Going the Extra Mile Because My Organization Does: How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Influence Organizational Citizenship in Nigeria?

Ibeawuchi K. Enwereuzor,Fabian O. Ugwu,Ike E. Onyishi,Kenneth Amaeshi

doi:10.1017/mor.2019.44

Abstract

ABSTRACTThere is a growing call to understand the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on organizational outcomes, especially in developing economies. Given the strong link between organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and organizational performance and survival, on one hand, and the constant need in the literature to understand their antecedents, on the other hand, this study adopts the social cognitive theory to examine the relationship between employees’ perceptions of their organizations’ engagement in CSR and their individual engagement in OCB in Nigeria. Based on the relevance of organizational learning culture to both CSR and OCB, the study further examines the mediating role of organizational learning culture in the relationship between employees’ perceptions of their organization's CSR engagement and their individual engagement in OCB. We tested these relationships in a sample of 254 employees drawn from banking, oil and gas, manufacturing and service industries. The results showed that there is a significant positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of their organizations’ engagement in CSR and their exhibition of OCB. This relationship is mediated by organizational learning culture. The implications of the results for CSR, especially in non-enabling institutional contexts, were discussed.

Highlights

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is broadly seen as the responsibility of organisations for enhancing their positive, and reducing their negative, impacts on society (Amaeshi, Adegbite, & Rajwani, 2016; Campbell, 2007)
In order to strengthen the robustness of our findings, we examined this relationship in Nigeria – a work environment with unique characteristics different from the stylised CSR enabling institutional contexts of developed economies (Amaeshi et al, 2016; Campbell, 2007; Matten & Moon, 2008), where organizational behavior has received much empirical attention
We argue that given the peculiarities of the Nigerian context for CSR (Amaeshi et al, 2016), it is fair to assume that when organizations engage in CSR in Nigeria, they mainly do so with low or no intention to make profit from such activities; rather they do it to contribute to the society

Summary

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is broadly seen as the responsibility of organisations for enhancing their positive, and reducing their negative, impacts on society (Amaeshi, Adegbite, & Rajwani, 2016; Campbell, 2007). These impacts can be on different stakeholder groups – i.e., those who can affect and or are affected by the actions of a business (Freeman, 1994). CSR goes beyond compliance with the law to encompass efforts at improving the welfare of the society It becomes an approach and an orientation to how business is done – i.e., an organizational culture of a sort (Duarte, 2010)

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Discussion

Conclusion