Corporate social responsibility strategies and their impact on employees’ commitment

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how employees perceive corporate social responsibility (CSR) within their organizations, thus employees’ Internally Perceived CSR and how it impacts their organizational commitment. Design/methodology/approach – For conceptualizing, the constituents of Internally Perceived CSR – Individual CSR-Perception, Organizational CSR-Perception and their respective factors – are derived from social exchange theory, social identity theory and further relevant literature. The study’s research model is tested through a survey consulting 386 respondents from a company operating in renewable energies. Findings – The results lead to the following conclusions: Internally Perceived CSR strongly impacts employees’ Affective Organizational Commitment and comparatively low influences Normative Organizational Commitment. Moreover, Affective Organizational Commitment mediates Normative Organizational Commitment. Originality/value – The implementation of CSR has evolved to a crucial component of both organizational behavior and management. Nevertheless, the internal CSR-dimension has been largely neglected so far.