Exploring the relationships between compassion at work, the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity, service employee creativity, and job performance

Abstract

Purpose This study examines whether compassion at work increases service employees' job performance. More specifically, the purpose of this study is to show the mechanism through which experienced compassion in an organization affects the job performance of service employees. Design/methodology/approach The employees from a department store in South Korea were surveyed using a self-administered instrument for data collection. Out of 550 questionnaires, a total of 309 usable questionnaires were obtained after list-wise deletion, for a 61.6 per cent response rate. Findings The results of this study suggest that the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity mediates the relationship between compassion at work and service employees' job performance. In addition, the findings of this study demonstrate that there is significant mediating effect of service employee creativity on the relationship between compassion at work and job performance. Furthermore, the relationship between compassion at work and job performance was sequentially mediated by the evaluative perspective of positive work-related identity and the creativity of service employees. Research limitations/implications The common method variance in the self-reported variables imposes a need for caution in the interpretation of the findings. Future studies could avoid the problem of common method bias by, for example, using supervisor ratings of creativity and job performance. On the other hand, this study will add to the growing body of research on service marketing by highlighting the role of compassion at work to enhance service employees' job performance. Practical implications This study offers new insight for practitioners (i.e. CEOs, top management teams, employees) by suggesting that they may promote service employees' job performance if they pay more attention to compassionate acts in service marketing. Originality/value As services are becoming more important and harder to sell simultaneously, this study provides a new perspective to improve service employees' job performance by examining its link with compassion at work.