The Social Costs of Seeking Help

By Fiona Lee. 2002

235 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Communication, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ab7b016c912d9051f63b932be51240323736f4af

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In Social Psychology

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Citations in the corpus

The Impact of Coworker Support on Employee Turnover in the Hospitality Industry (2013, background): “Regarding help seeking, Lee (2002) demonstrated that individuals are resistant to seeking aid from others so as not to appear incompetent and inferior to others.”
What Motivates Employees to Transfer Knowledge Outside Their Work Unit? (2005, background): “From an impression-management perspective, seeking knowledge can hurt the seeker’s reputation if it is perceived as asking for help (dePaulo & Fisher, 1980; Lee, 1997, 2002).”
Domestic violence crimes and children: A population-based investigation of direct sensory exposure and the nature of involvement (2009, unknown): “Research on the gender effects of help-seeking behavior shows that females are socialized to ask for help from a young age (Lee, 2002; Newman, 1990).”
Why individuals in larger teams perform worse (2012, background): “For example, when building and maintaining social relationships individuals often seek help from others (Lee, 1997, 2002), give help to others (Blau, 1964; Clark & Mills, 1993) and express positive emotions (Reis et al., 2000), all behaviors that require a time investment (Bergeron, 2007; Nadler,…”
Help-Seeking and Help-Giving as an Organizational Routine: Continual Engagement in Innovative Work (2015, background): “Existing theories, which focus on helping as a dyadic exchange relationship (e.g., Blau, 1963; Flynn et al., 2006; Lee, 2002), are insufficient to explain these observations.”
When Collections of Creatives Become Creative Collectives: A Field Study of Problem Solving at Work (2006, background): “For example, in many organizations, seeking help from others has social costs, as it can reflect the tacit admission that one is unable to solve problems on one's own, a confession of inadequacy that few are willing to make (e.g., Lee 2002).”
Doing good buffers against feeling bad: Prosocial impact compensates for negative task and self-evaluations (2010, background): “…help can lead recipients to feel incompetent, dependent, vulnerable, threatened, embarrassed, and helpless (Fisher, Nadler, & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982; Lee, 1997, 2002), reactions that lead to negative rather than positive states for the helper (Pines, 1982; Rosen, Mickler, & Collins, 1987; Wills,…”
Revisiting How and When Perceived Organizational Support Enhances Taking Charge (2015, background): “Indeed, recipients’ reactions to support are not always positive; at times, they may feel threatened or incompetent (Fisher et al., 1982; Lee, 2002), and even “overhelped” (Gilbert & Silvera, 1996: 678).”
Relational Job Design and the Motivation to Make a Prosocial Difference (2007, background): “Employees may see the beneficiary as incompetent (Fisher, Nadler, & Whitcher-Alagna, 1982; Lee, 1997, 2002), as deserving harm (Lerner & Miller, 1978), or as a stigmatized member of an outgroup (Ashforth & Mael, 1989).”
Are male leaders penalized for seeking help? The influence of gender and asking behaviors on competence perceptions (2015, background): “Although the merits of help seeking are considerable, previous research has suggested that help seeking may undermine perceptions of one's competence (DePaulo & Fisher, 1980; Fisher & Nadler, 1974; Lee, 1997, 1999, 2002; Nadler & Fisher, 1976).”