New employees’ interpersonal sensitivity and help-seeking behavior: Fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety as mediators

Little is known about the relationship between interpersonal sensitivity and help-seeking behavior (HSB), especially in the workplace context. We explored the mediating effects of both the fear of negative evaluation (FNE) and social anxiety (SA) in the association between new employees’ interpersonal sensitivity (i.e., an excessive focus on the feelings and behaviors of others) and their HSB. Participants were 636 Chinese employees with 1 year or less of service in the job market. The results show that interpersonal sensitivity was negatively correlated with the HSB of new employees and that this relationship was mediated by FNE and then SA. Thus, for new employees, interpersonal sensitivity exerts a clearly negative predictive effect on HSB, and we have demonstrated the significant chain mediating effect of FNE and SA.