When is helping behavior unhelpful? A conceptual analysis and research agenda

Popular parlance, several organizational literatures (e.g., feedback, mentoring, and organizational citizenship behavior), and research literatures in other academic disciplines (e.g., social psychology, judgment and decision-making) have recognized that help can sometimes be unhelpful. The current paper organizes and extends the extant research in this area using a momentary, relational, person-person complementary fit (i.e., need-fulfillment) conceptual model that it applies to: (1) targets’ motives for seeking help and actors’ motives for providing it, (2) the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) needed by targets and those possessed by actors, and (3) the types of help needed by targets and those provided by actors. As a part of this, the paper develops review-based taxonomies of motives relevant to helping, KSAs relevant to helping, and types of help. The paper additionally delineates further extensions of the conceptual model, important avenues for future research, and practical implications associated with the effective giving and seeking of help in organizational settings.