Speaker: Dr Thomas Kelemen, Kansas State University, US
Title: To Compare is Human: Implications of OCB Comparisons for Coworker Sympathy and Inspiration and Coworker Advice Seeking and Giving
Date: Monday, 26th Feb 2024
Time: 12:00pm – 2:00pm
Venue: Building 24, Copland, Seminar Room 1106
Dr Chao Ma is the host of this visit
Abstract:
Interpersonal helping is one of the most central and well-studied topics in organizational behavior research. Research on helping notes that helpful employees both personally benefit from these behaviors but also experience costs. Based on this duality and drawing upon social comparison theory we seek to understand how employees react when their coworker is more helpful than they are. Using a sample of 592 employee-coworker dyads measured at three points in time we find that employees simultaneously feel both upward comparison emotions of inspiration along with downward comparison emotions of sympathy towards more helpful coworkers. These effects are moderated by perceived pressure to help such that when perceived pressure to help is high employees feel less inspiration and more sympathy and when perceived pressure to help is low employees feel more inspiration and less sympathy. We likewise find that inspiration leads to advice seeking and that sympathy leads to advice giving. We also explore in post-hoc tests how employee gender and coworker gender influence the outcomes of helping comparisons.
Bio:
Thomas Kelemen received his Ph.D. in management from the University of Oklahoma. He is currently an assistant professor of management and the Robert F. Hagans Chair of Business at Kansas State University. He is also a Fulbright scholar currently at Deakin University. His research focuses on leadership, organizational citizenship behavior, and work-family issues.