Corporate Citizenship and the Employee: An Organizational Identification Perspective

Abstract

Social identity theory and the related concept of organizational identification provide a conceptual lens to consider how and why corporate citizenship affects individual employees. The model we develop predicts that employee perceptions of corporate citizenship (PCC) indirectly affect organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and employee deviance. Results from a sample of working adults demonstrate that PCC directly influences organizational identification, which in turn affects employee behavioral outcomes. Organizational identification was positively related to employee OCBs and negatively related to employee deviance. Furthermore, the strength of influence of organizational identification was greater for organizationally directed OCB and deviance than it was for individually directed OCB and deviance.