Abstract
Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies at the employee level have focused on the influence of CSR on employees’ positive attitudes and behavior. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between CSR and unethical behavior and the underlying mechanism. Based on social information processing theory, this study investigates how CSR affects employee cheating via employees’ organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Additionally, this study discusses the moderating effect of employee bottom-line mentality on these relationships. We test this two-path model using a sample of MBA students in China. The results indicate that both organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling mediate the relationship between CSR and cheating, and employee bottom-line mentality moderates the effect of CSR on perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Specifically, for employees low in bottom-line mentality, CSR has a significantly negative impact on perceived supervisor moral decoupling, but the same relationship is insignificant for employees with a strong bottom-line mentality. Overall, our results uncover the relationship between CSR and employee cheating and extend the understanding of the influence of CSR on employees.
Highlights
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted huge attention (Aguinis and Glavas, 2012; Matten and Moon, 2020), especially after societal inequalities become a serious challenge again due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Bapuji et al, 2020)
We first conducted a set of confirmative factor analyses (CFA) to assess the divergent validity of the key variables (i.e., corporate social responsibility (CSR), employee bottom-line mentality, organizational identification, perceived supervisor moral decoupling, and cheating)
Based on social information processing theory and CSR sensitivity research, we find that employee bottom-line mentality moderates the relationship between CSR and cheating behavior such that the relationship becomes insignificant for employees who regard bottom-line outcomes as their primary goals, as CSR does not affect their perceptions of supervisor moral decoupling
Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has attracted huge attention (Aguinis and Glavas, 2012; Matten and Moon, 2020), especially after societal inequalities become a serious challenge again due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Bapuji et al, 2020). Through CSR initiatives, organizations take the interests of a wide range of stakeholders into account and remark their pro-social concerns and ethics (Glavas, 2016; Bapuji et al, 2020). Most studies on the consequences of CSR focus on its influences on beneficial attitudes and behavior of employees (e.g., organizational identification, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, and social responsible behaviors) (e.g., Glavas, 2016; Farooq et al, 2017; De Roeck and Maon, 2018; Wang et al, 2019). Few studies have examined how employee perception of CSR can influence their unethical behavior, such as cheating or deviance behavior, as well as uncover the mechanism underlying the relationship between employee perception of CSR and unethical behavior
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