When lending a hand depletes the will: The daily costs and benefits of helping.

Abstract

Employees help on a regular daily basis while at work, yet surprisingly little is known about how responding to help requests affects helpers. Although recent theory suggests that helping may come at a cost to the helper, the majority of the helping literature has focused on the benefits of helping. The current study addresses the complex nature of helping by simultaneously considering its costs and benefits for helpers. Using daily diary data across 3 consecutive work weeks, we examine the relationship between responding to help requests, perceived prosocial impact of helping, and helpers' regulatory resources. We find that responding to help requests depletes regulatory resources at an increasing rate, yet perceived prosocial impact of helping can replenish resources. We also find that employees' prosocial motivation moderates these within-person relationships, such that prosocial employees are depleted to a larger extent by responding to help requests, and replenished to a lesser extent by the perceived prosocial impact of helping. Understanding the complex relationship of helping with regulatory resources is important because such resources have downstream effects on helpers' behavior in the workplace. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

Commuting stress process and self‐regulation at work: Moderating roles of daily task significance, family interference with work, and commuting means efficacy

“…Moreover, organizations should help employees replenish their resources, which, in turn, may contribute to better task regulation at work. Research suggests that a variety of off‐work recovery activities could potentially help replenish regulatory resources, including breaks at work (Trougakos, Beal, Green, & Weiss, ), work‐free evenings (Rook & Zijlstra, ), sleep (Lanaj et al., ; Sonnentag, Binnewies, & Mojza, ), weekends (Fritz & Sonnentag, ), and vacations (Fritz & Sonnentag, ). It is important for organizations and employees to realize that it is not merely time away from work, but resource‐recovery experiences during the time off (e.g., relaxation, mastery experience, positive work reflection, and psychological detachment from work; Fritz & Sonnentag, ; Sonnentag et al., ) that are important for replenishing regulatory resources.…”

“…For example, employees could be made aware that lack of sleep could negatively impact their self‐control on the subsequent day (e.g., Barnes, Lucianetti, Bhave, & Christian, ; Barnes, Schaubroeck, Huth, & Ghumman, ; Barnes & Wagner, ; Y. Liu et al., ). Employees can be provided with information that the quality as well as quantity of sleep could be improved by establishing a routine for going to bed at the same time, refraining from eating or drinking food with caffeine or alcohol, and reducing smartphone use (Lanaj et al., ; Sonnentag et al., ). Another way to help employees recover from resource depletion due to commute is to allow them to take a short break between commute and work, which encourages a temporary psychological detachment from commute.…”

“…Effective self‐regulation at work requires workers to control and direct their resources to work‐related tasks. Impaired self‐regulation at work could lead to a range of negative outcomes, such as increased deviance behavior (e.g., Christian & Ellis, ; Thau & Mitchell, ) and decreased work engagement (e.g., Lanaj, Johnson, & Wang, ). Self‐regulation at work can fluctuate over time, as individuals do not always engage in self‐regulation at the same level (Beal et al., ).…”

Protect Your Sleep When Work is Calling: How Work-Related Smartphone Use During Non-Work Time and Sleep Quality Impact Next-Day Self-Control Processes at Work

“…More precisely, the demonstrated interaction effects with self-control demands in the prediction of ego depletion may indicate that work-related smartphone use involves expenditure of self-control resources, and that both demands jointly overtax employees’ limited regulatory resources. We therewith join recent research seeking to identify behaviors and boundary conditions at work that tax regulatory resources (e.g., responding to help requests [44]; time pressure, planning, and decision-making [45]) in order to better understand fluctuations in employees’ well-being.…”

Prosocial Behavior and Depression: a Case for Developmental Gender Differences

“…Prosocial motivation includes other-oriented (i.e., selfless; altruistic) and self-oriented (i.e., selfish; egoistic) motives, which can lead to similar behavioral outcomes under certain circumstances. However, individuals who are motivated by the needs of others are more likely to behave prosocially even when there is the potential for personal cost [9], which can create substantial burden [10•] and lead to higher depressive symptoms [11]. Therefore, the association between prosocial behavior and depressive symptoms maybe more nuanced than previously assumed.…”