Newcomers' Helping and Voice Behaviors: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Abstract

Although much research has been done on employees' extra-role behaviors (ERBs), the topic of how newcomers to the organization come to engage in ERBs remains relatively underexplored. Based on social cognitive theory, we develop an integrative model of newcomers' helping and voice as two different types of ERBs. The core idea of our model is that although newcomers may eventually come to engage in both types of ERBs, there will be a time lag between the emergence and increase of helping and those of voice. Our model shows that a social cognitive mechanism, including cyclical positive feedback loops and transfer of domain-specific self-efficacy, mediates the behavioral-level spillover from helping to voice. Our model also identifies several moderating factors that influence the process in which newcomers' helping and voice behaviors develop over time.