Organizing through Empathy

Kathryn Pavlovich, Keiko Krahnke

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135014322
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Behaviour
• Index: Business

Empathy dissolves the boundaries between self and others, and feelings of altruism towards others are activated. This process results in more compassionate and caring contexts, as well as helping others in times of suffering. This book provides evidence from neuroscience and quantum physics that it is empathy that connects humanity, and that this awareness can create a more just society. It extends interest in values-based management, exploring the intellectual, physical, ecological, spiritual and aesthetic well-being of organizations and society rather than the more common management principles of maximising profit and efficiency.

This book challenges the existing paradigm of capitalism by providing scientific evidence and empirical data that empathy is the most important organizing mechanism. The book is unique in that it provides a comprehensive review of the transformational qualities of empathy in personal, organizational and local contexts. Integrating an understanding based upon scientific studies of why the fields of positive psychology and organizational scholarship are important, it examines the evidence from neuroscience and presents leading-edge studies from quantum physics with implications for the organizational field. Together the chapters in this book attempt to demonstrate how empathy helps in the reduction of human suffering and the creation of a more just society.

Part I
Contemplative Approaches to Empathy

1 Consciousness, Empathy, and the Brain

Dennis P. Heaton and Fred Travis

Transcendence and Empathy

Empathy is the sensitivity to the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another. It entails an object—the other—and also a subject or knower who is acting with empathy. As the brain and consciousness of the subject changes, so also the expression of empathy will change. Thus growth of empathy and development of consciousness go hand in hand.

Models in developmental psychology depict how higher growth of the subject transforms the frame through which one constructs meaning and relates to other people. Research on ego development (Loevinger, 1976) has observed that as one matures psychologically, one becomes better able to appreciate multiple viewpoints and interact collaboratively in social situations. Although the term “ego development” might seem to suggest an attachment to one’s individual identity, observers of advanced stages of development refer to transcending a conceptually constructed self-identity and to gain a more unitive sense of oneself and one’s connection to others and the cosmos (Cook-Greuter, 2000; Heaton, 2011).

Maslow’s research found that many self-actualizing individuals had been transformed by ego-transcending peak experiences. Maslow’s (1968) Psychology of Being reported that self-actualizers with peak or plateau experiences of Being were not selfish but altruistic. They tend to be motivated not by self-interested deficiency needs but what he called Being-values including truth, goodness, beauty, wholeness, perfection, justice, self-sufficiency. He mentions that for self-actualizing persons, or in moments of self-actualization, it becomes possible to have “fully disinterested, desireless, objective and holistic perception of another human being” (1968, p. 36). Thus the transformative effects of experience of transcendence can enable one to behave more empathically—with more complete and selfless perception of another.

Noting what Maslow had reported about the significance of transcendental experiences for self-actualization, Alexander, Rainforth, and Gelderloos (1991) conducted a meta-analysis of 42 independent outcomes to explore the reported effects of various meditation practices on growth of self-actualization. This meta-analysis found that the Transcendental Meditation® (TM) technique, a specific meditation practice that is described as cultivating inner wakefulness that transcends thought, had three times the effect size of other meditation and relaxation practices that had been researched longitudinally using self-actualization measures.

Our Center for Brain, Consciousness and Cognition at Maharishi University has been researching the characteristics of higher stages of development, especially brain functioning. Giving the availability of a population of subjects practicing the TM technique in our community, one focus of our research has been on the phenomenological, psychological, and physiological indicators of growth of consciousness in TM practitioners. Another focus has been on examining the psychological and physiological indicators correlating with exceptional excellence of performance in leaders, athletes, and artists. Through both streams of research we aim to contribute to scientific understanding of the higher reaches of human potential.

A central theme of our research program is to examine the transformative role of experiences of transcendental pure consciousness. The experience of pure consciousness is a silent “state of inner wakefulness with no object of thought or perception, just pure consciousness aware of its own unbounded nature” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1976, p. 123). This self-referral experience is described as a state of “pure consciousness” because it is wakefulness as its essential nature, unmixed with images, thoughts, feelings, or any other objects of perception; and as “Transcendental Consciousness” because it transcends time, space, and all relative, changing experience (Travis & Pearson, 2000). This inner state has been identified with the spiritual essence of life: “eternal silence, which is pure wakefulness, absolute alertness, pure subjectivity, pure spirituality” (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1995: 271 fn.). The Transcendental Meditation technique (Rosenthal, 2011) is a simple, natural practice from the Vedic tradition that is said to make the experience of Transcendental Consciousness accessible through an effortless means that is “independent of all matters of belief and affiliation” (Shear, 2006).

