Learning to identify employees that are engaged, helpful and proactive

Abstract

Purpose

The purposes of this paper are to: help managers and other practitioners learn about voluntary, helpful employee behavior; provide examples of how such behavior is manifest in everyday work situations, and demonstrate how to assess the behavior for recruitment and selection. A brief study is presented that demonstrates how valid and reliable measures may be used to identify employee predisposition for voluntary, helpful behavior.

Design/methodology/approach

Two substantive components of this work are: a detailed literature review that describes and demonstrates the elements of voluntary, helpful behavior (v-hob); and a report of a brief correlational study that demonstrates how two short surveys may help in predicting employee voluntary, helpful behavior.

Findings

Literature review reveals that v-hob is related to many positive employee outcomes among which are better work performance, more positive relationships with co-workers and managers, and lower turnover, as contrasted with employees-in-general. The study undertaken reveals two measures: job dedication, and contextual performance are valuable in predicting employee v-hob.

Research limitations/implications

In the survey portion of this paper the sample size is relatively small yet amenable for statistical analysis. Study participants are representative of a single academic discipline and are representative of the same university. The two survey tools used have repeatedly been shown to have validity and reliability.

Practical implications

This paper offers a detailed view of employee helpful behavior and it helps managers develop ways to assess one ' s proclivity for the behavior.

Originality/value

This paper helps managers, HR specialists and others attain knowledge on the expression of employee v-hob. Two survey tools are provided to help identify employees who may be predisposed to offer this desirable behavior.

Citation

Lyons, P. and Bandura, R.P. (2016), "Learning to identify employees that are engaged, helpful and proactive", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 48 No. 3, pp. 163-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/ICT-09-2015-0065