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Professionalism and Helping: Harmonious or Discordant Concepts? An Attribution Theory Perspective
Author(s) -
DrachZahavy Anat,
Somech Anit
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.0021-9029.2006.00087.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , perspective (graphical) , social psychology , helping behavior , referral , qualitative research , distress , applied psychology , nursing , clinical psychology , medicine , sociology , social science , artificial intelligence , computer science
In examining whether a leader's professionalism implies more or fewer helping behaviors for followers, this study designed a model integrating attributional theory explanations with professionalism to predict helping behaviors. Four distinct helping behaviors were conceptualized: supporting, motivating, referral, and rejection. Qualitative methods used in the study consisted of content analysis of interviews with 12 superiors at healthcare organizations concerning their means of helping staff, and the circumstances. Quantitative data were gathered by an experimental design in which four case studies were presented to each of 171 healthcare superiors, who were asked to deal with a distressed staff nurse whose stability and controllability of the distress were rated either high or low. Superiors' professionalism was assessed. Results indicated that the relationship between professionalism and helping was complex, and critically dependent upon the type of helping behaviors provided, the help provider's professionalism, and attributions of the help seeker's controllability and stability. The qualitative and quantitative results favor attribution explanations, and imply that highly professional superiors provide higher levels of supporting, motivating, and rejecting helping behaviors as means to maintain professionalism of staff.