组织中权力如何促进亲社会行为?责任感知的中介作用

How does power in organizations promote prosocial behavior?The mediating role of sense of responsibility

如何善用权力惠及于民既是一个重要的科学问题,也是一个关键的管理实践问题。以往学者主要关注组织情境中权力对亲社会行为的消极作用,对积极作用的发生机制尚不清楚。梳理组织中权力正向影响亲社会行为的相关文献,发现责任感知在权力促进亲社会行为中起中介作用;掌权者在行使权力时会考虑自身需求、与他人的关系,以及与组织的关系,从而增强责任感知,且不同路径会受个体层面、人际层面和组织层面的潜在因素影响。权力通过责任感知促进亲社会行为的综合模型,对组织以及掌权者如何善用权力具有重要的启示意义。

Early research on power has provided considerable evidence for the negative effects of power on prosocial behavior and its internal mechanisms.Although an increasing number of studies have attempted to test the positive effects of power on prosocial behavior,the mechanism of this positive effect is still not clear.By reviewing and integrating the relevant literature,sense of responsibility has been identified as a critical mediator in this positive effect.In addition,individuals with high levels of power may increase their sense of responsibility because of different reasons.Given the individual’s own needs,relationships with others as well as organization,we systematically figure out that need for power maintenance,perception of dependency,and organizational identification would lead to high levels of responsibility,which then triggers powerful individuals to conduct more prosocial behaviors.Moreover,we also identified potential moderators at individual level,interpersonal level,and organizational level.Future research could focus on how power results in increased sense of responsibility from various ways including exploring this relationship in Chinese culture,adopting multiple research designs beyond experimental studies,as well as manipulating interventions for helping powerful individuals increase their levels of sense of responsibility.