Helping neighbors and enhancing yourself: a spillover effect of helping neighbors on work-family conflict and thriving at work

Abstract

Although the beneficial effects of helping behavior in workplace, such as organizational citizen behavior, have long been established, the positive spillover effects of helping neighbors behavior on giver’s family and work outcomes are far from clear. By adopting a two-wave design (N = 220, Chinese workers), this research represents an initial attempt to explore the impacts of helping neighbors behavior, referring to various types of assistance given to one’s neighbors, on work-family conflict and on thriving at work and the effect of social functioning. Our hypothesis was largely supported by a structural equation modeling analysis. We found that helping neighbors behavior enhances workplace social functioning of the giver. Moreover, social functioning mediates the effects of helping neighbors behavior on work-family conflict and thriving at work. These findings contribute to research on the positive impacts of community service on family and work outcomes, extending the scope of helping literature.