Seeking Help May Enhance Perceptions of Competence: Examining Direct and Indirect Help Seeking in the Workplace

IF 3.2 1区文学 Q1 COMMUNICATION

Communication Research Pub Date : 2026-04-10 DOI:10.1177/00936502261428827

Ningxin Wang, Guanjin Zhang

引用次数: 0

Abstract

In an increasingly challenging workplace, help from colleagues is essential for employees’ performance and development. Yet, individuals often hesitate to seek help at work, fearing that they may appear incompetent. The current research examined how verbal strategies used to seek help at work would affect helpers’ perceptions of the help seekers’ competence. Guided by the sensitive interaction systems theory, we focused on the directness and indirectness of help seeking communication. Through two studies employing complementary methodologies, we found that helpers judged the competence of help seekers based on their inferred causes for the help requests. Specifically, helpers evaluated seekers as more competent when they attributed the help seeking to a high motivation to succeed rather than a lack of ability. Additionally, direct help seeking was associated with higher perceived competence of the help seeker, which was mediated by the helpers’ inferences of a high motivation to succeed as the cause of help seeking.

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寻求帮助可以提高能力的感知：考察在工作场所直接和间接寻求帮助

在一个日益具有挑战性的工作场所，同事的帮助对员工的表现和发展至关重要。然而，人们常常不愿在工作中寻求帮助，担心自己会显得无能。目前的研究考察了在工作中寻求帮助时使用的语言策略如何影响帮助者对求助者能力的看法。在敏感交互系统理论的指导下，我们关注求助沟通的直接性和间接性。通过两项采用互补方法的研究，我们发现帮助者根据他们对帮助请求的推断原因来判断求助者的能力。具体来说，当帮助者将寻求帮助归因于成功的强烈动机而不是缺乏能力时，他们会认为寻求帮助的人更有能力。此外，直接寻求帮助与寻求帮助者的感知能力相关，这是通过帮助者推断高成功动机作为寻求帮助的原因来中介的。

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

Communication Research COMMUNICATION-

CiteScore

17.10

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Empirical research in communication began in the 20th century, and there are more researchers pursuing answers to communication questions today than at any other time. The editorial goal of Communication Research is to offer a special opportunity for reflection and change in the new millennium. To qualify for publication, research should, first, be explicitly tied to some form of communication; second, be theoretically driven with results that inform theory; third, use the most rigorous empirical methods; and fourth, be directly linked to the most important problems and issues facing humankind. Critieria do not privilege any particular context; indeed, we believe that the key problems facing humankind occur in close relationships, groups, organiations, and cultures.