Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-grxwn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T23:25:48.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How prosocial is proactive: Developing and validating a scale and process model of knowledge-based proactive helping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2018

Shashank Mittal ,
Atri Sengupta ,
N M Agrawal  and
Sumeet Gupta
Shashank Mittal
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Chhattishgarh, India
Atri Sengupta*
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, Orissa, India
N M Agrawal
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Sumeet Gupta
Affiliation:
Department of Operations & Systems, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Chhattishgarh, India
*
Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The knowledge exchanges literature considered all types of knowledge exchanges as reactive. The present study develops the conceptual framework and the measure of knowledge-based proactive helping that was missing in earlier literature. The measure was validated across multiple population. Proactive helping was manifested in the scale items effectively, to the extent that at first, initially chosen five dimensions merged to form two factors: professional development and problem mitigation and; subsequent analysis revealed that the factors represented the same underlying construct of proactive helping. The nomological network, a process model highlighting the psychosocial causes and benefits of proactive helping based upon social exchange theory and social motivation theory was also proposed. The significance of the study was in bringing the prosocial, proactive exchanges at the forefront of knowledge exchanges, which predominantly focussed on reactive exchanges.

Keywords

knowledge-based social exchangeknowledge-based proactive helpingknowledge sharingscale development and validation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 625 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amabile, T. M. (1988). A model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Research in Organizational Behavior, 10(1), 123–167.Google Scholar
Amabile, T. M. (1996). Creativity in context: Update to the social psychology of creativity. Hachette, UK: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, C., & Galinsky, A. D. (2006). Power, optimism, and risktaking. European Journal of Social Psychology, 36(4), 511–536.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, S. E. (1993). Individual, job and interpersonal predictors of prosocial organizational behavior: Understanding helping processes at work. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation. Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.Google Scholar
Anderson, E. G. Jr., & Lewis, K. (2014). A dynamic model of individual and collective learning amid disruption. Organization Science, 25(2), 356–376.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, S. E., & Williams, L. J. (1996). Interpersonal, job, and individual factors related to helping processes at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(3), 282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Argote, L. (2013). Organization Learning: A Theoretical Framework. In: Organizational Learning (pp. 31–56). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bandura, A. (2001). Social cognitive theory: An agentic perspective. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 1–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bock, G. W., Zmud, R. W., Kim, Y. G., & Lee, J. N. (2005). Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: Examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological forces, and organizational climate. MIS Quarterly, 29(1), 87–111.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornstein, D. (2007). How to change the world: Social entrepreneurs and the power of new ideas. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bunderson, J. S., & Reagans, R. E. (2011). Power, status, and learning in organizations. Organization Science, 22(5), 1182–1194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chia, R., & Holt, R. (2008). The nature of knowledge in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 7(4), 471–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collins, C. J., & Smith, K. G. (2006). Knowledge exchange and combination: The role of human resource practices in the performance of high-technology firms. Academy of Management Journal, 49(3), 544–560.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colquitt, J. A. (2008). Two decades of organizational justice: Findings, controversies, and future directions. In The sage handbook of organizational behavior (Vol. 1, pp. 73–88). New York, NY: Sage.Google Scholar
Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Massachusetts: Harvard Business Press.Google Scholar
DeRue, D. S., Barnes, C. M., & Morgeson, F. P. (2010). Understanding the motivational contingencies of team leadership. Small Group Research, 41(5), 621–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emerson, R. M. (1976). Social exchange theory. Annual Review of Sociology, 2(1), 335–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faraj, S., & Sproull, L. (2000). Coordinating expertise in software development teams. Management Science, 46(12), 1554–1568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Faraj, S., & Xiao, Y. (2006). Coordination in fast-response organizations. Management Science, 52(8), 1155–1169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, A. P. (1991). Structures of social life: The four elementary forms of human relations: Communal sharing, authority ranking, equality matching, market pricing. New York, NY: Free Press.Google Scholar
