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As one of the five major dimensions of service quality, empathy has been and continues to be regarded as a requirement for a successful service encounter. This paper focuses on the highly customer-centric service industry of health care. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the potential negative effects of empathy on both the physician and the patient.

Building on an in-depth review of literature and well-established service quality models, the authors propose a new model for understanding the complex role of physician empathy in the physician–patient encounter. The trait, emotional intelligence (EI), is presented as a moderator for physician empathy levels.

The Health Care Optimal Physician Empathy (HOPE) model enables further characterization and analysis of the tradeoffs between patient satisfaction and physician burnout and determining when empathy optimally works to the benefit of both the physician and the patient to maximize service quality. The HOPE model provides a systematic way to understand and determine the appropriate level of physician empathy that results in optimal outcomes for both physicians and their patients by demonstrating the tradeoffs between physician burnout and patient satisfaction.

The authors highlight the potential detrimental effects on physicians themselves, and, in turn, on service quality. The theoretical and practical implications in this paper provide insights into the development and implementation of empathy-focused interventions and best practices to optimize service quality in the physician–patient interaction. The HOPE model is the first of its kind in shedding light on the manifestation of physician empathy.

This empirical quantitative research study aimed to test whether historical texts could activate empathic concern and perspective taking in a US History classroom with adolescent students.

Eighth-grade participants (n = 227) were randomly assigned to read either a historical narrative text or a collection of primary documents, then participants self-reported a range of emotions and wrote a paragraph that was assessed for historical perspective taking.

Results indicated that for students randomly assigned to read the narrative text, empathic concern or compassion, was associated with higher historical perspective taking, even after controlling for literacy ability.

All participants attended a single predominantly. White upper middle class middle school, and read either one narrative text or one collection of primary documents. Findings cannot be generalized to all students or all texts. The study design did not assess for a causal relationship of empathic concern and historical perspective taking.

This study demonstrates that empathic concern, when activated through a certain narrative text, can be associated with greater achievement on cognitive academic tasks such as writing a paragraph assessed for historical perspective taking. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that empathic concern should be a target emotion for students rather than a similar emotional experience as the person they are empathizing with.

Adolescents today appear to have lower levels of empathy than in the past. Empathy may be crucial for moral behavior. Research indicates that historical texts could potentially provide effective empathic interventions for adolescents. However, there are no published empirical quantitative research studies related to activating empathy for adolescents through literacy in a history classroom.

There has been a reduction of arts funding the United States educational system, even though research has identified the need for socioemotional learning policy/guidelines/requirements in the US Ed. and more school teachers and counselors. In Texas, geopolitical issues and natural disasters impact learners in the state and corporal punishment is still allowed in some districts, such as Pampa Independent School District (ISD). A study of six art teachers across a large urban school district was conducted to better understand this conundrum vis-a-vis semi-structured interviews with art teachers working in public Middle and High Schools. This chapter investigates the impact of art practices and art teachers on socioemotional self-regulation of students, as we consider the impact on teacher retention using the Heuristic model of child self-regulation and reactivity and school outcomes (Liew, Erbeli, Nyanamba, & Li, 2020). Finally, the ironic finding that teaching art classes is financially emotionally draining for teachers to the point of decreasing retention, yet some are still impassioned to teach art classes, is juxtaposed with attachment theory. Recommendations for art education policy and pedagogy are made using the lens of socioemotional learning, art therapy, empathy, and emotional self-regulation.

This paper aims to explore the mind-set of consumers with negative mood states during mundane consumption activities.

The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 17 informants who have recently experienced severe yet temporary medical problems.

Consumers with severe medical problems experience an increased need for empathy during mundane business interactions, and their reaction to service failures is aggravated.

Although previous research has investigated the relationship between empathy and satisfaction in healthcare services, the current research provides a novel perspective by studying the mind-set of customers with medical problems during regular consumption activities. Further, previous research has called for a need for qualitative work in empathy research. This gap is also addressed by the current research.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak thrust a spotlight on organizational leaders and the challenges that employees face during periods of organizational change. The purpose of the current study is to examine the influence of empathetic supervisor communication on employee turnover intention and the mediating role of affective trust toward supervisors and employee–organization relationship (EOR) quality. Informed by the social exchange theory and EOR literature, the authors develop a model in which affective trust toward supervisors and EOR quality mediates the relationship between empathetic supervisor communication and employee turnover intention.

This study recruited 417 employees based in the USA through an online panel operated by a professional survey company. Data collection that followed a quota sampling procedure lasted for about three weeks in October 2020. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the study hypotheses.

The findings of this study indicated that the extent to which supervisors adopted empathetic communication during organizational change had considerable repercussions on their supervisees' affective trust toward supervisors, relationship perception toward their organizations, and ultimately, their turnover intention.

This study is among the first that identifies empathetic communication as a pivotal force in driving employees' positive relational and behavioral reactions, reinforcing the growing expectation of supervisors in fulfilling communication functions during organizational change. Moreover, the authors contribute to understanding change management as an activity rooted in and enacted through communication between supervisors and subordinates. In addition, this study contributes to the organizational research of empathy during change.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the relevance and reliability of the ten‐item Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) Measure as a tool for measuring patients' views of anaesthetists during preoperative assessment consultations.

