Power and altruistic helping in organizations: roles of psychological closeness, workplace design, and relational self-construal

Abstract

I tested a model wherein psychological closeness mediated the negative relationship between power and altruistic helping. I also proposed two moderators--physical distance and relational self-construal--to moderate this relationship, specifically by interacting with power to influence psychological closeness. First of all, this study did not support the proposition that power was negatively related to helping. Power was not associated with helping in the lab setting; perceptions of power measures were positively associated with helping whereas most of the measures of status and relative power were not associated with helping. Second, I did not find support for the model wherein psychological closeness mediated the negative relationship between power and helping in both the lab setting and the field setting. Third, neither physical distance nor relational self-construal was a significant moderator of the relationship between power and psychological closeness. Therefore, the association between power and helping via psychological closeness did not vary by either of the moderators.