HR systems for facilitating helping behavior: a multilevel perspective

Helping behavior, voluntary help to others to prevent work-related problems, is very often a crucial aspect of the individual-level work process. According to recent advances in human resource management (HRM) research, firm-level human resource systems can affect both individuals and their relationship-building processes. Using a multi-level approach on a sample of 128 employees and 14 managers from 14 companies, we examined cross-level influence of two distinct human resource system archetypes (commitment and compliance) on individual helping behavior. Moreover, we relate to context theory and investigate moderating role of two relational climates (communal-sharing and market-pricing). Our findings somewhat contradict theoretical predictions, which would suggest that the interaction of commitment human resource system and communal-sharing climate may be suitable for stimulating employee helping behavior. Contrastingly, we found a positive interaction between compliance HR system and market-sharing climate. Our findings imply that helping behavior might be less frequent and thus stand out in environments characterized by competition and compliance, but also that broader (cultural) characteristics need to be accounted for when interpreting results.