Employees Use Of Empathy To Improve Their Job Behaviour

Abstract

Being simply cognitively capable would be inadequate for employees to satisfy job performance requirements associated with their job behaviour. Before an employee performs his job, he must understand what it entails because the activities and behaviours associated with a particular job are defined largely by the expectations and demands of other people, both inside and outside any organization. For instance, a teachers role is defined by the expectations of his or her pupils, their parents, school managers, and society at large. In order to create positive relationships within the organization, employees need to offer encouraging words to each other when they try something new, be patient, understanding, and empathetic. The aim of the study is therefore to determine the need to develop empathy as a social skill of emotionally intelligent teachers.

The quantitative research method was used in this study. The findings strongly suggest that teachers must develop their social skill of empathy as part of their job behaviour. Empathy is an essential emotional intelligence trait for teachers to overtly include in their instructional strategies. Teachers who use instructional empathy will reduce anxiety and tension in the learning environment. Evidently, expressing empathy in the organization requires the employee to thoughtfully consider everyones feelings in the process of making intelligent decisions. This study affirms that an employee who has a developed sense of empathy will have a much better understanding of how to handle different situations which could range from dealing with underachieving learners to working with gifted pupils.