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The study aims to examine whether management education can successfully cultivate the competency of empathy that is needed in future corporate leaders to promote sustainability initiatives catering to diverse stakeholders.

The research highlights the impact of management education on cognitive and affective empathy by analysing the interpersonal reflectivity scores of entering students enrolled in a two-year, full-time MBA programme and the scores of the same students at graduation.

The findings show that management education has a positive impact on cognitive empathy, while it reduces affective empathy and general empathy. Further, findings show that the management curriculum brings cognitive and affective empathy to an equilibrium level that is needed for a competitive business environment.

The research focussed only on the change in empathy of the participants (students) during management education and not during actual corporate work.

The research infers that current management education creates future executives with higher cognitive empathy. It argues that they would care more about the sustainability of the business in terms of profit or access to capital rather than care and concern for all the stakeholders, society and the environment. A new paradigm in management education also needs to be focussed around inculcating how to empathise affectively.

The study presents an empirical analysis suggesting that management education is opening the mind but not the heart. It raises a significant concern that higher management curriculum is not developing future executives who can lead the sustainability initiatives.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of salesperson empathy, both cognitive and affective, on business-to-business buyer-salesperson relational outcomes. Specifically, the direct impact of empathy is examined in relation to both the salesperson’s communication ability and customer-oriented behavior. The impact of empathy is then examined as a direct and indirect influencer of satisfaction with the salesperson and commitment to the salesperson.

To attain the objective of this research, an empirical study was conducted using 248 business-to-business purchasing agents.

The study found that cognitive empathy and affective empathy had a positive relationship with customer-oriented behaviors, information communication ability and commitment to the salesperson. However, only cognitive empathy was found to have a positive relationship with customer’s satisfaction with the salesperson.

Although empathy has found to have a positive effect on sales, sales research has yet to provide conclusive evidence on whether cognitive empathy and affective empathy would have a similar effect on a salesperson-customer relationship. This study provides evidence that not all facets of empathy influence relational outcomes the same way and differ in magnitude. This provides strong support for the importance of studying the impact of empathy from a faceted viewpoint rather than a uni-dimensional perspective when examining the influence on buyer-seller relational outcomes.

Over the past two decades significant attention has been given to the topic of historical empathy, yet the manner in which historical empathy is currently defined, operationalized, and put into classroom practice lacks consistency and often is based on dated conceptualizations of the construct. Scholars have employed a variety of theoretical and practical approaches to utilizing historical empathy with students, leading to persistent confusion about the nature, purpose and fostering of historical empathy. Our goal is to present an updated conceptualization that clearly defines historical empathy as a dual-dimensional, cognitive-affective construct and differentiates historical empathy from exclusively cognitive or affective modes of historical inquiry. We further provide an updated instructional model for the promotion of historical empathy that includes consideration for historical empathy’s proximate and ultimate goals. We aim to highlight where research has produced some consensus on best practice for promoting empathy and where further study is needed.

This paper aims to explore the determinants of maternal and infant health knowledge (M&IHK) adoption and sharing in the short video from an empathy theory perspective. We explore how to transfer users from free health knowledge to health-related product purchase intention, which is vital for platform knowledge management and service.

Focusing on the M&IHK, this study proposes four processes of health knowledge adoption and sharing – knowledge quality persuasion process; source credibility persuasion process; affective empathy emotion process; and cognitive empathy emotion process – to build a framework of M&IHK adoption and sharing. Furthermore, based on adoption and sharing, we explore whether they can promote health-related product purchase intentions. A theoretical model is constructed and tested via Smart PLS in 388 samples.

In a short video context, perceived knowledge quality and perceived source credibility are still two determinants of health knowledge adoption and sharing. On the contrary, perceived affective empathy and perceived cognitive empathy are two new determinants of health knowledge adoption, but not of health knowledge sharing. Adoption of M&IHK is more driven by both rational thinking and emotional thinking than sharing-only driven by emotional thinking. Adoption and sharing both contribute to health-related product purchase intention, but the female’s intention is more related to rational adoption than the male, which is only related to emotional sharing.

This paper is arguably the first study to examine how short videos impact the mechanisms of M&IHK adoption, sharing and health-related products' purchase intention. It’s perhaps the first study to integrate empathy theory into health knowledge management.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of social media use on both empathy and well-being through using a five-factor model (FFM) of personality in the context of Saudi Arabia.

Data were collected from the 13 regions in Saudi Arabia. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to measure the reliability and validity of the study’s constructs and a structural equation modeling technique was applied to test the study hypotheses.

With a sample of 450 users, the regression results indicate a less significant relationship between personality and social media use, as well as between personality and affective empathy, while a more significant relationship between personality and cognitive empathy. Also, individuals’ well-being are influenced directly by the heavy use of social media.

The cross-sectional design used in this research may not be able to provide the true essence of the hypothesized relationships compared to the cause-effect design. This study furthers the understanding of the role of personality on empathy and well-being in social media among Saudis from one side and provides insights to professionals for better improvement of social media and so better individuals’ well-being from the other side.

