Perspectives on Help-Receiving in the Workplace: Review and Recommendations

Helping behaviors and exchanges have long been studied in organizational research. However, it has generally kept a spotlight on the helper and the promotion of helping behaviors rather than help-receiving. While giving help in the workplace is generally construed as a desirable employee behavior (e.g., organizational citizenship behaviors [OCB]), help-receiving in the workplace can be experienced positively and/or negatively. Nevertheless, receiving help is vital to the safety, performance, and well-being of employees. In conceptualizing help received, researchers should consider questions related to the form, initiator, and source of help, as well as the distinction between the behavior and outcomes of help. Careful consideration of these questions can help increase the precision and contribution of future research and lead to an understanding of the multidimensional nature of help-receiving in the workplace. Many determinants and consequences of help-receiving in the workplace have had mixed results across studies, but differences in the conceptualization and operationalization of help-received can help explain differential relationships to other variables. Understanding key determinants and consequences of help-receiving can move scholarly discussion toward a holistic view of considering both help-giving and help-receiving. Ultimately, helping in the workplace is an interactional phenomenon; to understand it, we need a deeper understanding of recipient experiences. Implications for future organizational research include the need for precise conceptualizations of the form, initiation, source, and outcomes of help, and the need for examining particular helping episodes in detail, as well as the cumulative effects of seeking and receiving help over long periods of time.