Taking Pause: Mitigating Workplace Conflict Through a Compassionate Self-Response

Abstract: Conflict is ubiquitous in the workplace. Almost a third (32%) of employees deal with conflict daily (Turaga, 2015) and managers report spending up to 40% of their workday managing it (Laker & Pereira, 2024). While self-compassion has been shown to be an effective resource in many disciplines, there are limited studies about self-compassion within the workplace, giving rise to scholars (Dodson & Heng, 2022) speculating how its three dimensions (i.e. mindfulness, common humanity and self-kindness) manifest within a business context. This study utilizes exploratory qualitative analysis to find that within the workplace ‘common humanity’ is replaced with a new dimension called a ‘values pause.’ This healthy response to conflict allows employees to reflect upon their internal value system and determine how they want to interface with a challenging situation. This study demonstrates the benefit of practicing a compassionate self-response to workplace conflict as it enhances the likelihood of prosocial behavior.

Keywords: conflict at work; compassionate self-response; prosocial behavior; self-compassion; values pause; workplace conflict