When and How Workplace Helping Promotes Deviance? An Actor-Centric Perspective.

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Occupational Health Psychology
• Human Resource Management

Background:

• Workplace helping is extensively studied, yet its impact on helper outcomes remains underexplored.
• Existing research often overlooks the differential effects of various helping behaviors on helpers.
• The actor-centric perspective and Conservation of Resources theory provide a framework for understanding these impacts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the distinct effects of caring, coaching, and substituting helping behaviors on helpers.
• To examine the mediating role of emotional exhaustion in the relationship between helping behaviors and workplace deviance.
• To explore the moderating influence of extrinsic career goals on these relationships.

Main Methods:

• A three-wave time-lagged survey design was employed.
• Data were collected from 512 Chinese employees.
• Statistical analyses examined the associations between helping behaviors, emotional exhaustion, workplace deviance, and extrinsic career goals.

Main Results:

• Caring and coaching helping behaviors were negatively associated with subsequent workplace deviance.
• Substituting helping behavior was positively associated with subsequent workplace deviance.
• Emotional exhaustion mediated the effects of all three helping behaviors on workplace deviance.
• Extrinsic career goals moderated the relationship between helping behaviors and emotional exhaustion, and the indirect effects via emotional exhaustion.

Conclusions:

• The type of helping behavior significantly influences helper outcomes, with caring and coaching being beneficial and substituting being detrimental.
• Emotional exhaustion is a key mechanism through which helping behaviors affect workplace deviance.
• Organizational interventions should consider the nature of helping and employees' career orientations to mitigate negative consequences.