This article develops a conceptual framework that explains how organizations can influence employees’ attitudes and behaviour through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities. There are plenty of studies to suggest the financial benefits of CSR. However, studies are scarce to link CSR with non-financial measures of organizational effectiveness, such as, affective commitment, job engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Moreover, studies are rare to delineate the process through which CSR can bring positive attitudes. Thus, this article focuses on organizational prosocial identity as a mediating variable. The role of communicating CSR activities is almost negligible and to address this gap, this article considers CSR communication as a moderating variable. Drawing from literature, this article argues that the success of an organization lies in enhancing positive attitudes among employees and probably, one of the ways to promote this is through CSR. Based on this assertion, the framework identifies CSR activities towards four stakeholders (employees, customers, community and environment) and its impacts on employees. Several research implications are proposed based on the propositions highlighted in this article.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees’ job outcomes, namely, work engagement and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in select Indian manufacturing firms. This study also aims to measure the mediating effect of organizational trust in the above link. Design/methodology/approach Based on the stakeholder theory of CSR, the proposed model was tested using data from 284 employees across eight manufacturing firms in South India extensively involved in CSR activities. Data were analyzed using hierarchical regression techniques. Findings Significant positive association between CSR activities toward only three stakeholders (employees, customers and environment) and the outcome variables (work engagement and OCB) were observed. Organizational trust partially mediated the relationship between CSR activities and job outcomes. Findings reveal that organizational trust is the underlying mechanism by which organization’s involvement in CSR activities positively influences job outcomes. The implications are discussed along the lines of the findings. Originality/value Substantial macro-level research studies are available linking CSR activities with tangible outcomes, such as financial outcomes. Literature suggests the need for more research on CSR at the micro level i.e., how CSR practices affect the attitude, behavior, well-being and work engagement of employees. This study also addressed the important research gap by considering the stakeholder theory of CSR in a non-western context. Moreover, the mechanism through which CSR relates to employees’ job-related outcomes is relatively underexplored. Therefore, the current study captured the role of organizational trust as a mediator.

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