Helping as an Opportunity and Risk: An Alternative Side to Gratitude in Co-Worker Dyads

Jennifer A. Harrison (), M.-H. Budworth and T.H. Stone
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Jennifer A. Harrison: Métis Lab EM Normandie - EM Normandie - École de Management de Normandie = EM Normandie Business School

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Abstract: Purpose: As workplaces and relationships evolve with increasing complexity, co-worker dynamics have become a key concern for HR managers and scholars. An important yet overlooked aspect of co-worker dynamics is gratitude. This paper adopts a relationship-specific conceptualization of gratitude and explores its influence on prosocial behaviors within co-worker dyads. The proposed model also suggests structural-relational factors under which these relationships are affected. Design/methodology/approach: The conceptual paper draws insights from personal relationships to consider an alternative side of gratitude's prosocial action tendencies, thereby highlighting two: risk-oriented and opportunity-oriented. These assumptions are then situated within the affect theory of social exchange to predict gratitude's influence on prosocial behaviors within co-worker dyads. Findings: The proposed model illuminates the importance of studying relationship-specific gratitude within co-worker relations by illustrating its effects on two types of prosocial action tendencies \textendash opportunity-oriented and risk-oriented and varying prosocial behaviors (from convergent to divergent). Structural-relational factors, such as positional and physical distance between co-workers, are considered to affect these relationships. Originality/value: While the study of gratitude in the workplace is emerging, little research has examined its influence on the nature of prosocial behaviors within co-worker relations. This paper advances the notion that gratitude serves an adaptive function in co-worker dyads, thereby highlighting the risk-oriented and opportunity-oriented continuum, and its implications for the type and scope of prosocial behaviors exchanged. \textcopyright 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Keywords: Affect theory of social exchange; Co-worker dyads; Gratitude; Power; Prosocial behaviors; Remote work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Published in Personnel Review, 2023, 52 (7), pp.1807-1822. ⟨10.1108/PR-10-2021-0774⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04435442

DOI: 10.1108/PR-10-2021-0774

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