Am I Obliged to Pay It Forward? A Moderated Mediation Model of Employee Reactions to Received Help

Abstract

According to social exchange theory, when employees receive help from their coworkers, they often “pay it forward” by helping their coworkers and organizations in turn. Although this direct effect is well-established, scholarly understanding of the types of help most likely to be paid forward is limited. Similarly, the mechanisms and boundary conditions of these effects are underdeveloped. In this study, we address these issues by proposing a contingent reciprocation model that explains when employees feel obligated to repay coworker help through a recipient-centric lens. Using a twice-daily experience sampling method (ESM) to collect multi-wave data from individuals working fulltime in a mid-sized technology company, we find that employees increase their OCBs in response to reactive help (i.e. help they requested), but not in response to proactive help (i.e. help they did not request). Furthermore, we demonstrate that these effects are driven by felt obligation, and stronger among women than among men.