An Organizational Compassion Model Based on Employee Behavior in Service-Oriented Organizations: A Mixed-Methods Approach
Keywords:
Organizational compassion, Employee behavior, Service-oriented organizationsAbstract
The aim of this study is to propose an organizational compassion model based on employee behavior in service-oriented organizations. The qualitative phase involved 19 participants, including university-based experts and managers from service-oriented organizations in Mazandaran Province, all possessing relevant publications and over 15 years of experience. Participants were selected through purposive sampling, and theoretical saturation was achieved after 17 interviews. In the quantitative phase, the first stage employed a fuzzy Delphi technique to screen dimensions, components, and indicators of the study and determine their importance, involving 16 informed experts. In the second stage, 384 questionnaires were distributed among managers and employees of service-oriented organizations in Mazandaran Province. Given the limited population, cluster random sampling was applied, and the Krejcie and Morgan (1970) table was used to determine the sample size. In the third quantitative phase, 15 informed experts with relevant publications and over 15 years of experience in employee behavior within service-oriented organizations were selected for prioritizing the indicators. Qualitative data analysis was conducted using MAXQDA software. To address the research questions, the fuzzy Delphi screening, confirmatory factor analysis, and prioritization of indicators using the best-worst method were performed with SPSS, SmartPLS, and LINGO software. From the analysis of 19 interviews, a total of 378 initial codes were extracted. Following the interview text analysis, 55 selective codes and 12 sub-themes were identified. In the final stage, through the examination of organizing themes, six main themes or overarching themes were derived: (1) Organizational Humanistic Perception and Sensitivity; (2) Compassionate Management Response; (3) Organizational Action and Intervention; (4) Culture and Institutionalization of Compassion; (5) Collective Compassion and Interpersonal Relationships; (6) Behavioral and Psychological Outcomes. Based on the fuzzy Delphi results, all dimensions of the organizational compassion model were deemed to have the expected level of importance and were accepted by the research experts. In the subsequent phase, path analysis revealed that the path coefficients between all variables exceeded 1.96, indicating that all relationships were statistically significant. The prioritization of the organizational compassion model indicators based on employee behavior in service-oriented organizations revealed the following rankings: (1) Organizational Humanistic Perception and Sensitivity; (2) Compassionate Management Response; (3) Culture and Institutionalization of Compassion; (4) Collective Compassion and Interpersonal Relationships; (5) Organizational Action and Intervention; (6) Behavioral and Psychological Outcomes.
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