Lending a helping hand: Provision of helping behaviors beyond professional career responsibilities

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to investigate if gender and altruism evidence similar relationships with the different types of helping behaviors (e.g. organizational citizenship behaviors, OCBs; volunteering, vol; and helping kin, HK). Design/methodology/approach – Data from websurveys of 178 professional employees are analyzed using Zellner’s seemingly unrelated regression (SURE). Findings – Results indicate women engage in HK to a greater extent than men, however this difference between men and women in helping behaviors disappears when the other variables are entered in the model. Gender and altruism interacted to influence OCBs, such that the relationship was stronger for women than for men. Practical implications – An important implication of these results is that by knowing the motives that are most important to people, organizations may tailor their appeals to potential volunteers. Targeting potential volunteers is most effective when it matches people’s reasons for volunteering. Originality/value – The unique contribution of this study is that it simultaneously examined the relationship between altruism and the three types of helping behavior in a single study