Le retour de l’empathie: Du construit psychologique original a l’empathie organisationelle percue

If the notion of empathy can be examined as one of the historic lines of research in psychology in the 20th century, its conceptual positioning and the change in work setting brings some questions on its legitimacy. This paper aims at presenting a critical synthesis on the construct of empathy, its measurement, its development and its relationships to the emotional intelligence. It also suggests to go beyond an approach strictly focusing on the individual to take into account the organizational empathy, the operationalisation of which is evoked towards conceptualizations and recent empirical works in occupational psychology. As a conclusion, perspectives and research priorities are suggested.