Fostering Individual Ethical Behaviour through Integrated Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Leadership

Abstract

The research aimed to understand the effects of integrated corporate social responsibility (CSR) combined with ethical leadership on individual?s ethical behaviour. While there have been rich literatures on organisational behavioural effects of CSR, the concept of integrated CSR remains unexplored. Integrated CSR activities incorporate ethical and responsible decision-making into core business operations, unlike conventional CSR activities which were managed peripherally from the businesses. The research also explored the mediating effect of perceived corporate ethics between integrated CSR and ethical leadership with individual ethical behaviour, as well as the moderating effect of perceived CSR-Fit between integrated CSR and perceived corporate ethics. The research adopted quantitative research approach and data were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software. The outcomes of the study confirmed the relationships between integrated CSR and ethical leadership with individual ethical behaviour, and perceived corporate ethics fully mediated the relationships between integrated CSR and individual ethical behaviour but only partially mediated the relationships between ethical leadership and individual ethical behaviour. The outcome did not support the moderating effect of perceived CSR-fit between integrated CSR and perceived corporate ethics. The research findings offer insights to businesses on the important elements in fostering individual ethical behaviour at workplaces and the roles of integrated CSR and ethical leadership in supporting the initiative. By integrating ethical behaviours and decision-making into core operations will directly support United Nation?s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG12 on Responsible Consumption and Production.