Organizational helping behavior and its relationship with employee workplace well-being
Career Development International
ISSN: 1362-0436
Article publication date: 15 November 2018
Issue publication date: 31 January 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Research examining the effect of helping on outcomes related to helpers has gained some mixed results. The purpose of this paper is to reconcile such inconsistency by understanding the multi-dimensional nature of helping behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors first develop a helping behavior scale that differentiates between the proactive and reactive form of helping. Furthermore, the authors also examined whether these two forms of helping are differently related to employees’ well-being. Data were collected from 448 employees and their immediate supervisors working in different organizations in the South Jiangsu province, in which the authors examined the main relationship and also explored the mediating effect of meaningfulness.
Findings
Results provided corroborating evidence that helping behavior was a multi-dimensional construct, consisting of proactive and reactive dimensions. Furthermore, the authors are also able to support discriminatory validity between these two dimensions by showing that they are differently related to employees’ well-being.
Practical implications
This paper contributes to management practice by specifying the benefits and detriments of different kinds of helping behaviors.
Originality/value
The findings of this study do not only provide ideas to explain contradictions in the effect of helping behaviors on helpers themselves, but also deepens scholars’ knowledge and understanding toward helping behavior.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors fully acknowledge the funding support from the National Science Foundation of China (No. 71372180).
Citation
Duan, J., Wong, M. and Yue, Y. (2019), "Organizational helping behavior and its relationship with employee workplace well-being", Career Development International, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 18-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-01-2018-0014
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited