Die Auswirkungen von Corporate Social Responsibility und Organisationsstolz auf Mitarbeiter im Kundenkontakt

Abstract

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) not only makes an important contribution to the welfare of different stakeholder groups. Thanks to employee perceptions, CSR can also exert a positive effect on corporate success, as employee perceptions of CSR can trigger positive emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral responses. Employee organizational pride seems to be of considerable interest in this context, with both theory and practice attributing great potential to the concept. Several industry leaders, such as the luxury hotel chain Ritz-Carlton, define their employees‟ organizational pride explicitly as a fundamental value of the company. For instance, the central service value of Ritz-Carlton is as follows: “I am proud to be Ritz-Carlton”. Nonetheless, there has been little research on this concept, and organizational pride has been neither defined in a structured manner nor tested empirically. According to several studies, pride is characterized predominantly as a positive emotion. Additionally, there is a second research stream, which defines organizational pride as an attitude. The intention of this doctoral thesis is to close the research gap with respect to the consequences of CSR on both emotional and attitudinal organizational pride and positive employee behavior. Organizational pride that is triggered by CSR negatively affects employee fluctuation behaviors. The longer customer contact employees remain with their company, the better and more intensively they can develop personal relationships and thus create customer satisfaction. Especially given the current intensely competitive environment, companies are compelled to concentrate on customer satisfaction and long-term customer relationships as a major source of profitability and growth. The hypothesized relationships are tested in an online-panel-study of 733 customer contact employees, using structural equation modeling. The research yields important dynamic insights into the postulated relationships. It is demonstrated that CSR has a direct and positive influence on emotional organizational pride. Furthermore, the results indicate that short-termed experiences of emotional organizational pride, triggered by CSR, can evolve into relatively stable attitudinal organizational pride. In addition, both types of organizational pride positively influence employee commitment towards customers and contribute negatively to employee turnover intention. Finally, both the limitations of the study, as well the implications for further research and for management practice, are identified. Inhaltsverzeichnis v