Corporate social responsibility perceptions and employee engagement: role of psychological meaningfulness, safety and availability

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-06-2018-0207
• Pages: 631-647
• Date: 23 May 2019
• Published date: 23 May 2019
• Author: Richa Chaudhary
• Subject Matter: Strategy

Corporate social responsibility perceptions

and employee engagement: role of

psychological meaningfulness,

safety and availability

Richa Chaudhary

Abstract

Purpose –The primary research questionaddressed through this paper is whether and how corporate

social responsibility (CSR)can create business value for organizations as measuredthrough employee

attitudes and behaviours. Specifically, this study aims to examine the impact of CSR on employee

engagementthrough its influence on psychological meaningfulness,safety and availability.

Design/methodology/approach –In total, 187 business professionals working for a wide variety of

organizations in India constituted the study sample. Regressionanalysis was used to test the proposed

hypotheses.

Findings –CSR positively predicted employee engagement. Psychological conditions of

meaningfulness, safety and availability fully mediated the relationship of CSR with employee

engagement.

Practical implications –The study establishes CSR as an important talent management tool in the

hands of management tocultivate an engaged workforce. The results provide corporatemanagers with

the necessaryevidence to justify their investmentin CSR initiatives.

Originality/value –The study by establishing CSR as a determinant of employee engagement

addresses the needfor micro-level CSR research, and, hence, bridgesthe macro-micro gap in the CSR

literature. In addition, the application of micro-level theories helped to establish the psychological

processes definingCSR and employee engagement relationship. In doingso, the study empirically tests

Khan’stheory of engagement and the underlying mechanismsof engagement.

Keywords Mediation, Corporate social responsibility, Psychological safety, Work engagement,

Psychological availability, Psychological meaningfulness

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Prior research suggests that one of the ways through which corporate social responsibility

(CSR) can create business value for organizations is by enhancing employee commitment

and reducing turnover intentions(Hollingworth and Valentine, 2014). Though employees are

critical to the success of any organization and constitute an important stakeholder group,

very few studies have examined how employees as an internal stakeholder group are

influenced by CSR actions of the organization (Aguinis and Glavas, 2012). To gain

comprehensive understanding of a field, it is important to touch upon its micro-foundations

ingrained in individual actions and interactions (Foss, 2011;Aguinis and Glavas, 2012).

Responding to the need for more research on CSR from employees’ perspective, some of

the recent studies endeavoured to explore the impact of CSR on attitudes and behaviours

of employees and provided empirical evidence in support of the same. For example, CSR

Richa Chaudhary is based

at the Department of

Humanities and Social

Sciences, Indian Institute of

Technology Patna, Patna,

Bihar, India.

Received 24 June 2018

Revised 21 September 2018

9 January 2019

Accepted 14 January 2019

DOI 10.1108/CG-06-2018-0207 VOL. 19 NO. 4 2019, pp. 631-647, ©Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1472-0701 jCORPORATE GOVERNANCE jPAGE 631

was found to affect employees’ job satisfaction (Glavas and Kelly, 2014), organizational

commitment (Rahman et al.,2016), organizational citizenship behaviours (Chaudhary,

2018), task performance (Chaudhary, 2018) and turnover intentions (Chaudhary, 2017;

Hollingworth and Valentine, 2014). Also, it is worth mentioning that the underlying

psychological mechanisms linking CSR with employee outcomes are inadequately

inspected and understood. Some of the recent studies have made progress in the area by

using social identity theory (SIT) (De Roeck et al., 2014) and organizational justice

framework (Rupp et al.,2006) as theoretical underpinnings to explain the nature of

associations. However, research of this nature is still in the nascent stage (De Roeck et al.,

2014;Glavas and Kelly, 2014). Furthermore, the aforementioned investigations have been

conducted in developed countries, underscoring the need for evidence from emerging

economies to confirm the nature of relationships. Due to this lack of empirical evidence,

perhaps companies in developing countries are still not embracing CSR’s potential in

improving number of positive employee outcomes and ultimately, their bottom lines. When

compared to developed Western nations, CSR in developing countries is more

developmental and philanthropicin nature (Jamali and Karam, 2018). It is less standardized

and is embedded in unique institutional and national business systems (Jamali and Karam,

2018). Feeble institutional constellation in emerging economies besides bureaucracy,

corruption and unprofessional management (Balasubramanian et al.,2005) may possibly

modify the manifestations of CSR, which can substantially influence the dynamics of its

relationships with individual level outcomes. Further, the institutional framework, particularly

in economic sector in South Asian countries, is undergoing remarkable change (Arevalo

and Aravind, 2011). Therefore, it might be useful to explore the effect of CSR on employee

level outcomes in a developing country. Exploring the above relationship in India may offer

unique insights as one may expect no added meaning of CSR when it is made compulsory

for all organizations afterthe implementation of new Company’s Act 2013.

With the above backdrop, this study aims to bridge the identified research gaps by examinin g

the effect of perceived CSR on employee engagement in select business organizations in

India. Exploring the relationship of CSR with employee engagement holds specia l significance

given the potential of engagement to drive desirable workplace outcomes such as retention,

innovation and financial performance (Bhatnagar, 2012;Glavas and Piderit, 2009;Sc hneider

et al., 2018). In addition, an effort is made to delve into the psychological mechanism

underlying the relationships by proposing psychological conditions of mea ningfulness, safety

and availability as possible mediators of CSR–engagement relationship.

The following section presents review of literature in the area along with the theoretical

foundation for linking the study variables, followed by study hypotheses and research

model.

2. Review of literature and study hypotheses

2.1 Corporate social responsibility

According to Turker (2009b), CSR refers to “corporate behaviours that aim to affect

stakeholders positively andthat go beyond its economic interests” (p. 413). Here, economic

component was treated not as responsibility to society but the basis of subsistence of a

firm. Unlike developed nations where CSR goes beyond legal compliance (Dobers and

Halme, 2009), legality was subsumed as the core dimension of CSR in the present study

considering the weak institutional framework in developing economies (Chaudhary, 2018).

As CSR has been conceptualized as a multidimensional construct (Backhaus et al., 2002),

this study uses the stakeholder approach to CSR directed towards multiple stakeholders.

To capture the complete spectrum of CSR, this study considers CSR towards four distinct

set of stakeholders: customers, employees, government and social stakeholders such as

NGOs, environment, future generations,and society, as proposed by Turker (2009a).

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