The good and bad of receiving help: The effects of receiving dependent and autonomous help on subsequent creativity

IF 5 2区管理学 Q2 MANAGEMENT

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Pub Date : 2026-03-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-10 DOI:10.1016/j.obhdp.2026.104479

Ziyi Li , Yaping Gong , Yong Zhang , Lirong Long

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Much research has examined the role of help in creativity, highlighting the benefits of receiving help, often under the assumption that helping behavior is intended to benefit recipients. We apply the autonomous–dependent distinction, which describes how help is delivered—either autonomously or in a controlling manner—and examine their differing effects on recipients’ creativity in subsequent tasks through intrinsic motivation. Across two field studies and one experiment, we consistently find that receiving dependent help from coworkers hinders creativity in subsequent tasks, whereas receiving autonomous help enhances it. These effects are mediated by recipients’ intrinsic motivation. Our findings reveal a detrimental consequence of receiving dependent help: it can impose motivational costs that ultimately stifle creativity in subsequent tasks in the same domain. We conclude that the manner in which help is delivered is crucial, extending beyond its contents, sources, and technical adequacy.

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接受帮助的好坏：接受依赖和自主帮助对后续创造力的影响

很多研究都考察了帮助在创造力中的作用，强调了接受帮助的好处，通常假设帮助行为是为了让接受者受益。我们运用自主-依赖的区别，它描述了帮助是如何传递的——要么是自主的，要么是以一种控制的方式——并通过内在动机检查它们对接受者在后续任务中的创造力的不同影响。在两项实地研究和一项实验中，我们一致发现，接受同事的依赖性帮助会阻碍后续任务中的创造力，而接受自主帮助会增强创造力。这些效应是由接受者的内在动机介导的。我们的研究结果揭示了接受依赖性帮助的一个有害后果：它会增加动机成本，最终扼杀在同一领域后续任务中的创造力。我们的结论是，提供帮助的方式是至关重要的，超出了其内容、来源和技术充分性。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes Multiple-

CiteScore

8.90

自引率

4.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes publishes fundamental research in organizational behavior, organizational psychology, and human cognition, judgment, and decision-making. The journal features articles that present original empirical research, theory development, meta-analysis, and methodological advancements relevant to the substantive domains served by the journal. Topics covered by the journal include perception, cognition, judgment, attitudes, emotion, well-being, motivation, choice, and performance. We are interested in articles that investigate these topics as they pertain to individuals, dyads, groups, and other social collectives. For each topic, we place a premium on articles that make fundamental and substantial contributions to understanding psychological processes relevant to human attitudes, cognitions, and behavior in organizations. In order to be considered for publication in OBHDP a manuscript has to include the following: 1.Demonstrate an interesting behavioral/psychological phenomenon 2.Make a significant theoretical and empirical contribution to the existing literature 3.Identify and test the underlying psychological mechanism for the newly discovered behavioral/psychological phenomenon 4.Have practical implications in organizational context