School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 30;20(1):647. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20010647.
Research on workplace helping behavior highlights the need for a more balanced perspective that acknowledges both the positive and negative consequences of receiving help. The purpose of this study is to investigate how the mechanisms through which we receive autonomous and dependent help differentially impact recipient task performance, as well as the boundary condition for such effects. Drawing on social information theory, we examined the mediating role of task- and self-focused processes, and the moderating role of perceived prosocial motivation. Through a two-wave and two-source field survey, we collected matched data from 350 employees and their direct supervisors. We examined our hypothesized model with path analysis using Mplus 7.4. Results indicated that receiving autonomous help improved task performance by leading recipients into task-focused processes, and perceived prosocial motivation further strengthened this positive indirect relationship. In contrast, receiving dependent help reduced task performance by eliciting recipients to engage in self-focused processes, and perceived prosocial motivation further augmented this negative indirect relationship. Overall, we spotlight the differential consequences of receiving autonomous and dependent help on recipients and encourage further inquiry about the role of social information processing in the helping literature.
工作场所帮助行为的研究强调需要更平衡的视角，既要承认接受帮助的积极后果，也要承认其消极后果。本研究旨在探讨我们接受自主帮助和依赖帮助的机制如何对受助者的任务表现产生不同的影响，以及这些影响的边界条件。本研究以社会信息理论为基础，考察了任务和自我聚焦过程的中介作用，以及感知亲社会动机的调节作用。通过两波和双来源的实地调查，我们从 350 名员工及其直接主管那里收集了匹配的数据。我们使用 Mplus 7.4 中的路径分析检验了我们的假设模型。结果表明，接受自主帮助通过引导受助者关注任务过程，从而提高了任务表现，而感知的亲社会动机进一步加强了这种积极的间接关系。相比之下，接受依赖帮助会通过引发受助者关注自我过程，从而降低任务表现，而感知的亲社会动机进一步加剧了这种消极的间接关系。总的来说，我们强调了接受自主帮助和依赖帮助对受助者的不同后果，并鼓励进一步研究社会信息处理在帮助文献中的作用。