Fornell, C., & Larcker, D. F. (1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(1), 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frese, M., & Fay, D. (2001). Personal initiative: An active performance concept for work in the 21st century. Research in Organizational Behavior, 23, 133–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinsky, A. D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Magee, J. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 85(3), 453–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garicano, L., & Wu, Y. (2012). Knowledge, communication, and organizational capabilities. Organization Science, 23(5), 1382–1397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, J. M., & Brief, A. P. (1992). Feeling good-doing good: A conceptual analysis of the mood at work-organizational spontaneity relationship. Psychological Bulletin, 112(2), 310.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (1997). Organizational spontaneity in context. Human Performance, 10(2), 153–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gong, Y., Kim, T. Y., Lee, D. R., & Zhu, J. (2013). A multilevel model of team goal orientation, information exchange, and creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), 827–851.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grant, A. M. (2008). Does intrinsic motivation fuel the prosocial fire? Motivational synergy in predicting persistence, performance, and productivity. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Grant, A. M., & Ashford, S. J. (2008). The dynamics of proactivity at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 28(1), 3–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, P. H., & Meister, D. B. (2004). Knowledge sourcing effectiveness. Management Science, 50(6), 821–834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green-Demers, I., Pelletier, L. G., & Menard, S. (1997). The impact of behavioural difficulty on the saliency of the association between self-determined motivation and environmental behaviours. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science (Revue Canadienne Des Sciences Du Comportement), 29(3), 157–166.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Higgins, M. C., & Kram, K. E. (2001). Reconceptualizing mentoring at work: A developmental network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 264–288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinkin, T. R. (1995). A review of scale development practices in the study of organizations. Journal of Management, 21(5), 967–988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hofmann, D. A., Lei, Z., & Grant, A. M. (2009). Seeking help in the shadow of doubt: The sensemaking processes underlying how nurses decide whom to ask for advice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(5), 1261–1274.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Huang, X., Hsieh, J. J., & He, W. (2014). Expertise dissimilarity and creativity: The contingent roles of tacit and explicit knowledge sharing. Journal of Applied Psychology, 99(5), 816–830.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ilies, R., Judge, T., & Wagner, D. (2006). Making sense of motivational leadership: The trail from transformational leaders to motivated followers. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 13(1), 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jackson, C. L., & LePine, J. A. (2003). Peer responses to a team’s weakest link: A test and extension of LePine and Van Dyne’s model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(3), 459–475.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Tiller, E. H. (1999). Integrating market, technology, and policy opportunities in e-business strategy. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 8(3), 235–249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, G. D., & Lawler, E. E. (1981). Impact of employee participation in pay plan development. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 28(1), 111–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalman, M. E. (1999). The effects of organizational commitment and expected outcomes on the motivation to share discretionary information in a collaborative database: Communication dilemmas and other serious games. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA.Google Scholar
Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., & Judge, T. A. (2008). A quantitative review of mentoring research: Test of a model. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72(3), 269–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kankanhalli, A., Tan, B. C., & Wei, K. K. (2005). Contributing knowledge to electronic knowledge repositories: An empirical investigation. MIS Quarterly, 29(1), 113–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D. H., & Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110(2), 265–284.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kilduff, M., & Krackhardt, D. (1994). Bringing the individual back in: A structural analysis of the internal market for reputation in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 37(1), 87–108.Google Scholar
Landy, F. J., & Becker, W. S. (1987). Motivation theory reconsidered. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 9(1), 1–38.Google Scholar
Langner, C. A., & Keltner, D. (2008). Social power and emotional experience: Actor and partner effects within dyadic interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(3), 848–856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, J. R., Christensen, C., Abbott, A. S., & Franz, T. M. (1996). Diagnosing groups: Charting the flow of information in medical decision-making teams. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 315–330.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lepine, J. A., & Van Dyne, L. (2001). Peer responses to low performers: An attributional model of helping in the context of groups. Academy of Management Review, 26(1), 67–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lu, L., Leung, K., & Koch, P. T. (2006). Managerial knowledge sharing: The role of individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors. Management and Organization Review, 2(1), 15–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magee, J. C., Galinsky, A. D., & Gruenfeld, D. H. (2007). Power, propensity to negotiate, and moving first in competitive interactions. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(2), 200–212.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Matilal, B. K. (1971). Epistemology, logic, and grammar in Indian philosophical analysis. The Hague: Mouton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, M. (2003). Absolute impact: The drive for personal leadership. Los Angeles: Peloton.Google Scholar
Meeker, B. F. (1971). Decisions and exchange. American Sociological Review, 36(3), 485–495.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meglino, B. M., & Korsgaard, A. (2004). Considering rational self-interest as a disposition: Organizational implications of other orientation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(6), 946–959.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moon, H., Kamdar, D., Mayer, D. M., & Takeuchi, R. (2008). Me or we? The role of personality and justice as other-centered antecedents to innovative citizenship behaviors within organizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(1), 84–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Morgeson, F. P., DeRue, D. S., & Karam, E. P. (2010). Leadership in teams: A functional approach to understanding leadership structures and processes. Journal of Management, 36(1), 5–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mulaik, S. A., James, L. R., Van Alstine, J., Bennett, N., Lind, S., & Stilwell, C. D. (1989). Evaluation of goodness-of-fit indices for structural equation models. Psychological Bulletin, 105(3), 430–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2009). Articulating and writing practice through the interview to the double. Management Learning, 40(2), 195–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nicolini, D. (2011). Practice as the site of knowing: Insights from the field of telemedicine. Organization Science, 22(3), 602–620.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Reilly, C. (1989). Corporations, culture, and commitment: Motivation and social control in organizations. California Management Review, 31(4), 9–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behaviour: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington: Lexington Books/DC Health and Company.Google Scholar
