Status Threat or Grateful Reciprocity? Investigating Pathways Through Which Receiving Task-Related Help Influences Recipients’ Subsequent Differentiated Helping Behavior

Employees’ helping behavior is critical for team efficiency and innovation. However, the literature highlights competing perspectives on whether receiving help elicits a pattern consistent with reciprocity or defensive ingratitude. Grounded in the help-as-status model and self-regulation theory, we developed a dual-pathway model to examine how received task-related help may influence recipients’ subsequent differentiated helping behaviors through the lens of status threats. We further investigate the moderating role of a competitive climate in this process. On the basis of a two-wave survey of 252 full-time employees, our findings reveal that receiving task-related help is positively associated with perceived status threat. This threat, in turn, serves as a plausible mediator of the link between receiving help and subsequent dependency-oriented help while exerting a suppressive effect on autonomy-oriented help. Furthermore, a competitive climate appeared to intensify the indirect pathway to dependency-oriented help, though the evidence for moderation of the autonomy-oriented help pathway was mixed. By exploring these defensive psychological mechanisms within a single national organizational context, this study offers a cautious, status-based explanation for managing the complexities of prosocial interactions. While the findings provide nuanced insights into post-help dynamics, we acknowledge the inherent boundaries of our two-wave, self-reported survey design. However, the positive direct association with autonomy-oriented help may be consistent with multiple processes beyond status threat, including unmeasured gratitude, reciprocity norms, learning orientation, or enhanced relational quality.