The effects of compassion experienced by SME employees on affective commitment: Double-mediation of authenticity and positive emotion

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to empirically examine the effects of compassion experienced by small-to-medium enterprise (SME) employees on affective commitment through authenticity and positive emotion. This study was conducted with 200 employees working at SMEs located in South Korea. The results show that the relationships between compassion and authenticity, between authenticity and positive emotion, between positive emotion and affective commitment, and between compassion and affective commitment were significant. In addition, the relationship between compassion and affective commitment was significantly double-mediated by authenticity and positive emotion. The results provide a meaningful implication that SME employees would build authenticity and positive emotions by experiencing compassion and that those who build authenticity and positive emotions would enhance their affective commitment. © 2020 by the authors.