Give them a fishing rod, if it is not urgent: The impact of help type on support for helpers' leadership.

Abstract

Taking a follower's perspective on leadership and contributing to the new research stream on behaviors conducive to its emergence, we examined how distinct types of instrumental (task focused) helping-autonomy- versus dependency-helping-affected recipients' support for their helpers' leadership. Based on the literature on employees' needs for autonomy and mastery, combined with the empowering nature of autonomy-helping, we reasoned that autonomy- (vs. dependency-) helping typically signals greater benevolence toward recipients, enhancing their support for their helpers' leadership. Our findings were generalized across various samples (of U.S. and Israeli employees), manipulations, and research settings: simulations (Studies 1 and 2b), workplace role-play scenario (Study 2a), and recollections of helping events in the workplace (Study 3). We found that autonomy- (vs. dependency-) helping increased recipients' support for their helpers' leadership by heightening perceptions of helpers' benevolence-based (rather than ability-based) trustworthiness (Studies 1 and 3). We also showed time pressure to be a boundary condition under which the advantage of autonomy-helping disappeared (Studies 2a and 2b)-with dependency-helping then inducing comparable levels of perceived benevolence and thus similar support for the helper's potential leadership. Overall, we shed light on the development of informal leadership by uncovering how recipients interpret and respond to the two help types. Practically, this analysis opens the door to new ways for aspiring managers to enhance support for their leadership from potential followers, available even to those unlikely to be appointed to formal leadership positions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).