Resolving the individual helping and objective job performance dilemma: The moderating effect of team reflexivity

Na Fu,Patrick C Flood,Denise M Rousseau,Tim Morris

doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.02.058

Abstract

Employees who are good organizational citizens help others to be more effective at work. However, the positive impact of helping is at odds with findings across studies suggesting those who help often experience worse performance. This study builds theory and helps to resolve the helping and performance dilemma by exploring the conditions under which individual job performance is enhanced for team members who frequently help others. A cross-level and time-lagged design was used to collect data from 227 consultants nested in 60 project teams. An objective job performance indicator was used. We find that team reflexivity, which refers to team members’ collective reflection and communication regarding team objectives and tasks, is a key moderator in the helping and job performance relationship. Our findings indicate that the helping-performance relationship is positive when team reflexivity is high and negative with low reflexivity. This study offers several implications for future theory and practice.

Highlights

Helping co-workers resolve work problems is important in organi zations such as professional service firms where most work is done by project teams delivering customized client services (Gardner, Gino, & Staats, 2012; Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009)
In our sample of 60 consulting project teams, we find that individual helping behavior is unrelated to objective job performance
By identifying the moderating role of team reflexivity in the helpingjob performance relationship, we find that team-level conversations regarding task strategies and members’ work appear to foster conditions that enhance the effect of helping behavior on the helper’s own job performance

Summary

Introduction

Helping co-workers resolve work problems is important in organi zations such as professional service firms where most work is done by project teams delivering customized client services (Gardner, Gino, & Staats, 2012; Podsakoff, Whiting, Podsakoff, & Blume, 2009). Helping others has been regarded as an act of kindness that can lead to high performance evaluations from team leaders (Podsakoff et al, 2009). This research finds that helping is differentially related to various kinds of performance including subjec tive job performance (Podsakoff et al, 2009), organizational absorptive capacity (Hart, Gilstrap, & Bolino, 2016), and innovation (Gerke, Dickson, Desbordes, & Gates, 2017). Empir ically, Bergeron, Shipp, Rosen, and Furst (2013) find that employees in a professional service firm (PSF) who spend more time helping others experience slower career progress than their less helpful peers, resulting in lower salary increases and rates of advancement. In PSF contexts where billable hours are an important performance indicator, adverse effects from helping can be problematic

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Conclusion