Organization‐specific prosocial helping identity: Doing and belonging as the basis of “being fully there”

Summary Identity theory and social identity theory focus on doing and belonging, respectively, but neither provides a complete picture of being “fully there” at work (Kahn, ). This three‐wave lagged field study links these two perspectives by proposing that beneficiary‐specific prosocial helping identity, met expectations for prosocial helping, and their interaction predict the strength of a contextualized, organization‐specific prosocial helping identity (OSPHI) targeted at those same beneficiaries and that OSPHI leads to positive employee work outcomes. Results provide strong support for the model and demonstrate that beneficiary‐specific prosocial helping identity had indirect relationships with intent to stay with the organization, experienced work meaning, and emotional exhaustion (negative), via OSPHI, only when met expectations for prosocial helping were weak. We discuss the value of OSPHI as an important construct that reflects the psychological state of “being fully there” at work and predicts subsequent employee work outcomes. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.