PANEL SYMPOSIUM
Organization, Purpose, And Values:
Compassionate Care for Reinventing Organizations
Chair:
Sunita Singh Sengupta, Ph.D., Professor of Organizational Leadership, Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, India
Sponsors:
1. Management, Spirituality, and Religion
2. Organizational Behaviour
3. Management Education and Development
PANEL SYMPOSIUM
The modern organization is deeply fragmented, where an invisible wall demarcates people based on gender, caste, creed, and region (Singh Sengupta & Guangpuanang Kahmei (2023). For decades, research has been persistent on the significance of ethics for an organization's success (Lee et al., 2022).
Barnard (1938) focused on the complexities of the human element in the organization, on the psychological forces of human behavior, and on developing ways to manage the complexities of human behavior and to cope with its limitations (Gabor, 2000).
In 1982 Kenneth E. Goodpaster and John B. Matthews, Jr. wrote an article 'Can a corporation have conscience?' Quoting from the article, the authors write "...-a discrepancy between our personal lives and our lives in organizational settings -might be dampened. The principle of moral projection not only helps us to conceptualize the kinds of demands that we might make of corporations and other organizations but also offers the prospect of harmonizing those demands with the demands that we make of ourselves".
In 2001, Gustavsson claimed that there must be an understanding of consciousness in order to comprehend organizations. A year later, Hoogerwerf and Poorthuis (2002), wrote about the metaphorical organizational mind – the "orgmind" – suggesting it holds the consciousness of the organization, and they also put forward the idea that there is a trajectory toward ever-higher orders of consciousness as the organization develops. In 2001, Peter Pruzan asks 'The Question of Organizational Consciousness: Can Organizations Have Values, Virtues and Visions?' The author cites multiple reflections and argues and questions, Under what circumstances is it reasonable to ascribe to an organization the competency to develop shared values, virtues and visions – to develop corporate "consciousness"? The human consciousness is hard to comprehend but is growing and making progress within the human system, through the ages impacting human conduct, and institutional systems that govern human activities (Singh Sengupta & Guangpuanang Kahmei, 2022).
In the article "Why Compassion Counts!" Peter J. Frost (1999) demonstrates the urgency of compassion at the workplace by knitting together the two tensions: efficiency and compassion using the anecdote of a young nurse and the patient at the cancer ward. He writes, "the hurt of individual and the organization were better off as a result of the compassionate acts...the act of compassion appeared to help the patient heal. witnessing the act of compassion had an emotional effect on me. I too was lifted, my spirits raised by seeing and then becoming part of this act and the process" (1999, p. 128).
Another profound illustration is provided by Frederic Laloux (2014) in his book "Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness." In this book, Laloux demonstrates how compassion influences the culture of Buutzorg and touches lives miracle. Founder Jos De Block says the "Buutzorg" business model is a 'New Model of Delivery' that call the members to care 'humanity above bureaucracy.' The success of Buutzorg is unprecedented.
These above illustrations have shown to us the power of human touch that surprises everyone. Rynes et. al., (2012) suggest that Care and Compassion emerge in unlikely places and are often not found where most expected.
This symposium is about the energies of compassion and its implications that affect an organizational life's daily routine. Compassion operates at two levels- divine compassion, and human compassion. Divine compassion is characterized by justice, mercy, and unconditional love whereas, human compassion can be articulated into five functional aspects of human community- solidarity, acceptance, power, companionship, and engagement.
The purpose of this panel symposium is to engage a group of panelists in formal, moderated, interactive discussions on (1) Compassionate communication and relational practice at the workplace, (2) Self-respect and dignity at the workplace, (3) Aesthetics in management, (4) Organizational consciousness and compassionate care (5) Divine compassion for human compassion – the spirit of service with love.