Helping intention, trust and performance appraisal in the context of culture, power and group: a scenario-based experiment

Abstract

This study aims to examine helping intention, trust, and performance appraisal which are critical variables of the organizational environment, in the context of culture, power, and group. In accordance with this purpose, the helping intention, trust level, and performance scores towards employees are examined according to the values/norms, being high-power/low-power, and being ingroup/outgroup. Therefore, the scenario-based experimental method, which is not common in the management literature but powerful in explaining the causality between variables, is used in a 2x2x2 factorial design. As a result of the analysis carried out, it is seen that the performance scores and the helping intention stated in the context of values are higher compared to norms, while the level of trust is lower. It is also found out that performance scores and helping intention towards ingroup are higher compared to the outgroup. Here, contrary to expectations, it is seen that the level of trust does not differ according to ingroup or outgroup. Finally, it is determined that high-power individuals give lower performance scores and demonstrate lower levels of trust and helping intention compared to low-power individuals. The results also showed that there are some 2-way relations of independent variables that are effective on dependent variables.