The impact of employee-perceived CSR on organizational citizenship behavior ——evidence from China

Abstract

This study aims to understand the mechanism between CSR and employees’ attitudes and behaviors and help enterprises make better organizational interventions that exert CSR to have a positive impact on employees based on social exchange and social identity theory. It innovatively proposes a new comprehensive model to examine the positive impacts of perceived CSR altruism, perceived CSR execution and perceived CSR participation on organizational citizenship behavior, the mediating role of organizational identification, as well as the moderating role of perceived organizational support. Using the survey data from 409 questionnaires conducted in two provinces with different levels of economic development in China, the conceptual model is tested by hierarchical regression analysis and SEM. Empirical results indicate that perceived CSR altruism, perceived CSR execution and perceived CSR participation all have positive impact on organizational citizenship behavior through the partial mediation of organizational identification. In addition, perceived organizational support moderates the positive impact between organizational identification and organizational citizenship behavior. This study proposes a more comprehensive perspective on individuals’ perception and assessment of CSR and expands the dimensions of employee-perceived CSR. It also offers a new conceptual model to reveal the underlying mechanism between CSR and organizational citizenship behavior, which enriches the CSR research at micro-level and promotes the enthusiasm and practice effectiveness of CSR implementation.