Review of Research on the Transcendental Meditation Technique

The TM technique is a secular practice without a strong cultural context, and so people from all religions have learned and enjoy practicing TM (Rosenthal, 2011). As reported by Travis and Shear (2010), the TM technique represents a class of meditation practices which automatically transcends its own activity to give rise to experiences of pure consciousness—which is fundamentally different in aim, procedure, experience, and brain activity than meditation practices involving focused attention or open monitoring. This specific form of meditation practice has been taught in a consistent manner around the world and thus has lent itself to scientific study of both of the effects on mind and body during meditation and on the enduring effects outside of meditation as the result of repeated practice.

The TM technique is learned through a seven-step course of instruction and is practiced 15–20 minutes twice a day, sitting comfortably with eyes closed. It is a process of automatic self-transcending and so needs guidance from a qualified teacher to lead one to the experience of self- awareness without thought (Travis & Shear, 2010). In this meditation practice, the individual begins appreciating a mantra—a sound without meaning—at “finer” levels in which the mantra becomes increasingly secondary in experience and ultimately disappears, and self-awareness becomes more primary (Maharishi, 1969; Travis & Pearson, 2000; see Travis & Shear, 2010). The TM-Sidhi program, an advanced meditation practice based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, is said to accelerate the stabilization of Transcendental Consciousness during the performance of dynamic activity.

During the practice of the TM technique there are reductions in breath rate, skin conductance, and plasma lactate (Dillbeck & Orme-Johnson, 1987), and increased electroencephalographic (EEG) coherence indicative of a state of profound restful alertness, distinct from eyes-closed relaxation or sleep (Alexander, Cranson, Boyer, & Orme-Johnson, 1986; Travis & Wallace, 1999). TM practice leads to consistent changes in brain functioning, which are distinct from the effects produced by other meditation practices (Travis & Shear, 2010). Specifically, blood flow increases to frontal areas, the executive areas of the brain, and decreases to subcortical levels. This indicates increasing activation of the frontal areas. Also, frontal alpha EEG coherence is reported during TM compared to eyes-closed rest (Travis & Wallace, 1999; Travis et al., 2010). Coherence is a mathematical measure of connections between brain areas (Thatcher, Krause, & Hrybyk, 1986). If two brain areas are engaged in the same task, then electrical activity is related between these areas. Local areas are more coherent during tasks. During TM practice, alpha coherence is seen between all areas—left and right, front and back. This global coherence is an indicator of more holistic, integrated, and expanded awareness.

Because the brain adjusts to each new experience, repeated experience of increased frontal blood flow and higher frontal alpha coherence leads to increased presence of these characteristics in activity, not just during meditation practice. Regular TM practice results in greater frontal alpha coherence during tasks after 2 to 12 months of practice (Travis et al., 2010). EEG changes after TM practice are associated with decreased negative psychological traits and increased positive psychological traits (Nidich, Rainforth et al., 2010).

The state of restful alertness gained during the practice is said to dissolve the stress in the mind and the body, leading to improvements such as reduction of high blood pressure (Schneider et al., 1995), decreased anxiety (Eppley, Abrams, & Shear, 1989), reduced health insurance utilization (Orme-Johnson, 1987; Herron, Hillis, Mandarino, Orme-Johnson, & Walton, 1996), positive changes in ego development and moral reasoning (Chandler, Alexander, & Heaton, 2005), creativity (Travis, 1979), fluid intelligence, constructive thinking, self-actualization, and reaction time (Alexander, Rainforth, & Gelderloos, 1991; Cranson et al., 1991; So & Orme-Johnson, 2001). Reviews of this research and its applications to management education (Schmidt-Wilk, Heaton, & Steingard, 2000) and leadership development (Heaton & Schmidt-Wilk, 2008) have been published in the management literature.

Some TM research studies particularly demonstrate how repeated transcending to experience the self-referral state of pure consciousness leads to empathy, harmony, and coordination. Schmidt-Wilk (2003) observed that teams of meditating executives grew to function with better cross-functional collaboration; they grew beyond their self-protective identification with separate functions to become more open and flexible in considering how to satisfy customers. In another qualitative study, Gustavsson (1992) reported that a senior executive observed that meditating managers who reported to him became better coordinated by being more cognizant of a bigger, unifying vision of the organization.

