Proactive and reactive helping: Contrasting the positive consequences of different forms of helping

• Published in: Journal of organizational behavior Vol. 34; no. 4; pp. 560 - 580
• Main Authors: Spitzmuller, Matthias, Van Dyne, Linn
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-05-2013; John Wiley & Sons; Wiley Periodicals Inc
• Subjects: Beneficiaries; Cognitive psychology; Contingencies; helping; Helping behavior; Industrial and organizational psychology; Motivation; Motivation research; OCB; Organization theory; Organizational behavior; Personal needs; Personality psychology; Point/Counterpoint; positive consequences of helping; Psychological aspects; Psychology; Self; Self evaluation; Social exchange theory; Social interaction; Social psychology; Studies; Trucks; Wellbeing
• ISSN: 0894-3796; 1099-1379
• DOI: 10.1002/job.1848

Research on helping has identified positive consequences of helping for the helper, beneficiary, group, and organization. Recent research, however, raises concerns about contingencies that influence the outcomes of helping and suggests the need for a more nuanced perspective on the positive outcomes of helping. In this paper, we develop a novel theoretical perspective to address these contingencies by differentiating between proactive helping and reactive helping. Drawing from the two main theoretical frameworks, which have been used as the basis for studying helping—social exchange theory and functional motives theory—we discuss differences in the positive consequences of reactive and proactive helping for helpers, dyads, groups, and organizations. We submit that reactive helping facilitates heedful relationships, such that it creates and perpetuates social exchange norms that benefit others in the group. Conversely, we posit that proactive helping is often based on fulfilling personal needs, such that it benefits the self in terms of reputational benefits, well-being, favorable self-evaluations, need satisfaction, and self-development. We discuss theoretical implications of this framework for future research on the positive consequences of helping.