Empathy - Introduction

 

Etymology

The English word empathy is derived from the Ancient Greek ἐμπάθεια (empatheia, meaning "physical affection or passion"). That word derives from ἐν (en, "in, at") and πάθος (pathos, "passion" or "suffering"). 

Theodor Lipps adapted the German aesthetic term Einfühlung ("feeling into") to psychology in 1903,[7] and Edward B. Titchener translated Einfühlung into English as "empathy" in 1909.

 In modern Greek εμπάθεια may mean, depending on context, prejudice, malevolence, malice, or hatred.

Business and management

In the 2009 book Wired to Care, strategy consultant Dev Patnaik argues that a major flaw in contemporary business practice is a lack of empathy inside large corporations. He states that without empathy people inside companies struggle to make intuitive decisions and often get fooled into believing they understand their business if they have quantitative research to rely upon. He says that companies can create a sense of empathy for customers, pointing to Nike, Harley-Davidson, and IBM as examples of "Open Empathy Organizations". Such companies, he claims, see new opportunities more quickly than competitors, adapt to change more easily, and create workplaces that offer employees a greater sense of mission in their jobs. 

In the 2011 book The Empathy Factor, organizational consultant Marie Miyashiro similarly argues for bringing empathy to the workplace, and suggests Nonviolent Communication as an effective mechanism for achieving this. 

In studies by the Management Research Group, empathy was found to be the strongest predictor of ethical leadership behavior out of 22 competencies in its management model, and empathy was one of the three strongest predictors of senior executive effectiveness. 

A study by the Center for Creative Leadership found empathy to be positively correlated to job performance among employees as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/empathy

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/empathy/

https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/empathy-in-the-workplace-a-tool-for-effective-leadership/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2021/09/19/empathy-is-the-most-important-leadership-skill-according-to-research  

https://dictionary.apa.org/empathy