The Depleting Impact of Helping Behavior on Career Satisfaction: The Buffering Role of Strengths Use

Abstract

Recent studies have explored the dark side of helping behavior from an actor-centric perspective. Consistent with this stream of research, this study linked helping behavior to career satisfaction. In this study, we adopted perceived task demands and job strain as two sequential mediators to elaborate the underlying depletion path through which helping behavior undermines career satisfaction. We collected data using a two-wave questionnaire completed by 203 full-time workers in China. By applying path analysis using R software, the results revealed the following: (1) helping behavior undermines career satisfaction by enhancing perceived task demands and job strain; (2) the use of strengths buffers the relationship between perceived task demands and job strain; and (3) the indirect depleting impact of helping behavior on career satisfaction only emerges when the use of strengths is low. This highlights important implications for practitioners to leverage helping behavior in their management practices.