Purpose

Drawing upon conservation of resources (COR) and attribution theories, prior research in helping behavior has mainly focused on an independent view of the helper’s personal resources. This perspective, however, falls short of capturing the comparative nature of personal resources and attributions in a helping context. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to develop a theoretical model that helps predict employees’ decisions to help or not to help.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical model was developed by integrating social comparison, COR and attribution theories.

Findings

The theoretical model proposes the following. First, when employees perceive that they have fewer personal resources than a coworker who needs help, they are less likely to help. Second, when employees perceive that they have more personal resources than a coworker who needs help, they make causal attributions as to why the coworker failed to deploy personal resources. Finally, when employees have more personal resources than a coworker who needs help, they are more likely to help if they make situational, unstable and uncontrollable attributions to the coworker’s failure to deploy personal resources.

Originality/value

This paper extends the literature by offering a theoretical model that emphasizes comparisons and attributions of personal resources in a helping context. Additionally, this paper offers several managerial implications that help managers manage helping behavior effectively.

中文翻译：

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只有在我有更多的时候才帮助同事？整合社会比较、归因和资源保护理论

目的

借鉴资源节约（COR）和归因理论，先前关于帮助行为的研究主要集中在对帮助者个人资源的独立看法上。然而，这种观点未能在帮助背景下捕捉个人资源和归因的比较性质。因此，本文的目的是开发一个理论模型，帮助预测员工帮助或不帮助的决定。

设计/方法/方法

通过整合社会比较、COR 和归因理论开发了一个理论模型。

发现

理论模型提出以下建议。首先，当员工认为他们的个人资源少于需要帮助的同事时，他们就不太可能提供帮助。其次，当员工认为他们拥有比需要帮助的同事更多的个人资源时，他们会对同事未能部署个人资源的原因做出因果归因。最后，当员工拥有比需要帮助的同事更多的个人资源时，如果他们对同事未能部署个人资源做出情境性、不稳定和无法控制的归因，他们更有可能提供帮助。

原创性/价值

本文通过提供一个理论模型来扩展文献，该模型强调在帮助背景下个人资源的比较和归因。此外，本文还提供了一些管理启示，可帮助管理者有效地管理助人行为。