Examining the impetus for internal CSR Practices with digitalization strategy in the service industry during COVID‐19 pandemic

Abstract

The year 2020 began with a glimpse into the darkness with the onset of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. An invisible, threatening virus has forced many countries to practice restricted movement and impose lockdowns for the sake of their citizens' safety and well-being. In response, many business organizations have implemented various remote-work arrangements. These arrangements have spurred the use of digitalization strategies and have landed many employees in the vulnerable virtual workplace. With employees facing all these uncertainties and vulnerabilities, their commitment to their workplace could come into question. At the same time, organizations facing tremendous challenges are searching for committed employees to navigate through this turbulent time. From a strategic management perspective, organizations could revisit their internal core competencies to prevail through internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Meanwhile, the rapidly growing pace of digitalization could further augment organizations' survival and resilience. This research paper showcases the empirical outcomes of the promising match between internal CSR practices and digitalization strategy; and employees' organizational commitment during times of crisis. The results reveal that internal CSR practices positively stimulate employees' organizational commitment, while digitalization strategy intercedes in the nexus between internal CSR practices and affective commitment.The empirical outcomes shed light on business organizations and their ability to take a frugal approach in turbulent times.

Socially Responsible Human Resource Management: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda

“…Regarding the methodological implications, and according to the reviewed articles in the present paper, it appears that future research would highly benefit from employing ethnographic methods [61], longitudinal studies [59,88,94,98], comparative and crosscultural research [67,80,83,85], experimental research design [57], and data collecting from different sources [84,87], specifically relying more on the employees rather than senior managers' perspectives [47,48]. However, these methodological recommendations mostly come from those quantitative studies that originated from utilitarian philosophies.…”

“…Individual outcomes of SRHRM practices have been the most topical issue addressed by previous studies. In this regard, a considerable number of studies confirmed that SRHRM can have a positive impact on employee commitment [21,49,63,66,78,83,87,95,97]. Other individual factors positively affected by SRHRM practices include employee citizenship behavior [51,55,62,66,83,84,92], employee task performance [59,94], employee satisfaction [72,81,95], employee well-being [68,78], employee loyalty [101], the propensity of employees to identify themselves with their organization [59,83,88,89,91], employeeemployer relationships [79,84], employee trust in the firm [72,74,76], employee empathy [52], employee knowledge sharing behavior [74], employee innovation behavior [54,99], and employee intrapreneurial behavior [96,98,99].…”

“…Concerning the firm-level outcomes, evidence shows that SRHRM practices could increase financial and non-financial firm performance [66,81,86,95,96], already achieved CSR firm results [86], intellectual capital [70], firm reputation [55,90], and even firm innovation [90]. Furthermore, Low and Bu [87] suggest that SRHRM practices can help the organization to implement the digitalization of work processes more committedly, while Parkes and Davis [61] contend that organizations could more quickly attract talents by employing SRHRM strategies.…”

Can we have our cake and eat it too? Corporate social responsibility and employees’ eudaimonic well‐being and performance

“…As organizations are facing increasing uncertainty from various sources, for example, the COVID‐19 pandemic (Low & Bu, 2021), ways to navigate these vast challenges and ultimately achieve a win‐win relationship between employees’ performance and well‐being have received substantial attention in both academia as well as in practice (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020; Salas‐Vallina et al, 2021). While employees’ performance is generally treated as the cornerstone of organizational survival, now their well‐being is also being viewed as vital not only for their own further development but also for organizations’ long‐term success (Wood & Ogbonnaya, 2018; Wright & Huang, 2012).…”

“…As organizations are facing increasing uncertainty from various sources, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic (Low & Bu, 2021), ways to navigate these vast challenges and ultimately achieve a win-win relationship between employees' performance and wellbeing have received substantial attention in both academia as well as in practice (Carnevale & Hatak, 2020;Salas-Vallina et al, 2021).…”