Will Receiving Help Always Harm Your Self-Esteem? A Symbolic Interaction Theory Perspective

Previous research suggests that received help contains a mixture of threatening and supportive self-related elements, and recipient characteristics determine whether it is threatening or supportive drawn from threat to self-esteem model. In this study, with the overarching theory of symbolic interaction, we explain why and how receiving help brings variant effects on domains of competence-based self-esteem and relational-based self-esteem and its consequences of task crafting and relationship crafting, as well as its boundary condition of competence-contingent self-esteem. Utilizing an experience sampling methodology through which 111 employees were surveyed for 10 workdays, we find that receiving help increases recipients' relational-based self-esteem and it doesn't necessarily threaten competence-based self-esteem. Relational-based self-esteem and competence-based self-esteem in turn mediate the effects of receiving help on daily job crafting. Moreover, employees’ competence-contingent self-esteem influences the strength of the daily relationships between receiving help and relational-based self-esteem, as well as competence-based self-esteem. We conclude by discussing theoretical and practical implications of our multilevel model.