Examining the Influence of Organizational Compassion on Psychological Capital: The Case of Public Secondary School Teachers in Wakiso District, Uganda
Nabirye Robinah Walube
School of Business Administration,
Nkumba University
Email: rwalube@nkumbauniversity.ac.ug
Abstract: This study investigates the predictive role of organizational compassion and conceptualized through collective noticing, collective feeling, and collective responding on the psychological capital of public secondary school teachers of Wakiso, Uganda. Drawing on Affective Events Theory (AET), a cross-sectional survey design was deployed to collect data from a sample of 169 randomly selected teachers of public secondary schools. Data were analyzed using quantitative approach via the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Empirical results reveal that all three dimensions of organizational compassion namely: collective noticing, collective feeling, and collective responding were positive and significant predictors of secondary school teachers’ psychological capital. The findings demonstrate that compassionate institutional work environment function as critical affective events that significantly enhance teachers’ psychological capital in terms of: hope, efficacy, resilience, and optimism within the Wakiso district, Ugandan context. The study offers critical insights for the teachers andeducational policymakers, demonstrating that strategic investments in organisational compassion are not merely survival mechanisms, but essential catalysts for institutional flourishing and teachers’ psychological capital. This paper extends the empirical boundaries of Affective Events Theory by developing and testing a novel framework that positions the multidimensional construct of organizational compassion as a primary antecedent to psychological capital. Furthermore, it provides rare empirical evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa, offering a contextualized understanding of how collective emotional processes drive positive psychological capacities in developing secondary educational systems.
