Abstract
Extant research focuses on the antecedents of employee helping behavior, but the role of social technologies in enhancing employee helping behavior remains understudied. The purpose of our research is to investigate the relationship between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. Drawing on both communication visibility theory and social cognitive theory, we propose that the association between communication visibility and helping behavior is mediated by employee psychological state assessed by a cognitive state variable: trust in coworkers. Further, we also propose that proactive personality moderates the positive effect of trust in coworkers on employee helping behavior. We examined our hypothesized relationships using 149 employees collected in a field experiment in China. As hypothesized, we find that trust in coworkers mediates the relationship between communication visibility and helping behavior. Moreover, proactive personality strengthens the effectiveness of communication visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.
Highlights
Nowadays, enterprise social media (ESM), such as Yammer and Jive [1], are widely used in increasing numbers of enterprises
The current study suggests that communication visibility is likely to increase trust in coworkers based on communication visibility theory
Combining communication visibility theory with social cognitive theory, we argue that employees are more likely to engage in helping behavior when employees trust their coworkers as a result of communication visibility
Summary
Enterprise social media (ESM), such as Yammer and Jive [1], are widely used in increasing numbers of enterprises. ESM platforms allow employees to obtain information in ways that are hard to be realized via traditional media [2,4]. These platforms mean that employees know more about the content of their coworkers’ communication information and networks [5], which is known as “communication visibility”. Communication visibility can affect how employees access information, acquire resources, and improve performance [6]. For this change in employees’ ways of working, it is crucial to consider the potential outcomes of communication visibility for the sustainable development of enterprises in today’s hyper-competitive environment
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