Compassion and Corporate America
Michael Perdew
Compassion, a Necessary Skill in Corporate America
Webster's Dictionary -
Compassion is an awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering.
Many people view compassion as a weakness and claim that it has no place in Corporate America; this way of thinking is prehistoric. Companies that do not understand the importance of compassion towards its employees will become history like the dinosaur.
According to a survey conducted in 1996 by Cornell's Johnson Graduate School of Management, executive's from fortune 1,000 company's say, "Compassion will be one of the most important characteristics business leaders will need for success a decade from now." The majority (58 percent) of the executives strongly agreed that corporations have a responsibility to address social issues such as work and family, diversity, equal rights and the environment.
Corporate America is beginning to show compassion towards employees showing signs of burnout and stress by offering employee training in stress management and support for mental stability in order to prevent situations that might lead to unethical business practices, or worse. In 2006, MSNBC reported that a postal worker that had been placed on medical leave for psychological problems shot five people to death and then killed herself at a mail-processing center in Goleta, California (MSNBC 2006). A similar case happened in 1986 when a fired postal employee returned to the post office and killed 14 people before turning the gun on himself. Workplace violence is not just a postal service concern; cases like these have become more relevant in the work place due to stress, longer workdays and "Bull Dog" management ...