Third-Party Employees’ Reactions to Witnessed Helping Received by Coworker

Abstract

The effects of helping behaviors on recipients or helpers are well established. Yet we know little about how third parties respond to witnessed helping received by coworker. Drawing from relative deprivation theory, we conducted a daily, experience-sampling study across two work weeks to examine the third-party effect of helping. Results showed that witnessed helping received by coworker increased third-party employees’ sense of relative deprivation, which in turn led to their instigated incivility and helping behavior later in the day. Furthermore, perceptions of organizational emotional culture of companionate love weakened the relation between relative deprivation and instigated incivility, while strengthened the relation between relative deprivation and helping behavior. We extend research on helping by showing its broader impact on third parties beyond direct beneficiaries and benefactors.