Soliciting Resources from Others: An Integrative Review

Abstract

Resource seeking, or the act of asking others for things that can help one attain one’s goals, is an important behavior within organizations because of the increasingly dynamic nature of work that demands collaboration and coordination among employees. Over the past two decades, there has been growing research in the organizational sciences on four types of resource seeking behaviors: feedback seeking, information seeking, advice seeking, and help seeking. However, research on these four behaviors has existed in separate silos. We argue that there is value in recognizing that these behaviors reflect a common higher order construct (resource seeking), and in integrating the findings across the four literatures as a basis for understanding what we do and do not know about the predictors and outcomes of resource seeking at work. More specifically, we use conservation of resources (COR) theory as a framework to guide our integration across the four literatures and to both deepen and extend current understandings of why and when employees engage in resource seeking, as well as how resource seeking behaviors may lead to both individual- and collective-level outcomes. We conclude with a discussion of future research needs and how COR theory can provide a fruitful foundation for future resource seeking research.

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