Corporate Social Responsibility and Individual Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Gratitude and Compassion at Work

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies and activities are aimed at, executed for, and witnessed by individuals, yet CSR literature has long overlooked assessing CSR outcomes at the individual level. Previous CSR research has focused primarily on macro- and institutional-level outcomes. The current paper addresses this issue by analyzing the influence of CSR on a crucial stakeholder for hospitality organizations: their employees. Specifically, gratitude and compassion at work were tested as parallel mediators between employees’ perceptions of CSR and their well-being and organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the organization (OCBO). Drawing from the affect theory of social exchange and moral emotions, this article aims to understand how CSR leads to improving employees’ well-being and OCBO through the underlying emotional mechanisms of gratitude and compassion. Survey data from two independent samples were gathered to test the hypotheses. The findings revealed that employees’ perceptions of CSR activities had a significant positive direct effect on eudaimonic well-being but not on hedonic well-being. Gratitude mediated the relationship between perceived CSR and OCBO as well as hedonic well-being. Compassion mediated the relationship between perceived CSR and hedonic well-being as well as OCBO. Besides theoretical contributions of testing these mechanisms together in a hospitality context and evaluating the influence of CSR efforts on certain dimensions of well-being, this research will be particularly relevant to hospitality managers when formulating CSR strategies and promoting a CSR culture.

The Relationship between Gratitude, Wellbeing, Spirituality, and Experiencing Meaningful Work

“…Future research in this area may help to explore any barriers to gratitude, and therefore may provide insight into the design of a gratitude intervention targeting specific groups in order to enhance greater wellbeing. This will complement the research that has found that gratitude at work is related to, among other positive outcomes, improved job satisfaction (e.g., [77]), reduced burnout (e.g., [78]), and increased organizational citizenship behaviours (e.g., [79]).…”

Synthesizing the affinity between employees' internal‐external CSR perceptions and work outcomes: A meta‐analytic investigation

“…Thus, an inclusive CSR policy catering to both kinds of needs (Luo et al, 2020) results in enhanced job satisfaction (Kim et al, 2020), employee well-being (Guzzo et al, 2020;Su & Swanson, 2019), quality of work-life (Asante Boadi et al, 2019;Kim, Woo, et al, 2018), organizational commitment , OCB (Guzzo et al, 2020), and life satisfaction .…”

“…For instance, internal CSR meets lower‐order needs (i.e., physiological, economic, safety, affiliation, internal respect), while external CSR meets higher‐order personnel needs (i.e., external prestige/esteem, self‐actualization, transcendence) (Bibi et al, 2022; Kim et al, 2020). Thus, an inclusive CSR policy catering to both kinds of needs (Luo et al, 2020) results in enhanced job satisfaction (Kim et al, 2020), employee well‐being (Guzzo et al, 2020; Su & Swanson, 2019), quality of work‐life (Asante Boadi et al, 2019; Kim, Woo, et al, 2018), organizational commitment (Kim et al, 2017), OCB (Guzzo et al, 2020), and life satisfaction (Kim et al, 2017).…”

How Dispositional Gratitude Shapes Employee Well-being and Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Roles of Leader-Member Exchange and Coworker Exchange

“…Our findings also provide empirical support for Fehr et al’s (2017) theoretical proposal that gratitude contributes to employee well-being. Although gratitude is known to play an important role in general well-being (Guzzo et al, 2020; Wood et al, 2010), only a handful of studies have explored the benefits of gratitude in terms of employee well-being (e.g., reduced depression, stress, burnout) (see Feng & Yin, 2021; Lau & Cheng, 2017; Lee et al, 2018; Lies et al, 2014). The comprehensive list of indicators in the current study addresses hedonic (LWB), eudaimonic (PWB), and context specific (WWB) aspects of employee well-being.…”