IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i14p5022-d383753.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Help Comes from Understanding: The Positive Effect of Communication Visibility on Employee Helping Behavior

Author

Listed:
  • Liang Liang

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

  • Guyang Tian

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

  • Xue Zhang

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

  • Yezhuang Tian

    (School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, Heilongjiang, China)

Abstract

Extant research focuses on the antecedents of employee helping behavior, but the role of social technologies in enhancing employee helping behavior remains understudied. The purpose of our research is to investigate the relationship between communication visibility and employee helping behavior. Drawing on both communication visibility theory and social cognitive theory, we propose that the association between communication visibility and helping behavior is mediated by employee psychological state assessed by a cognitive state variable: trust in coworkers. Further, we also propose that proactive personality moderates the positive effect of trust in coworkers on employee helping behavior. We examined our hypothesized relationships using 149 employees collected in a field experiment in China. As hypothesized, we find that trust in coworkers mediates the relationship between communication visibility and helping behavior. Moreover, proactive personality strengthens the effectiveness of communication visibility. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Liang Liang & Guyang Tian & Xue Zhang & Yezhuang Tian, 2020. "Help Comes from Understanding: The Positive Effect of Communication Visibility on Employee Helping Behavior," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-13, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5022-:d:383753
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5022/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/14/5022/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Engelbrecht, Adrian & Gerlach, Jin & Benlian, Alexander & Buxmann, Peter, 2019. "How Employees Gain Meta-Knowledge Using Enterprise Social Networks: A Validation and Extension of Communication Visibility Theory," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 112362, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    2. Jindi Fu & Sukanlaya Sawang & Yuan Sun, 2019. "Enterprise Social Media Adoption: Its Impact on Social Capital in Work and Job Satisfaction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-17, August.
    3. Felix Kipkosgei & Seung-Wan Kang & Suk Bong Choi, 2020. "A Team-Level Study of the Relationship between Knowledge Sharing and Trust in Kenya: Moderating Role of Collaborative Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-13, February.
    4. Qi Song & Yi Wang & Yang Chen & Jose Benitez & Jiang Hu, 2019. "Impact of the usage of social media in the workplace on team and employee performance," Post-Print hal-02159305, HAL.
    5. Kurt T. Dirks & Donald L. Ferrin, 2001. "The Role of Trust in Organizational Settings," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(4), pages 450-467, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ganli Liao & Yi Li & Qichao Zhang & Miaomiao Li, 2022. "Effects of Social Media Usage on Job Crafting for Female Employees during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evidence from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-20, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sebastian Schötteler & Sven Laumer & Heidi Schuhbauer, 2023. "Consequences of Enterprise Social Media Network Positions for Employees," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 65(4), pages 425-440, August.
    2. Shalini Srivastava & Poornima Madan, 2016. "Understanding the Roles of Organizational Identification, Trust and Corporate Ethical Values in Employee Engagement–Organizational Citizenship Behaviour Relationship: A Study on Indian Managers," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 41(4), pages 314-330, November.
    3. S. Hansen & Bradley Alge & Michael Brown & Christine Jackson & Benjamin Dunford, 2013. "Ethical Leadership: Assessing the Value of a Multifoci Social Exchange Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 435-449, July.
    4. Jeeyoon Jeong & Byung-Jik Kim & Min-Jik Kim, 2022. "The Impact of Job Insecurity on Knowledge-Hiding Behavior: The Mediating Role of Organizational Identification and the Buffering Role of Coaching Leadership," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(23), pages 1-17, November.
    5. Alfred L. Luna & Decima Christine Garcia & Shih Yung Chou & Sara Jackson, 2013. "Can Tight Groups At Work Be Detrimental? A Theoretical View Of Gossip From The Network Tie Strength And Density Perspective," Global Journal of Business Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 7(1), pages 91-100.
    6. Judit Oláh & Attila Bai & György Karmazin & Péter Balogh & József Popp, 2017. "The Role Played by Trust and Its Effect on the Competiveness of Logistics Service Providers in Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-22, December.
    7. Giles Hirst & Fred Walumbwa & Samuel Aryee & Ivan Butarbutar & Chin Jeffery Hui Chen, 2016. "A Multi-level Investigation of Authentic Leadership as an Antecedent of Helping Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(3), pages 485-499, December.
    8. Estefanía Palazuelos & Ángel Herrero Crespo & Javier Montoya Corte, 2018. "Accounting information quality and trust as determinants of credit granting to SMEs: the role of external audit," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 861-877, December.
    9. Ashish Kumar Jha & Indranil Bose, 2021. "Linking Drivers and Outcomes of Innovation in IT Firms: The Role of Partnerships," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 1593-1607, December.
    10. Kennedy, Jessica A. & Schweitzer, Maurice E., 2018. "Building trust by tearing others down: When accusing others of unethical behavior engenders trust," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 111-128.
    11. Lutz Kaufmann & Jens Esslinger & Craig R. Carter, 2018. "Toward Relationship Resilience: Managing Buyer‐Induced Breaches of Psychological Contracts During Joint Buyer–Supplier Projects," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 54(4), pages 62-85, October.
    12. Jose Benitez & Laura Ruiz & Ana Castillo & Javier Llorens, 2020. "How corporate social responsibility activities influence employer reputation: The role of social media capability," Post-Print hal-02462583, HAL.
    13. repec:iim:iimawp:13106 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Ana Teresa Ferreira-Oliveira & José Keating & Isabel Silva, 2020. "Sustainable HRM as a Pathway to Sustainability—HRMS Relevance on Affective Commitment through Organizational Trust," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-27, November.
    15. Justyna Łapińska & Iwona Escher & Joanna Górka & Agata Sudolska & Paweł Brzustewicz, 2021. "Employees’ Trust in Artificial Intelligence in Companies: The Case of Energy and Chemical Industries in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, April.
    16. Hutzschenreuter, Thomas & Horstkotte, Julian, 2013. "Performance effects of international expansion processes: The moderating role of top management team experiences," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 259-277.
    17. Tsai, Pei-Hsuan & Kao, Ya-Ling & Kuo, Szu-Yu, 2023. "Exploring the critical factors influencing the outlying island talent recruitment and selection evaluation model: Empirical evidence from Penghu, Taiwan," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Renzl, Birgit, 2008. "Trust in management and knowledge sharing: The mediating effects of fear and knowledge documentation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 206-220, April.
    19. Anja Dettmann & Sidonia Proff & Thomas Brenner, 2015. "Co-operation over distance? The spatial dimension of inter-organizational innovation collaboration," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(4), pages 729-753, September.
    20. Luqman, Adeel & Talwar, Shalini & Masood, Ayesha & Dhir, Amandeep, 2021. "Does enterprise social media use promote employee creativity and well-being?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 40-54.
    21. S. Hansen & Benjamin Dunford & Alan Boss & R. Boss & Ingo Angermeier, 2011. "Corporate Social Responsibility and the Benefits of Employee Trust: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 102(1), pages 29-45, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:14:p:5022-:d:383753. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.