DOES CSR CONTRIBUTE TO ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR? THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL IDENTITY THEORY AND CONTINGENCY OF EMPLOYEE DESIRE

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is increasingly gaining the interest of researchers over the last two decades. Most of the CSR research has been conducted at the macro level, therefore, leading journals in Management including Journal of Management, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Business Ethics, Group & Organization Management, Journal of Organizational Behavior are calling for micro-level research. It is not possible to capture CSR entirely without the understanding of CSR effects on employees. CSR literature suggests that this relationship is not direct and there must be some underlying mechanism that explains this path. Specifically, our research question is why, how and when employees react to CSR initiatives? The study of micro-foundations of CSR can help the business community in finding out the rationale for CSR investment and generation of positive behaviors. On the basis of Social Identity Theory and Social Exchange theory, we proposed that CSR can impact employees’ behaviors (task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, turnover intention and organizational deviance) through the serial mediation of organization pride and organizational identification while the desire to have a significant impact through work moderates pride-identification relationship. The study is a response to the calls of leading journals of the field. This is one of the few studies that provide a comprehensive model including the mediation and moderation to investigate the CSR and employees’ behavior relationship that is relatively missed in previous studies. The study is based on the data from Pakistan to provide the empirical evidence from developing countries contrary to the studies conducted in developed countries. The study contributes to CSR and organizational behavior literature by providing the insights through social identity and social exchange theory. The study is analytical and quantitative, conducted in a non-contrived setting with minimal interference of the researcher. Primary multi source (three sources) time lagged (four points in time) data of 187 employees working in a well-reputed organization due to its CSR activities is analyzed through Structural Equation Modeling. Findings suggest that employees who value CSR have the greater tendency to identify with the organization because they feel proud due to organizational membership. It is also found that the relationship between pride and identification is stronger for the employees with a higher level of desire to have a significant impact through work. Employees who are more identified with the organization are better in task performance and organizational citizenship behavior negating their intentions of turnover and organizational deviance. The study provides the implications for researchers for investigating the other potential mediators and moderators in micro CSR research. It also provides deep insights to understand the potential impact of pride and identification on other variables that can be associated with them. The study implies that CSR can help to reduce employee’s turnover intentions and deviance to a minimum level while increasing their in-role and extra-role performance. Organizations may find this suitable to consider while designing their strategies to improve the positive behaviors in the workforce.