Corporate Social Responsibility Excites ‘Exponential’ Positive Employee Engagement: The Matthew Effect in CSR and Sustainable Policy

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) captures an organization's commitment to and engagement with multiple stakeholders; integrates economic, social, and environmental concerns into sustainable policies; and enhances employee perceptions, emotions, long-term value creation, and financial success. Most researchers have reported linear relationships between CSR and employee attitudes. Here, we test a new theory: After surpassing an upper bar, employee-perceived CSR exponentially stimulates their organizational pride. Organizational pride has a positive and linear direct impact on job satisfaction and affective commitment, respectively. Perceived CSR exponentially excites job satisfaction and affective commitment indirectly through organizational pride. Data collected from 296 managers and employees in 12 diverse companies in China support our theory. Policymakers must develop a sustainable policy, nourish a conducive environment, and pursue CSR as a competitive advantage because at a high level, perceived CSR exponentially reaps intangible rewards, creating the positive Matthew Effect in CSR and sustainable policy.There are four types of data: nominal (category), ordinal (order), interval (equal distance), and ratio (equal distance with an absolute zero) data. Our measure of CSR is an interval scale (equal distance) with an artificial zero (0) but is not a ratio scale (an interval scale with an absolute zero). 3 We would like to thank anonymous reviewer B for this excellent comment. We provided information for the exponential term of perceived CSR here.

The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on employee engagement: The case of Qatar

“…Zhou, Luo, and Tang () tested the theory that “perceived CSR exponentially excites job satisfaction through organizational pride,” which was supported by data collected from 296 managers and employees in 12 different companies in China. In the United States, Block, Glavas, Mannor, and Erskine () examined the positive impact that corporate philanthropy has on the organization's employees and investigated how such efforts can be managed strategically to maximize their impact.…”

The triple bottom line and organizational attractiveness ratings: The role of pro‐environmental attitude

“…The importance of individuals' attitudes for employer attractiveness has already been demonstrated by Klimkiewicz and Oltra (2017), who showed that attitudes toward an organization's corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence how job seekers interpret information related to a company's CSR and eventually the perceived attractiveness of the organization. This reasoning is further supported by Zhou, Luo, and Tang (2017), who found that after surpassing a certain threshold, CSR exponentially increases organizational pride, job satisfaction and affective commitment (through organizational pride). These beneficial effects may relate to employees' viewing their organizations in a different light when CSR performance is high, as it evokes positive emotions and organizational satisfaction (Onkila, 2015).…”

Improving CSR performance by hard and soft means: The role of organizational citizenship behaviours and the internalization of CSR standards

“…This analysis is important for at least three reasons. Christmann & Taylor, 2006;Ciliberti et al, 2009;Zhou, Luo, & Tang, 2017). Second, the study sheds more light on the outcomes of certifiable standards for CSR.…”