Awakening Compassion at Work by Monica Worline

Author:Monica Worline
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Published: 2017-11-19T05:00:00+00:00

ROLES AWAKEN COMPASSION COMPETENCE

In organizations, we act and interact according to roles, which are patterns of expected behavior that go along with particular positions.11 Roles are socially determined and recognized; they identify us within the organization because others can recognize our position. Roles provide a set of internalized expectations and scripts that others will also reinforce. Roles are different from the individuals assigned to them—we take them on, which is what we mean by the expression “wearing my work hat.” Anyone given a work role such as manager, teacher, physician, or file clerk learns to wear the hat, taking on a set of expectations that encompasses both how to be and how to act. For instance, a manager is expected to be firm and clear, while a teacher is expected to be warm and dedicated.

In relation to compassion competence, we focus on a distinction between role taking and role making.12 Both can contribute to compassion competence, but they do so in different ways. Role taking, as it sounds, refers to how we learn to take on roles. This involves how roles are described, formally designed, and communicated to newcomers. Training often conveys what a role entails to help people take it on faster or more effectively. Research validates the fact that people very quickly learn how to act and be in ways that are appropriate for social or work roles.13 We implicitly pick up what is within our zone of responsibility, and if we violate the expectations of a new role, people in the organization will correct us, so we become more and more likely to conform to the expectations that go along with it.

Roles can be powerful for awakening compassion when they are described with compassion at their core. For instance, when people become managers, they often receive managerial training. This training can emphasize care and responsibility for employees’ and customers’ well-being as part of what is expected for managers. When it does, managers—like Avi at TechCo—expand their zone of responsibilities to include compassion for employees. This kind of role design can be done for any type of work. For instance, compassion architects interested in increasing compassion competence in a large urban transportation system convened groups of bus drivers and involved them in discussions about how their role linked to the larger purpose of creating a safe and compassionate city. We have seen role descriptions and training for many types of work—from bus drivers to physicians to housekeepers—redesigned in just this way, with significant effects on awakening compassion competence.

Role making is distinct from role taking. People invent and sculpt new aspects of their roles in dynamic ways over time. People learn expectations by role taking and change those expectations by role making, in which role expectations are shifted in response to social interactions and social understandings. Jane’s research with Amy Wrzesniewski uses the term job crafting to show how people who occupy the same role can innovate what they do. People craft new or different tasks and incorporate them into their roles.

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