Internal Corporate Responsibility as a Legitimacy Strategy for Branding and Employee Retention: A Perspective of Higher Education Institutions

Amir Ikram,Ayyaz Ahmad,Asif Mahmood,Rafiya Ashfaq,Muhammad Fiaz

doi:10.3390/joitmc7010052

Abstract

Branding activities provide space to create internal culture, processes and a kind of organizational system which allows employees to use their abilities to their maximum. Internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of an organization increase employee commitment, which ultimately enhances employee retention. There is a need to explore internal branding in relation to internal CSR for the sake of managing employee retention. Therefore, the study empirically examines the underlying associations among internal branding, employee retention and internal CSR. The data are collected from higher education institutions operating in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. The sample size was 377 faculties belonging to both private and public sector higher education institutions. The analysis is based on variance-based structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The findings reveal that the internal branding practices have a significant impact on employee’s intention to stay within the organization, and intrasample analysis suggests few comprehensible variations with respect to private and public academic institutions. The research article also provides insights to faculty, academic entrepreneurs and marketers, especially those belonging to developing countries and facing issues of branding and employee retention.

Highlights

The significance of employee retention and engagement cannot be denied while encountering the current environmental instability
In smart-PLS, the variable internal branding was analyzed as a second-order construct by following the guidelines of Hair et al [34], where it was suggested that the outer model, named as measurement mode, was accessed for reliability and validity of the construct in the first estimate
The article portrays the inspiration of internal branding on employee retention along with the moderating role of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Summary

Introduction

The significance of employee retention and engagement cannot be denied while encountering the current environmental instability. Competent and engaged human resources are part and parcel of attaining an organization’s strategic objectives. Ali et al [1] suggested that the pursuance of corporate social responsibility enables organizations to realize their strategic objectives. The biggest challenge that organizations are facing today is the retention of their efficient employees [2]. Corporate social responsibility improves the financial output of the enterprise because of factors such as reputation and conviction of the stakeholders. Al Mamun and Hasan [3] considered human resources as a key strategic function, holding the responsibility of retention of the human capital. Organizations invest in human resource development activities enormously by providing diverse training and challenging work encounters, but still, employee retention is considered to be the most critical job for human resource departments. Researchers argue that internal stakeholders’ marketing is as important as stakeholders outside the organization, i.e., customers [5], and it is professed as a prerequisite to provide a competitive edge by warranting excellence in customers [6]

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