Can you be compassionate in business and make a profit?

Take a step back with me if you will in your minds eye. We are looking at an office filled with people (in whatever style of office or layout of office you wish), they are all employees and working through their tasks for the day. Some are writing emails, or doing some wiz programming stuff, others are on the phones calling clients, arranging meetings, ordering lunch, calling friends to make dinner plans. There are some busy doing research or writing articles/reports, watching the stock markets...there's the odd bod who is happy playing solitaire, watching the clock and thinking no one has noticed. And the one who is updating their CV or on linked-in searching for a new job.

Scenario 1:

Now I would like to add another layer to this picture, now imagine that the majority of these employees feel they have the "boss from hell", the one who barks orders at them, gets annoyed if anyone is 5 minutes late (even though they stayed 4 hours later than usual the night before) and doesn't ever say thank you. The type of boss who will happily scream at someone for making a mistake and every decision has to be passed through them.The majority of staff dread going into work each day. They have that horrid sinking feeling each time their boss calls them or speaks to them. As if they have been summoned to the head masters office at school. How productive do you think this team of people will be?

Senario 2:

Now I ask you to go back to the image of the office of people, now imagine that the majority of these employees feel they have the best boss ever, one who speaks to them with respect, even when they have a difficult message to deliver. A boss who empowers them to make decisions and teaches them how to be responsible for their actions. A boss who takes the time to understand what went wrong and takes overall responsibility. Someone who is happy to brain storm and train when needed. The type of boss who is happy to coach or invest in coaching, to help people learn how to communicate more effectively. The majority of staff actually enjoy coming into work each day and know if they have to leave early for whatever reason or come in late that their boss will understand, so long as they complete their tasks or objectives, or put in the additional work when its needed. 

I wonder which scenario do you think will be most profitable, successful, continues to grows year-on-year and produces the best work?

You don't need to look that far to find businesses out there to have such a working environments, that do really well. One very good example of one is google. I have yet to meet people who do not love working at or at very least like being a google employee. Google values treating people well. This has given google the edge over everyone else, because it encourages commitment and productivity. I am pretty certain with a 3.04% rise in their share prices today are making somewhat of a profit too.