Although many scholars have investigated the influence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in an organization, there has been relatively minimal research regarding the CSR's impacts on employees as well as the underlying mechanisms of it. Considering the research gaps, in the present research, we examine how CSR practices influence attitudes of employees. In particular, we hypothesize that perceived CSR would enhance organizational commitment (OC) of employees through the sequential mediation of meaningfulness of work (MOW) and perceived organizational support (POS). In order to empirically test this, we utilized two-wave time-lagged survey data from 378 employees who work for companies in South Korea. The results show that MOW and POS sequentially mediate the relationship between perceived CSR and OC. The findings suggest that CSR practices could be an active investment which enhances important attitudes of employees, instead of merely being a cost or obligation for firms.

Previous studies on the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance have emphasized how CSR influences the external stakeholders such as shareholders, customers, and local communities to explain the association. Thus, it is relatively less studied how CSR influences internal stakeholders, which ultimately accrue to organizational performance. Grounded on institutional theory which proposes that institutional enablers such as CSR activities affect macro-level outcomes (i.e., organizational performance) through micro-level mechanisms (i.e., attitudes or behaviors of members), we argue that internal processes are critical to explaining the CSR-performance link. Using 2-wave time-lagged survey data of 301 employees from various companies in South Korea, we first investigate how organizational identification (OI) mediates the CSR-performance link. In addition, we also investigate how authentic leadership moderates the link between CSR and OI. The results showed that OI is an important internal process that CSR enhances for organizational performance. In addition, authentic leadership positively moderated the effect of CSR on OI. Our results suggest that we need to understand "internal" intermediating mechanisms as well as critical contextual factors to elaborately explain the relationship.

Existing works on the association between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and performance have investigated how CSR affects external stakeholders (e.g., shareholders, customers, local communities, and environment). However, the effect of CSR on internal stakeholders such as employees who ultimately determine organizational performance is relatively underexplored. Institutional theory suggests that institutional enablers, e.g., CSR practices, influence macro-level variables, like organizational performance, via micro-level intermediating processes, such as perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of employees. Thus, this paper proposes that internal mechanisms are essential to explain the CSR-performance link. Using a 3-wave time-lagged survey data of 301 workers in South Korean firms (144 men and 157 women, average age: 40.30), this research examines how psychological safety and job satisfaction of an employee function as sequential mediators in the CSR-performance link. Moreover, the current research also investigates how job insecurity negatively moderates the link between CSR and psychological safety. The results demonstrated that psychological safety and job satisfaction function as sequential internal mediators in the link. In addition, job insecurity negatively moderated the influence of CSR on psychological safety. The results suggest that an employee’s perceptions and attitudes, such as job insecurity, psychological safety, and job satisfaction, significantly influence the relationship between CSR and performance.

Although existing works have investigated the influence of employee’s job insecurity on his or her perceptions or attitudes, those studies relatively have paid less attention to the influence of it on employee’s behaviors, as well as to its intermediating mechanisms of the relationship between job insecurity and the behaviors. Considering that employee’s behaviors substantially influence various organizational outcomes, I believe that studies which examine the impact of job insecurity on the behaviors as well as its underlying processes are required. Grounded on the context–attitude–behavior framework, I delved into the intermediating mechanism between job insecurity and organizational citizenship behavior with a sequential mediation model. In specific, I hypothesized that employee’s organizational trust and organizational identification would sequentially mediate the job insecurity–organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) link. Utilizing 3-wave time-lagged data from 303 employees in South Korea, I found that organizational trust and organizational identification function as sequential mediators in the link. The finding suggests that organizational trust and organizational identification are underlying processes to elaborately explain the job insecurity–OCB link.

A body of existing literature delves into how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects employees’ cognition, emotion, and behavior within an organization. These previous studies, however, pay relatively little attention to the influence of CSR on levels of creativity in employees. Considering that creativity is closely related to innovative capability, which is critical for a firm to survive, the relationship between CSR and employees’ creativity and its elaborate underlying processes need further investigation. Based on a group creativity model, we argue that CSR may increase levels of creativity in employees through mediation of enhanced levels of psychological safety in employees. In addition, existing works on CSR have relatively underexplored the contextual role of leadership in translating CSR practices into employees’ attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors. Using three-wave time-lagged survey data from 311 employees in South Korea, we found that CSR enhances employees’ creativity via mediation of psychological safety. Additionally, ethical leadership positively moderates the relationship between CSR and psychological safety. Our findings suggest that psychological safety in employees functions as an important underlying mechanism to describe the CSR–employee creativity link. Furthermore, this paper emphasizes the importance of the moderating role of ethical leadership in the process of CSR activities.

Although some previous studies have examined the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees in an organization, they have mainly focused on employees’ perceptions or attitudes rather than behaviors. However, in that employees’ behaviors are the direct outcome of the perceptions or attitudes and critically affect organizational outcomes, we need to investigate the impact of CSR on employees’ behaviors. Based on the context-attitude-behavior framework, we investigate the underlying process of the association between CSR and employees’ behavior with a moderated mediation model. Specifically, we hypothesize (1) the intermediating effect of organizational commitment (OC) in the association between CSR and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and (2) the contingent role of employees’ perspective taking ability (PT) in the CSR-OC link. Using three-wave survey data from 301 currently working employees in Korea, we found that OC mediates the association between CSR and OCB and that PT can positively moderate the CSR-OC link. Our findings suggest that OC (as an intermediating process) and PT (as a contingent factor) function as important underlying mechanisms to elaborately describe the CSR-OCB link.

Although previous works have examined how job insecurity affects the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors of members in an organization, those studies have not paid enough attention to the relationship between job insecurity and performance or the mediating processes in that relationship. Considering that organizational performance is a fundamental target or purpose, investigating it is greatly needed. This research examines both mediating factors and a moderator in the link between job insecurity and organizational performance by building a moderated sequential mediation model. To be specific, we hypothesize that the degree of an employee’s job stress and organizational commitment sequentially mediate the relationship between job insecurity and performance. Furthermore, ethical leadership could moderate the association between job insecurity and job stress. Using a three-wave data set gathered from 301 currently working employees in South Korea, we reveal that not only do job stress and organizational commitment sequentially mediate the job insecurity–performance link, but also that ethical leadership plays a buffering role of in the job insecurity–job stress link. Our findings suggest that the degree of job stress and organizational commitment (as mediators), as well as ethical leadership (as a moderator), function as intermediating mechanisms in the job insecurity–performance link.

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