Impact of Providing Compassion on Job Performance and Mental Health: The Moderating Effect of Interpersonal Relationship Quality

Purpose: To examine the relationships of providing compassion at work with job performance and mental health, as well as to identify the role of interpersonal relationship quality in moderating these relationships. Design and Methods: This study adopted a two-stage survey completed by 235 registered nurses employed by hospitals in Taiwan. All hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analyses. Findings: The results show that providing compassion is an effective predictor of job performance and mental health, whereas interpersonal relationship quality can moderate the relationships of providing compassion with job performance and mental health. Conclusions: When nurses are frequently willing to listen, understand, and help their suffering colleagues, the enhancement engendered by providing compassion can improve the provider's job performance and mental health. Creating high-quality relationships in the workplace can strengthen the positive benefits of providing compassion.