When and why is emotion helping beneficial to the recipient?

ABSTRACT Helping is a fundamental aspect of organizational life and is generally viewed as beneficial for employee well-being and functioning. However, relatively little is known about how different forms of help are experienced by recipients. Drawing on social-functional theories of emotion and Self-Determination Theory, this research examines when and why emotion helping is beneficial to recipients. I propose that emotion helping functions as an interpersonal signal that communicates social value, thereby enhancing recipients’ social worth and self-worth. In turn, these experiences may reduce burnout-related outcomes, including emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy. In addition, I introduce the concept of received compassion fatigue, which suggests that highly intense compassion may become emotionally burdensome for recipients and weaken the benefits of emotion helping. Study 1 tests the proposed theoretical model by comparing emotion helping and task helping and examining the roles of social worth, self-worth, compassion, and burnout. Building on these findings, Study 2 will experimentally investigate the causal effects of emotion and instrumental helping and further examine the conditions under which emotion helping promotes positive recipient outcomes.