The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Commitment: Mediating role of Meaningful Work and Positive Affect

N Weerasekara,R Ajward

doi:10.4038/kjm.v9i1.7622

Abstract

This paper aims to theoretically explain the relationships between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and employee commitment using both Social Identity Theory (SIT) and Social Exchange Theory (SET) by developing a conceptual model which incorporates mediation effects of meaningful work and positive affect. Further, this paper highlights the importance of examining employees’ perception of CSR activities in the licensed commercial banking sector. A structured questionnaire that was developed based on a comprehensive review of literature and refined using both expert opinions and a pilot survey was used for data collection. Sample comprised of 410 respondents, and a convenience sampling strategy was used to secure these responses from 13 local licensed commercial banks in Sri Lanka. Structural equation modelling was utilized to test the proposed relationships. The findings indicate that there are significant (p<0.05) positive relationships between CSR perceptions and employee commitment. Furthermore, meaningful work and positive affect were found to partially mediate the relationship between CSR and employee commitment. In terms of theoretical significance this study filled a gap by utilizing both SIT and SET in explaining relationships between CSR perceptions and employee commitment. Findings also contribute to the extant empirical literature on CSR perceptions and employee commitment particularly in the banking sector. Moreover, this study adds new insights on mediating capability of psychologically related variables.

Highlights

Due to increasing competition in the current world, companies search for factors that would enable them to sustain competitive advantage where corporate reputation is one such factor which is derived through engaging in CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) activities (Engizek & Yasin, 2017; Khaleel, Chelliah, Rauf & Jamil, 2017; Hur, Moon& Ko, 2018; Sancho, Martinez, Larren &Madueno, 2018; Zhou, Luo & Tang, 2018; Bouraoui, Bensemmane, Ohana &Russo, 2019)
The main findings of this study could be elaborated in relation to research objectives, and the first objective of this was to investigate the level of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement and employee commitment in licensed commercial banks
The study investigated the impact of CSR on employee commitment as the second main objective of this study

Summary

Introduction

Due to increasing competition in the current world, companies search for factors that would enable them to sustain competitive advantage where corporate reputation is one such factor which is derived through engaging in CorporateSocial Responsibility (CSR) activities (Engizek & Yasin, 2017; Khaleel, Chelliah, Rauf & Jamil, 2017; Hur, Moon& Ko, 2018; Sancho, Martinez, Larren &Madueno, 2018; Zhou, Luo & Tang, 2018; Bouraoui, Bensemmane, Ohana &Russo, 2019). Employee commitment has received much attention continuously due to its importance and the ability to impact organisations (Riketta, 2002; Bouraoui, Bensemmane, Ohana & Russo, 2019). Irrespective of using multiple methods and ways of enhancing employee commitment organisations continuously face the difficulty of maintaining a set of committed employees (Riketta, 2002; Yalabik et al, 2016; Rahman et al, 2016; Cafferkey et al, 2017; Bouraoui et al., 2019). Issues related to attendance, increased labor turnover, increase in cost due to frequent recruitments and training, counterproductive behaviors (Meyer et al, 2002; Riketta, 2002; Cafferkey et al., 2017) are some of the negative outcomes due to absence of employee commitment

Objectives

Results

Conclusion