Compassion catalysts: Unveiling proactive pathways to job performance

Abstract

This study aims to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship between the experiences of compassion and job performance. Specifically, we test if positive emotion and job crafting could help explain the experience of the compassion-job performance link. Using a sample of 312 employees in large-sized domestic companies located in South Korea, we found that the experience of compassion was positively related to job performance. In addition, we adopted the motivational approach to demonstrate that the positive relationship between the experience of compassion and job performance was sequentially mediated by positive emotion and job crafting. Our study advances the literature on workplace compassion by introducing job crafting as a novel driver in explaining the positive effects of compassion and contributes novel insights into the mechanisms underlying the relationship between compassion and job performance. Our findings also suggest that to enhance employees' job performance and facilitate employees' proactive behaviors (i.e., job crafting), organizations must foster a compassionate work environment by placing high importance on compassion.