Herriott (2000; Herriott, Schmidt-Wilk, & Heaton, 2009) found that entrepreneurs who were long-term practitioners of the TM and TM-Sidhi programs reported a secure feeling of being anchored to inner fullness, inner silence. These managerial subjects also described their business performance in terms of growing intuition, holistic perspective, and fortunate coincidences. Intuition was described by interviewees as a hunch or subtle impulse from within, and as a knowingness that does not require intellectual analysis. Subjects also commonly referred to a pervasive sense of being part of a larger wholeness. According to Herriott, her subjects reported “an awareness of a more holistic, all-encompassing level of truth and reality, as a sense of integration of the inner and outer dimensions of life” (Herriott, 2000, p. 168). This feeling of a deep sense of connectedness led entrepreneurs to adopt “more universal values: going beyond individual interests to the wider interests of employees, community, or environment as a whole” (Herriott, 2000, p. 172).

Other research on the effects of the TM program for business people has provided a means of empirically testing the theory that systematic transcending promotes balanced success in activity. Studies have found that business people practicing the TM technique report improved health, decreased anxiety, increased productivity, and improved relations (Alexander, DeArmond, Heaton, Stevens, & Schmidt-Wilk, 2004; Alexander et al., 1993; Frew, 1974; Schmidt-Wilk, 2000; Schmidt-Wilk, Alexander, & Swanson, 1996). In an eight-month pretest-posttest control group study in one company ( McCollum, 1999), subjects who learned the TM technique grew significantly more than controls in their expression of leadership behaviors, as measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory (Kouzes & Posner, 2007).

One stream of research that can be seen as evidence of the effects of the TM technique on empathy has been in the field of criminal rehabilitation. Criminal conduct can be seen as a lack of empathy, or ability to identify with the experiences of the victims of one’s crime. Employing Loevinger’s measure of ego development, Alexander, Walton, and Goodman (2003) reported that maximum-security prison inmates practicing the TM technique for 20 months scored a full level higher on Loevinger’s measure than did non-meditating inmates interested in learning the TM technique or inmates in other treatment programs. Higher scores on this measure of ego development are associated with greater ability to take the perspective of others from multiple points of view (Loevinger, 1976). After 17 months, the initial TM group increased another level, and a new group that learned the TM technique grew one full level from Loevinger’s scale. No longitudinal increases were found in other treatment groups or demographically similar controls wait-listed to learn the TM technique (Alexander & Orme-Johnson, 2003). A 59-month study of these same inmates provides evidence that reduced psychopathology and accelerated psychological development resulting from the TM program are responsible for reductions in criminal behavior (Alexander et al., 2003).

Another longitudinal study of the TM technique and ego development involved 34 alumni of Maharishi University (Chandler et al., 2005), compared to matched samples from three other universities. In this study, an unprecedented 38% of the 34 TM subjects scored at or beyond Loevinger’s Autonomous level, Stage 8, which is characterized by respect for one’s own and others uniqueness, while enjoying relationships as interdependent mutual support.

A recent study by Sawhney (2012) found that length of practice of the TM program was associated with higher scores on higher states of consciousness, lower scores on anxiety, and higher scores on the trait of emotional intelligence (EI) and disposition to trust (DTT). The participants were 387 business people from 26 service and manufacturing companies that were randomly selected from the Fairfield, Iowa, Area Chamber of Commerce. Lower trait anxiety enables one to more readily reason with emotions. High EI enhances interpersonal interaction in a work context and allows an individual to appraise or perceive different situations as positive and nonthreatening, demonstrating a higher DTT. Sawhney’s analysis supports a model in which self-reported higher states of consciousness were an intervening variable for positive emotional outcomes; this is consistent with our view that empathy, like trust, depends on the awareness and sensitivity—the consciousness—of the knower.

Neurophysiology of Higher States of...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Half Title page
• Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations, and Society
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Introduction
• Part I Contemplative Approaches to Empathy
• 1 Consciousness, Empathy, and the Brain
• 2 The Source of Empathy in our Lives An Explanatory Journey into the Realm of Spirituality
• 3 Empathy, Self-Other Differentiation, and Mindfulness Training
• 4 A Conceptione . . .
• Part II Applied Approaches to Empathy A: Leadership
• 5 Working through the Past How Personal History Influences Leaders' Emotions and Capacity for Empathy
• 6 Empathy A Leadership Quintessential
• Part II Applied Approaches to Empathy B: Decision Making
• 7 Ethical Decision Making in Organizations The Role of Empathy
• 8 The ACES Decision-Making Technique as a Reframing Tool for Increasing Empathy
• Part II Applied Approaches to Empathy C: Contextual
• 9 Predicting Empathy in Medical Students and Doctors
• 10 The Caring Climate How Sport Environments Can Develop Empathy in Young People
• 11 . . . Ad Floridam
• 12 Transcendent Empathy The Ability to See the Larger System
• Bibliography
• Contributors