Gendered Help at the Workplace

Implications for Organizational Power Relations

Bibliographic Data

ID13655366
AuthorsLily Chernyak‐hai (0000-0003-1033-4779, corresponding author), Lily Chernyak-Hai, Ronit Waismel‐Manor (0000-0002-5001-9645, Netanya Academic College), Ronit Waismel-Manor (0000-0003-3364-0090, Netanya Academic College)
Year2018
Volume122
Issue3
Pages1087-1116
Publication date2018-04-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePsychological Reports (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0033-2941 • E-ISSN: 1558-691X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0033294118773483
PMID29708050
OpenAlexW2800095836
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited65

One of the most thoroughly studied aspects of prosocial workplace behavior is organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Yet, the definition of OCB seems to overlook the fact that help-giving acts may be of different types with different consequences for both giver and recipient. The present research explores workplace help-giving behavior by investigating the importance of gender as a factor that facilitates or inhibits specific types of help that empower and disempower independent coping: autonomy- and dependency-oriented help, respectively. A pilot and two following studies were conducted. The pilot study empirically assessed which acts would be clearly perceived by participants as representing both types of help. Then, using the descriptions of these acts, Study 1 examined which type of help would be perceived as most likely to be given by a male or female employee to a male or female colleague in a sample of 226 participants (78% women). Study 2 explored which type of help participants perceived as one they would rather receive from a male or female helper in a sample of 170 participants (65% women). Our findings indicate that male and female respondents who rated men giving help were more likely to expect them to give autonomy-oriented help, especially to women. There were no significant differences in dependency-oriented help. Further, women preferred to receive more autonomy-oriented help than men did, regardless of the help-giver's gender; no significant results were found for men. Implications for OCB and workplace power relations are discussed

Autonomy · Coping (psychology · Developmental psychology · Organizational citizenship behavior · Organizational commitment · Prosocial behavior · Sample (material · Clinical Psychology · Gender Diversity and Inequality · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology · Work-Family Balance Challenges

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