This paper fills an untapped gap in a developing country context by exploring the relationship between the usage of social media and the two dimensions of empathy, which, in turn, influence well-being under the theoretical lens of an FFM personality.

Role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy have developed through parallel literatures in sociology and psychology. All three concepts address the ways that people attune the self to others’ thoughts and feelings. Despite conceptual and operational overlap, researchers have yet to synthesize existing research across the three concepts. We undertake the task of theoretical synthesis, constructing a model in which role-taking emerges as a multidimensional process that includes perspective taking and empathy as component parts.

We review the literatures on role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy across disciplines. Focusing on definitions, measures, and interventions, we discern how the concepts overlap, how they are distinct, and how they work together in theoretically meaningful ways.

The review identifies two key axes on which each concept varies: the relative roles of affect and cognition, and the relative emphasis on self and structure. The review highlights the cognitive nature of perspective taking, the affective nature of empathy, and the structural nature of role-taking. In a move toward theoretical synthesis, we propose a definition that centers role-taking as a sociological construct, with perspective taking and empathy representing cognition and affect, respectively.

Role-taking is an important part of selfhood and community social life. It is a skill that varies in patterned ways, including along lines of status and power. Theoretical synthesis clarifies the process of role-taking and fosters the construction of effective interventions aimed at equalizing role-taking in interpersonal interaction.

Empathy, or the process of feeling or knowing how another feels, is a critical component of social interactions, and may be of particular importance to organizational functioning. This chapter addresses a literature gap on empathy in organizational contexts by providing a review of empathy research in a management setting.

We integrate the developing field of empathy research and provide a conceptual framework built on Ashkanasy’s (2003) five levels of analysis in emotions research, emphasizing within-person, between-person, interpersonal, group-level, and organization-level processes.

Our model addresses the complaint that empathy definitions are not consistent by illustrating how the level of analysis alters the view of empathy’s role in organizations.

This multi-level model of empathy provides a framework to identify gaps in the empathy literature and make recommendations for future research.

This new model of empathy will help practitioners use and understand empathy by providing a structure of how empathy is manifested in organizational settings.

The field of empathy research has been limited by inconsistent definitions and a lack of a model that outlines how empathy is used in organizations. This multi-level model of empathy provides the necessary framework for researchers and practitioners to advance the research and practice of empathy in organizations.

Gamification has gained popularity in social marketing research; however, its application remains limited to a few contexts, and relatively little is known about how innovative gamification technologies such as augmented reality can be applied to social marketing programme design. This paper aims to demonstrate the application of gamification to a social marketing pilot programme designed to increase children’s empathy and empathic behaviour.

Informed by social cognitive theory (SCT), a mixed-method research design was adopted using pre- and post-programme surveys (n = 364) to assess effectiveness using paired samples t-test. Qualitative data included observations, participant’s questions and a feedback activity at the end of the programme. A thematic analysis was undertaken to examine the data and detect meaningful insights.

Children’s affective empathy and empathic behaviour outcomes were improved following the pilot programme. However, no effects were observed for cognitive empathy and social norms. Thematic analysis revealed three themes to further improve the game: developmentally appropriate design, user experience and game design.

Findings demonstrated challenges with the application of SCT outlining a disconnect between the design of the gamified programme and theory application.

This study provides initial evidence for the application of innovative gamification technologies to increase empathy in children.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to examine how a gamified social marketing programme can increase empathy in children.

The present research aims to demonstrate the relationship between organizational empathy (OE) and organizational learning (OL), and the serial mediation effect of organizational identity (OI) and organizational helping behavior (OHB) in this relationship.

Data were collected from a total of 270 companies through the survey method. Then, validity and reliability tests were conducted. Next, Hayes' model 6 was used to test the serial mediator effect.

The authors found that (1) OE is positively related to OL, (2) OI mediates the relationship between OE and OL, (3) OHB mediates the relationship between OE and OL and (4) the relationship between OE and OL is serially mediated by OI and OHB.

Empathy is an important power in regulating interpersonal behavior and relationships. Organizational empathy is also an important criterion for organizations to achieve their goals. However, despite the importance emphasized in the literature, how organizational empathy influences other organizational outcomes is still a black box. For this purpose, the authors conducted this study to uncover the relationship between OE and OL. In addition, the serial mediator effect of OI and OHB is revealed in this relationship. Hence, we aimed to make a humble contribution to the literature. Although there are many studies on “individual empathy” in the literature, there is no study in which “organizational empathy” is measured empirically. The authors hope that this study will be useful for future research.

Recent research suggests that individual difference variables that measure emotional reactions may be useful in understanding sexual harassment judgments. In the present study, 503 male and female working adults viewed two videos of sexual harassment cases and were asked to make judgments about the nature of the behavior. Participants also completed measures of sexism and empathy. Results indicated that Perspective Taking (PT), a component of empathy, interacted with gender to explain judgments regarding sexual harassment. Contrary to expectations, PT did not eliminate the typical gender differences found, but rather magnified them.