a concomitant of communitarian relations". Similarly, in a leadership context, Baker and O'Malley [85] explored the concept of kindness in an attempt to explain what "leading with kindness" means.…”