Do employees value strategic CSR? A tale of affective organizational commitment and its underlying mechanisms

Abstract

Virtually all studies that focus on the relationship between CSR perceptions and employees’ organizational commitment have not taken into consideration the fit between social and environmental activities and a firm’s business‐unit strategy. This is essential to inquire because scholars have argued that when companies ingrain CSR activities into their strategy‐making process (i.e., in their vision, mission, and overall business model), this might send a more compelling message that resonates closer to workers’ personal standards, and actually enhance employee‐level outcomes. Nevertheless, there is no certainty “if” and “how” these evaluations could affect employees’ organizational commitment. To address this issue, we use cue consistency theory and social identity theory as overarching frameworks to develop a model where we conceptually link perceptions of strategy‐CSR fit with a particular type of organizational commitment: affective. In addition, we posit and test three mediators to understand the underlying psychological mechanisms of this relationship: perceived external prestige, organizational identification, and work meaningfulness. Through structural equation modeling, and using a heterogeneous final sample of 579 employees, we find compelling evidence to support the fact that strategy‐CSR fit enhances employees’ affective organizational commitment through the proposed mediators. Academic contributions and practical implications are then discussed.

Hotel employees' corporate social responsibility perception and organizational citizenship behavior: Perceived external prestige and pride in organization as serial mediators

“…Reflecting certain attributes that are valued by external stakeholders contributes to the identity development of organization members and enhances employees' sense of importance and value (Chaudhary & Akhouri, 2019; Dutton & Dukerich, 1991; Kim, Lee, Lee, & Kim, 2010). Working in a business with high reputation contributes to employees' positioning themselves in a good place in their social environment, and it rises employees' self‐esteem (Rodrigo, Aqueveque, & Duran, 2019). Supporting those theoretical arguments, previous studies indicated that companies' CSR practices positively affect employees' external prestige perception (De Roeck & Delobbe, 2012; Gürlek & Tuna, 2019).…”

The consequences of employees’ perceived corporate social responsibility: A meta‐analysis

“…In particular, employees, as one of the most important stakeholder groups in an enterprise, and who have tacit knowledge of the organisation, tend to be more aware of the motives behind CSR than other stakeholders (Fryzel & Seppala, ). Therefore, the way in which employees are psychologically affected by CSR activities is deserving of researchers’ and managers’ keen attention, since these psychological effects, such as organisational commitment, have the potential to decrease staff turnover and have positive effects on productivity (Rodrigo, Aqueveque, & Duran, ).…”

Exploring the Determinants of Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: An Empirical Examination

“…Second, strategic CSR emphasizes the coexistence of commercial and social benefits [2,41,42]. Porter and Kramer [43] promote the concept of "strategic charity," arguing that social and economic objectives can be linked in the long term.…”

“…A high degree of competition in a product market will reinforce the firm's strategic consideration in the implementation of CSR [55]. Several studies also find that the pressure of competition forces firms to think highly of stakeholders and improve their CSR performance related to consumers and employees [1,42,53].…”

“…Customers thus are more willing to pay a premium to buy products or services provided by firms with a good reputation. What's more, employees identify more with firms that have a good reputation and are thus more willing to work harder and stay longer, which can boost the cost advantage for firms [42]. To keep up with the advantages described above, firms with a strong corporate reputation will engage in strategic CSR to sustain their corporate reputation.…”