Achieving career marketability through helping others: A moderated mediation model

Abstract

We explored the relationship between helping behaviour and career marketability, explicating the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions in that relationship. A total of 203 full-time Chinese workers (female = 51.2%; mean age = 32.27 years, SD = 6.34 years; managers = 16.7%) in the construction industry completed a two-wave survey on helping behaviour and career marketability. Path analyses results indicated that helping behaviour enhances both perceived internal and external marketability. Psychological meaningfulness and work attentiveness sequentially mediated the relationship between helping behaviour and career marketability positively. Psychological entitlement moderates the indirect relationships between helping behaviour and career marketability for those with low psychological entitlement. In our sample, male employees had higher work attentiveness than female employees. This study provides important insights about psychological meaningfulness and work attentiveness as work resources for career advancement through helping behaviours. Human resources managers may improve organisational productivity by rewarding helping behaviour at work.