Clergy and Compassionate Leadership: A Tightrope of Fatigue and Satisfaction During COVID-19

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted clergy leadership by disrupting their traditional routines and roles, creating both challenges and opportunities. Using the Job Demands and Resources theory as a framework, the purpose of this study was to examine the job demands and resources that predicted compassion fatigue and satisfaction, indicators of wellbeing for the clergy, within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Questionnaires from 410 clergy provided the data for the study. Results indicated organizational tasks, care tasks, role conflict, and role ambiguity predicted higher compassion fatigue, and role ambiguity and organizational tasks predicted lower compassion satisfaction. Self-care predicted higher compassion satisfaction and lower compassion fatigue, and emotional support predicted higher compassion satisfaction. Findings provide information on an understudied population and add knowledge about the personal resource of self-care. The significance, implications, and limitations of the study were discussed.