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How prosocial is proactive: Developing and validating a scale and process model of knowledge-based proactive helping

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2018

Shashank Mittal ,
Atri Sengupta ,
N M Agrawal  and
Sumeet Gupta
Shashank Mittal
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Chhattishgarh, India
Atri Sengupta*
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, Orissa, India
N M Agrawal
Affiliation:
Department of OB & HR, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Sumeet Gupta
Affiliation:
Department of Operations & Systems, Indian Institute of Management Raipur, Chhattishgarh, India
*
Corresponding author: atrisengupta@iimsambalpur.ac.in
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Abstract

The knowledge exchanges literature considered all types of knowledge exchanges as reactive. The present study develops the conceptual framework and the measure of knowledge-based proactive helping that was missing in earlier literature. The measure was validated across multiple population. Proactive helping was manifested in the scale items effectively, to the extent that at first, initially chosen five dimensions merged to form two factors: professional development and problem mitigation and; subsequent analysis revealed that the factors represented the same underlying construct of proactive helping. The nomological network, a process model highlighting the psychosocial causes and benefits of proactive helping based upon social exchange theory and social motivation theory was also proposed. The significance of the study was in bringing the prosocial, proactive exchanges at the forefront of knowledge exchanges, which predominantly focussed on reactive exchanges.

Keywords

knowledge-based social exchangeknowledge-based proactive helpingknowledge sharingscale development and validation
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , July 2020 , pp. 625 - 650
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2018

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