The positive effect of informal leadership has been well established, whereas our understanding of its potential negative effect in interpersonal interaction is still limited. This study explores the influence of individual informal leadership on helping received from peers from an interpersonal interaction perspective. Drawing upon social comparison theory, we posit that a focal employee’s moderate level of informal leadership in a team can pose a threat to peers, which inhibits the helping behavior from peers to the focal employee. To test our hypothesis, we conducted an experiment in Study 1 and a field survey in Study 2. The results revealed that individual informal leadership had a curvilinear relationship with helping behavior from peers via threat to peers. Furthermore, the focal employee’s political skill mitigated this curvilinear effect. Theoretical and future research implications are discussed.

非正式领导的积极影响已经得到充分证实，但我们对其在人际交往中潜在负面影响的理解仍然有限。本研究从人际互动的角度探讨了个人非正式领导力对从同伴那里获得帮助的影响。利用社会比较理论，我们假设团队中焦点员工的中等程度的非正式领导会对同事构成威胁，从而抑制同事对焦点员工的帮助行为。为了检验我们的假设，我们在研究 1 中进行了实验，在研究 2 中进行了实地调查。结果表明，个人非正式领导力与同事通过威胁同事的帮助行为之间存在曲线关系。此外，核心员工的政治技巧减轻了这种曲线效应。讨论了理论和未来的研究意义。