Feeling obliged or happy to be a good soldier? Employee cognitive and affective reactions to receiving reactive and proactive help

Leaders’ responses to receipt of proactive helping: Integrating theories of approach–avoidance and challenge–hindrance

“…Our research contributes to extending the existing research by suggesting that receiving proactive helping can be viewed favorably or unfavorably by recipients as a function of their individual characteristics. Our significant interactions indicate the possibility that prior conflicting findings on recipients’ reactions to proactive helping (e.g., Harari et al, 2021; Harrison et al, 2022; Zhan et al, 2021) might be resolved when scholars consider such boundary conditions.…”

“…As a result, leaders’ capacity to receive and make good use of help from organizational members is necessary for them to effectively deal with dynamic and complicated demands (Chen et al, 2007; Wilson et al, 2010). For example, leaders who receive proactive helping from their subordinates can leverage this help to achieve their goals with fewer resources such as time and effort and further identify potential issues emerging at work, which allows the leaders to handle dynamic surroundings more easily and achieve personal development and success in organizations (Blunden et al, 2019; Bonaccio and Dalal, 2006; Zhan et al, 2021). Thus, receipt of proactive helping can be beneficial for leaders and be perceived as a challenge.…”

You Have Received More Help than I Did and I Envy You: A Social Comparison Perspective on Receiving Help in the Team

“…Therefore, this upward social comparison of received help may evoke envy because they perceive the resources as being accumulated by these coworkers, thus reducing their citizenship behaviors to preserve their advantages and resources. This exploration adds to the emerging literature that contends that emotions are crucial to understanding the receiving help phenomena [ 31 ]. Moreover, our research enriches scholarly understanding of the antecedents of envy by pointing out that comparing their relative received help in the team is one of the origins of employees’ envy emotion.…”

“…Therefore, this upward social comparison of received help may evoke envy because they perceive the resources as being accumulated by these coworkers, thus reducing their citizenship behaviors to preserve their advantages and resources. This exploration adds to the emerging literature that contends that emotions are crucial to understanding the receiving help phenomena [31].…”

“…First, previous studies about the positive effects of employees receiving help are typically explained using social exchange theory [4], and individuals receiving more help tend to engage in more citizenship behaviors [6]. This stream of research based on social exchange theory to explain employees receiving help ignores the specific context in the organization and only focuses on the absolute value of receiving help [3,31]. This study adopts the new perspective of social comparison [8] to explore the impact of upward social comparison of received help on employees' psychology and behavior in the team.…”