Exploring why and when workplace friendship has a differentiated effect on relationship norms and helping behavior: A relationship motivation theory approach

Exploring why and when workplace friendship has a differentiated effect on relationship norms and helping behavior: A relationship motivation theory approach | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Exploring why and when workplace friendship has a differentiated effect on relationship norms and helping behavior: A relationship motivation theory approach Shuai Wang, Guanzhe Jiao, Yun Chen This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4494088/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Although scholars have begun to focus on the complexity of workplace friendship as a collection of exchange relationships and communal relationships that contain conflicting exchange norms and communal norms (Pillemer & Rothbard, 2018 ), unfortunately, our elaborated understanding of whether the differentiated effects of workplace friendship on organizational citizenship behavior or not due to such complexity and, especially, boundary conditions for their differentiated influence are limited. Our purpose is to develop a motivational framework that reveals when and how differentiated helping is driven by workplace friendship via different relationship norms considering perceived relationship motivations. To do so, we argue that workplace friendship can lead to proactive helping and reactive helping through adherence to communal norms and exchange norms, respectively, and such a differentiated effect of workplace friendship hinges on employees’ perceived partners’ relationship motivation. Using multi-wave survey (Study 1) and experiment (Study 2) methods, we found that when employees perceive others are driven by autonomous relationship motivation, workplace friendship is positively related to communal norms, enhancing proactive helping, whereas when employees perceive others are driven by controlled relationship motivation attribution, workplace friendship is positively related to exchange norms, enhancing reactive helping. Our study contributes to the literature on workplace friendship and relationship motivation. workplace friendship relationship motivation theory perceived relationship motivation relationship norms helping behavior Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4494088","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":309955810,"identity":"0bb5547d-ee56-4af8-a0e4-41740215ddee","order_by":0,"name":"Shuai Wang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA50lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYLACxgYGBjb2BgYJMO8A0Vp4DpCqhUEigUgtBsfPHn75c8dheT7J5w9v87YxyPHdSGD8XIBPy5m8NGveM4cN26RzjK2BWowlbyQwS8/Ao8XsQI6ZMWPbYUagFjbp3DaGxA03EtiYefBpOf/GzPBn22H7Nsnjz0Ba6glruZFj/IC37XBimwSDGUhLggEhLfY33pgx87alJ7fxAP3y55yE4cwzD5ul8WmR7M8x/vizzdp2fvvxhzdnlNnI8x1PPvgZnxYgYJNA4oDY4GjCC5g/EFIxCkbBKBgFIxwAAFwjTFv0OkH+AAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Shandong Women’s University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Shuai","middleName":"","lastName":"Wang","suffix":""},{"id":309955813,"identity":"3d0a34bd-aed7-4192-b2a8-ddeb2daaf8ec","order_by":1,"name":"Guanzhe Jiao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Southwest Jiaotong University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Guanzhe","middleName":"","lastName":"Jiao","suffix":""},{"id":309955815,"identity":"d649fe9d-144e-4a9d-bb88-46098bdd1bc0","order_by":2,"name":"Yun Chen","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of International Business and Economics","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yun","middleName":"","lastName":"Chen","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-29 03:53:13","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4494088/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4494088/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":65246965,"identity":"c2ffb20c-b16b-4082-85ac-2dcffe54ae68","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-09-25 08:02:15","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":698305,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript6.1.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4494088/v1_covered_8619ab01-e533-4769-b9aa-0a9bf295fe69.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Exploring why and when workplace friendship has a differentiated effect on relationship norms and helping behavior: A relationship motivation theory approach","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"workplace friendship, relationship motivation theory, perceived relationship motivation, relationship norms, helping behavior","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4494088/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4494088/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eAlthough scholars have begun to focus on the complexity of workplace friendship as a collection of exchange relationships and communal relationships that contain conflicting exchange norms and communal norms (Pillemer \u0026amp; Rothbard, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR58\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2018\u003c/span\u003e), unfortunately, our elaborated understanding of whether the differentiated effects of workplace friendship on organizational citizenship behavior or not due to such complexity and, especially, boundary conditions for their differentiated influence are limited. 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