Abstract
Recent research highlights the positive effects of organizational CSR engagement on employee outcomes, such as job and life satisfaction, performance, and trust. We argue that the current debate fails to recognize the potential risks associated with CSR. In this study, we focus on the risk of work addiction. We hypothesize that CSR has per se a positive effect on employees and can be classified as a resource. However, we also suggest the existence of an array of unintended negative effects of CSR. Since CSR positively influences an employee’s organizational identification, as well as his or her perception of engaging in meaningful work, which in turn motivates them to work harder while neglecting other spheres of their lives such as private relationships or health, CSR indirectly increases work addiction. Accordingly, organizational identification and work meaningfulness both act as buffering variables in the relationship, thus suppressing the negative effect of CSR on work addiction, which weakens the positive role of CSR in the workplace. Drawing on a sample of 565 Swiss employees taken from the 2017 Swiss Public Value Atlas dataset, our results provide support for our rationale. Our results also provide evidence that the positive indirect effects of organizational CSR engagement on work addiction, via organizational identification and work meaningfulness, become even stronger when employees care for the welfare of the wider public (i.e., the community, nation, or world). Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Highlights
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)—a concept whereby organizations “integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” (European Commission 2001)—is receiving increased attention in practice
We argue that public value awareness plays an essential moderating role in the positive relationships between CSR and both mediators organizational identification and work meaningfulness
We found that the indirect effect of CSR on work addiction via each mediator differs for employees across low and high levels of public value awareness
Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR)—a concept whereby organizations “integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis” (European Commission 2001)—is receiving increased attention in practice. A growing number of organizations integrate social and environmental concerns into their operations, thereby aiming to contribute to the welfare of various stakeholders (including the environment) that go beyond narrow economic self-interest and legal requirements (Brieger et al 2018; Dawkins et al 2016; Kaplan and Kinderman 2017; McWilliams and Siegel 2001). Fortune Global 500 firms devote over $15 billion per year to CSR activities. In 2017, over 90% of the 250 largest companies in the world produced a CSR report to inform different stakeholders about their activities. That is up from 35% in 1999 (Blasco and King 2017).
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