Organ, D. W. (1990a). The motivational basis of organizational citizenship behavior. Research in Organizational Behavior, 12(1), 43–72.Google Scholar
Organ, D. W. (1990b). The subtle significance of job satisfaction. Clinical Laboratory Management Review, 4(1), 94–98.Google Scholar
Organ, D. W., & Konovsky, M. (1989). Cognitive versus affective determinants of organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(1), 157–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, S. K., Bindl, U. K., & Strauss, K. (2010). Making things happen: A model of proactive motivation. Journal of Management, 36(4), 827–856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, S. K., Williams, H. M., & Turner, N. (2006). Modeling the antecedents of proactive behavior at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(3), 636–652.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Perlow, L., & Weeks, J. (2002). Who’s helping whom? Layers of culture and workplace behavior. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 23(4), 345–361.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pinder, C. C. (1984). Work motivation: Theory, issues, and applications. Glenview: Scott Foresman & Co.Google Scholar
Podsakoff, P. M., Ahearne, M., & MacKenzie, S. B. (1997). Organizational citizenship behavior and the quantity and quality of work group performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82(2), 262–270.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Moorman, R. H., & Fetter, R. (1990). Transformational leader behaviors and their effects on followers’ trust in leader, satisfaction, and organizational citizenship behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly, 1(2), 107–142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preacher, K. J. (2006). Quantifying parsimony in structural equation modeling. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41(3), 227–259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Reagans, R., Argote, L., & Brooks, D. (2005). Individual experience and experience working together: Predicting learning rates from knowing who knows what and knowing how to work together. Management Science, 51(6), 869–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, W. J. (2003). Management and the Worker (Vol. 5). London: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Seers, A. (1989). Team-member exchange quality: A new construct for role-making research. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 43(1), 118–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sekaran, U. (2006). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Settoon, R. P., & Mossholder, K. W. (2002). Relationship quality and relationship context as antecedents of person-and task-focused interpersonal citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(2), 255–267.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Smith, C. A., Organ, D. W., & Near, J. P. (1983). Organizational citizenship behavior: Its nature and antecedents. Journal of Applied Psychology, 68(4), 653–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitzmuller, M., & Van Dyne, L. (2013). Proactive and reactive helping: Contrasting the positive consequences of different forms of helping. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 34(4), 560–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stewart, D. D., & Stasser, G. (1995). Expert role assignment and information sampling during collective recall and decision making. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(4), 619–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Subramaniam, M., & Youndt, M. A. (2005). The influence of intellectual capital on the types of innovative capabilities. Academy of Management Journal, 48(3), 450–463.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szulanski, G. (1996). Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal, 17(S2), 27–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thomas-Hunt, M. C., Ogden, T. Y., & Neale, M. A. (2003). Who’s really sharing? Effects of social and expert status on knowledge exchange within groups. Management Science, 49(4), 464–477.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trafimow, D., & Sniezek, J. A. (1994). Perceived expertise and its effect on confidence. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 57(2), 290–302.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van Dyne, L., Cummings, L. L., & Parks, J. M. (1995). Extra-role behaviors-in pursuit of construct and definitional clarity (a bridge over muddied waters). Research in organizational behavior: an annual series of analytical essays and critical reviews, 17, 215–285.Google Scholar
Van Dyne, L., Kamdar, D., & Joireman, J. (2008). In-role perceptions buffer the negative impact of low LMX on helping and enhance the positive impact of high LMX on voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1195–1207.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Dyne, L., & LePine, J. A. (1998). Helping and voice extra-role behaviors: Evidence of construct and predictive validity. Academy of Management Journal, 41(1), 108–119.Google Scholar
Williams, L. J., & Anderson, S. E. (1991). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment as predictors of organizational citizenship and in-role behaviors. Journal of Management, 17(3), 601–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenbaum, G. M. (1998). Information sampling in decision-making groups: The impact of members’ task-relevant status. Small Group Research, 29(1), 57–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wittenbaum, G. M. (2000). The bias toward discussing shared information why are high-status group members immune. Communication Research, 27(3), 379–401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Woodman, R. W., Sawyer, J. E., & Griffin, R. W. (1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18, 293–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar