Prosocial motive and helping behavior: examining helping efficacy and instrumentality

Purpose – Building on trait activation theory, theory of other orientation, and self-perception theory, the purpose of this paper is to examine how employees’ perceptions of helping efficacy and instrumentality influence the relationship between their prosocial motive and helping behavior. Design/methodology/approach – Data from 304 supervisor-subordinate dyads in South Korea were analyzed. Hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression. Findings – The results show that prosocial motive had a stronger positive influence on helping behavior among employees with high levels of helping efficacy. However, contrary to our expectation, prosocial motive was more positively related to helping behavior when employees had high levels of helping instrumentality. Practical implications – Organizations need to present employees with effective, standardized work procedures to make them feel efficacy in helping others. It is also necessary for organizations to consider helping behavior an important factor in performance evaluation and to signify to employees that helping behavior will be rewarded. Social implications – Helping behavior is critical for the effectiveness of both organizations and society at large; voluntarily helping people can enhance various kinds of performance at the societal level and can contribute to people’s welfare. Thus, it is necessary to teach people how to help others and to recognize helping behavior. Originality/value – This study contributes to the understanding of when the influence of prosocial motive on helping is more strongly activated by incorporating employees’ perceptions of the contexts in which helping behavior operates – efficacy and instrumentality.