HOW TO MEASURE COMPASSIONATE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS

Compassionate leadership has emerged as a strategical issue in promoting well-being, and retention within healthcare organizations (Trzeciak & Mazzarelli, 2019; West et al., 2017; Paakkanen et al., 2021). Despite its growing relevance, the measurement of compassionate leadership effectiveness remains a complex and relatively unexplored area. This study aims to identify the key indicators and variables that can be used to assess the effectiveness of compassionate leadership. To achieve this objective, a comprehensive review of existing measurement tools and frameworks related to compassionate leadership has been conducted. We referred to the two prominent models by West et al. (2017), developed in UK (King’s Fund), and Schuck et al. (2019), developed in USA. We examined how these models operationalize compassionate leadership and which dimensions are most frequently assessed. Beyond the review of most recent research on this topic, we explored which organizational and individual indicators are most likely to be influenced by compassionate leadership. Our findings suggest that Psychological Well-being and Burnout are key mediators in the relationship between Compassionate Leadership and two critical outcomes: Job Satisfaction and Intention to Leave. Compassionate leadership directly affects Compassion at Work (Lilius et al., 2008), as a climate dimension measured on team level. And it indirectly enhances Job Satisfaction and reduces Turnover Intentions by positively affecting employee's well-being. We also consider the potential role played by Supportive Learning Environment (Garvin et al., 2008) as moderator between well-being and intention to leave. For each selected indicator, we identified a set of validated measurement tools and conduced a pre-test with a sample of Italian healthcare professionals. The aim was to assess the reliability of these instruments using Cronbach’s Alpha. The results confirmed the internal consistency of the selected scales, supporting their use in future empirical studies on compassionate leadership effectiveness. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on leadership in healthcare by offering a structured approach to measuring compassionate leadership effectiveness. It highlights the importance of integrating compassion into leadership assessment tools and encourages further empirical research to validate the proposed indicators. Ultimately, understanding how to measure compassionate leadership can support the development of more humane and effective healthcare organizations.