Self‐completed patient questionnaire containing the ten‐item CARE Measure. Consecutive adult patients were asked to complete the ten‐item CARE questionnaire immediately after their pre‐operative assessment consultation with the anaesthetist and return it to a designated local co‐ordinator. Reliability co‐efficient of the overall measure, and relevance of each item to patients' concerns were measured.

Using the Measure, 31 consultant anaesthetists were assessed by 1,582 patients (559 male, 952 female). The total number of “not applicable” responses was 1,086, (6.8 per cent of the total number of possible “not applicable” responses). The overall number of missing values was 0.6 per cent. The measure effectively discriminated between doctors (reliability co‐efficient of the average score per doctor provided by 40 patients was above 0.8) and had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha, 0.93).

The present study presents evidence of a tool which may have utility in anaesthetics and other settings.

Science museums provide a context for developing and testing engineering activities that support visitors in creating personally meaningful objects. This study aims to propose that narrative design elements in such engineering activities can foster empathy to support engineering engagement among girls ages 7–14.

Taking a constructionist approach to engineering design, the authors present results from an observational study (n = 202 girls) of engineering activities across three museums that were designed to foster girls’ engineering engagement by integrating narrative elements aimed to foster empathy in activities. Using quantitative counts from observation protocols, the authors conducted statistical analyses to explore relationships between narrative, engineering and empathy.

Linear regression demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between empathy and increased numbers of engineering practices within museum activities. Additionally, this led us to explore the impacts the potential narrative design elements may have on designing for empathy – multiple linear regressions found both narrative and empathy to be independently associated with engineering practices. Overall, the authors found that using narrative to design activities to elicit empathy resulted in girls demonstrating more engineering practices.

The authors offer design ideas to foster aspects of empathy, including user-centered design, perspective-taking, familiarity and desire to help.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and the loyalty of car owners. The aim is to understand the relative importance of the various service quality dimensions to Ghanaian car owners as to what drive satisfaction and whether this satisfaction has implication on their loyalty.

The study used a survey of car owners and relied on partial least squares-structural equation modeling to study the relationship between service quality and its impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Further moderation analysis based on the number of years of dealing with the mechanic was conducted.

The result indicates empathy, assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have a significant positive relationship with customer satisfactions. However, the reliability of the mechanic has no significant positive relationship with the satisfaction of customers. The results also indicate that customer satisfaction has a direct positive relationship with customer loyalty. The results further indicate that empathy and reliability of the mechanic have a significant positive relationship with customer loyalty; however, the assurance, responsiveness and tangibles have no significant relationship with customer loyalty. The moderation analysis indicated no significant differences in the hypothesis tested and the length of years of customers dealing with the mechanic.

There is the need for mechanics to provide caring and individual attention to car owners, it is also important for mechanics to understand that customers want their cars to be serviced by mechanics who exhibit knowledge and courtesy and also deliver service in a very responsive manner. The appearance of the workshop, equipment and directions are also very important to customers. It is, therefore, important for mechanics do their best to satisfy these customers for them to remain loyal.

The findings indicate the importance of empathy, assurance, responsive and tangibles in mechanic service delivery. It is, therefore, important for mechanics to consistently provide personal attention, attend to customers in a friendly manner, deliver cars after services, provide information to customers when extra repairs are required and should take the time to explain issues to customers. In addition, it is important for mechanics to screen and employ very courteous employees who can tell customers exactly the kind of services needed as well as communicate effectively on the risks of repairs. Prompt services also seem to be the key to the satisfaction of customers.

The work illustrates and provides some insights and builds on the literature in the area of service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty from a developing country’s environment. This is one of the few research works investigating the issue of service quality, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in automobile services using data from the sub-Saharan African environment.

From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, several prominent feminist legal scholars made a case for “difference feminism.” Inspired by psychologist Carol Gilligan’s classic text, In a Different Voice, these scholars argued that social relationships, caring, and the emotions should be recognized as important to jurisprudence and legal regulation. Today, difference feminism is no longer a dominant movement within legal scholarship, but reformers are bringing “mindfulness,” “emotional intelligence,” and attention to relationships into law and business – a development dubbed “therapy culture” by its critics. This essay describes some of the manifestations of therapy culture in law and argues for more feminist engagement.

Organizations are increasingly required to take up extended responsibilities for social and environmental outcomes, including in global value chains. To address these challenges, the organization must call upon stakeholders to engage, contribute, and innovate, and in turn, this requires the organization to have a stronger social basis for its relationships. An integrative model of global value chain management based on social cooperation shifts the focus from corporate reputation to value chain reputation, from a firm-centric view of corporate reputation to a multistakeholder conception of value chain reputation. This approach conceptualizes reputation as a dynamic and potentially vulnerable organizational feature which cannot always be managed by public relations but requires a more stable notion grounded in something more permanent in the organization’s character, history, and the quality of its relationships with stakeholders. We consider the prospects for attending to organizational integrity as a stabilizing force for its public reputation. Integrity may be adopted as a hypernorm for motivating stakeholders who share a concern for the organization’s reputation. Co-creating reputation depends upon a social bond of cooperation developed by stakeholders caring about the organization and in turn, the organization caring about its stakeholders. This socialized understanding of reputation-building is grounded in an ethic of care and manifested through joint purposes, boundary-crossing processes, collaboration practices, and a division of labor into which value chain members are integrated and brought into relation with one another. We propose a model of global value chain management that discusses organizational capabilities required for such an approach.