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Help-seeking: testing the effects of task interdependence and normativeness on employees’ propensity to seek help

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Abstract

This study explores the effects of task interdependence (high versus low) and helping norms (supportive versus non-supportive) on propensity to seek help. Participants were most likely to seek help when: (1) task interdependence was high, and (2) supportive help-seeking norms were operative. A 2-way interaction also emerged. Under the non-supportive norms condition, help-seeking was greatest for high versus low levels of task interdependence; when supportive norms were operative, relatively high levels of help-seeking arose across task interdependence conditions. No support for the hypotheses that high self-esteem, high task specific self-efficacy, and low achievement motivation would increase help-seeking was obtained.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Carolina at Beaufort, 1 University Boulevard, Beaufort, SC, 29909, USA

    Dean Cleavenger

  2. Rawl College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, 15th and Flint, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

    William L. Gardner

  3. Gallup Leadership Institute, College of Business Administration, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, 68588-0497, USA

    Ketan Mhatre

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  1. Dean Cleavenger
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  2. William L. Gardner
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  3. Ketan Mhatre
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Correspondence to William L. Gardner.

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Cleavenger, D., Gardner, W.L. & Mhatre, K. Help-seeking: testing the effects of task interdependence and normativeness on employees’ propensity to seek help. J Bus Psychol 21, 331–359 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-006-9032-7

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