Corporate Social Responsibility and Cheating Behavior: The Mediating Effects of Organizational Identification and Perceived Supervisor Moral Decoupling

Abstract

Previous corporate social responsibility (CSR) studies at the employee level have focused on the influence of CSR on employees’ positive attitudes and behavior. However, little attention has been paid to the relationship between CSR and unethical behavior and the underlying mechanism. Based on social information processing theory, this study investigates how CSR affects employee cheating via employees’ organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Additionally, this study discusses the moderating effect of employee bottom-line mentality on these relationships. We test this two-path model using a sample of MBA students in China. The results indicate that both organizational identification and perceived supervisor moral decoupling mediate the relationship between CSR and cheating, and employee bottom-line mentality moderates the effect of CSR on perceived supervisor moral decoupling. Specifically, for employees low in bottom-line mentality, CSR has a significantly negative impact on perceived supervisor moral decoupling, but the same relationship is insignificant for employees with a strong bottom-line mentality. Overall, our results uncover the relationship between CSR and employee cheating and extend the understanding of the influence of CSR on employees.

Linking Informative and Factual CSR Communication to Reputation: Understanding CSR Motives and Organizational Identification

“…When an organization engages in altruistic, other-serving behaviors to fulfill its social obligations for the greater good, the organization appears more socially attractive and desirable. This increased attractiveness reinforces employees' identification with their organizations, which echoed the existing literature on the relationship between organizational attractiveness and employee identification [40,42,78,80]. Internally, employees improve their self-concept by feeling proud that their organizations have contributed to the well-being of society, resulting in stronger organizational identification.…”

“…Previous studies [33,77,78] have shown that employees display stronger OI when their organizations are involved in CSR activities. The association between CSR perceptions and organizational identification is rooted in social identity theory [24].…”

“…CSR activities thus serve as a salient method for employees to derive meaning and pride from their organizations' socially responsible behaviors [75]. Recent studies [41,[76][77][78] revealed that employees exhibited stronger organizational identification when their employers were involved in socially responsible undertakings. An extension of the concept of organizational identification (OI) as "the perception of oneness with or belongingness to an organization" (p. 104, [79]), employee organizational identification describes the extent to which employees define themselves through their organizations and derive value from that self-definition [73].…”

Linking perceived ethical leadership to workplace cheating behavior: A moderated mediation model of moral identity and leader-follower value congruence

“…For example, studies have indicated a positive relation between temptation (Pate, 2018), COVID-19 (Hillebrandt & Annika, 2022), underdog expectation (Loi et al, 2021), customer mistreatment (Men et al, 2021), peer influence (Malesky et al, 2022), performance pressure (Mitchell et al, 2018) and cheating behavior. Concomitantly, prior work has suggested a negative relation between corporate social responsibility and cheating behavior (Luan et al, 2021).…”