Organizational Virtues and Organizational Anthropomorphism

Abstract

Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human features to non-human subjects. Anthropomorphized organizations acquire in the minds of their members a unique identity, which becomes capable of guiding members’ motivations, with important managerial implications. Ashforth et al. (Acad Manage Rev https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0496, 2018) offered a theoretical model of anthropomorphism in organizations, including “top-down” and “bottom-up” processes of organizational anthropomorphism as antecedents, and sensemaking and the sense of social connection of the organization as outcomes. Using SEM, this study operationalizes Ashforth et al.’s (Acad Manage Rev https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2016.0496, 2018) model using a two-trait scale of organizational virtue (Empathy and Courage) derived from Chun (J Bus Ethics 57:269–284, 2005), including measures of CSR and OCB as antecedents, and organizational justice and affective commitment as outcomes. The model is tested on survey data from seven UK managed service organizations in the hotels, logistics and legal sectors. As secondary contribution, moderation analysis is undertaken by industry, offering further insight into the evaluation of organizational anthropomorphism. Firstly, we note that high evaluations of Empathy influence evaluations of Courage through a halo effect. Secondly, we note that heuristic evaluation of the firm’s CSR practice also influences perceptions of Empathy and Courage. The paper also includes a discussion of the critique of organizational virtues by virtue ethicists in an effort to advance the dialogue between the two traditions.

The influence of remote work communication satisfaction and CSR association on employee alienation and job satisfaction: a moderated-mediation study

“…Trust is the bedrock of the employee-organization relationship (Ashforth et al, 2020;Martin, 2022). Employees develop trust in the organization when they believe in its morality (Gustafsson et al, 2020).…”

“…The findings also suggest that during times of crisis (such as COVID-19), altruistic CSR (CSR acts that address social concerns, such as access to medical aid, food, and water) has a significant impact on employee sensemaking. According to research, employees tend to "anthropomorphize" organizations (ascribe human traits to them) in employment relationships (Ashforth et al, 2020;Martin, 2022). This is commonly exhibited by employees' emotional reactions towards the organization ("my organization is doing something good" or "my organization is indifferent").…”

“…Research suggests that CSR serves as a heuristic for employees in making sense of the organization's morality (Nazir and Islam, 2020;Chen et al, 2019). By demonstrating how an organization treats its other stakeholders, CSR associations provide social information to employees about how the organization is likely to treat them (Ali and Jung, 2017;Aguinis and Glavas, 2019;Martin, 2022). Studies show that CSR involvement during crisis has a particularly strong mental recall among employees (Bae et al, 2021;Carroll, 2021) making it useful for sensemaking.…”

“…, 2019). By demonstrating how an organization treats its other stakeholders, CSR associations provide social information to employees about how the organization is likely to treat them (Ali and Jung, 2017; Aguinis and Glavas, 2019; Martin, 2022).…”

“…The success (or failure) in making sense of one's relationship with the organization can strongly affect employee motivation and their work behaviors. Additionally, we contribute to the expanding corpus of research on micro-CSR (Aguinis and Glavas, 2019;Martin, 2022) by demonstrating how CSR indirectly affects personal and organizational outcomes. Finally, we address recent scholarly calls for a more comprehensive analysis of alienation (Shantz et al, 2015;Chiaburu et al, 2014) and expand the nomological network of the concept.…”