Corporate Social Responsibility and Employees’ Negative Behaviors under Abusive Supervision: A Multilevel Insight

Abstract

This study attempts to advance the current research debate on corporate social responsibility (CSR) at the micro-level by empirically examining the effect of perceived CSR on employee behaviors such as turnover intention and workplace deviance with the mediation mechanism of organizational identification. The boundary condition of group-level abusive supervision also enhances the novelty of this research. Social identity theory is used for hypotheses development. Multilevel data is collected from 410 middle managers working in thirteen commercial banks in Pakistan by conducting three surveys with temporal breaks. Our results suggest that employees’ perceived CSR is statistically and inversely related to their turnover intention and deviant behavior, along with the mediation mechanism of organizational identification. Further, this relationship is weakened with the moderation of abusive supervision. Specifically, our findings indicate that employees’ positive CSR perceptions minimize their undesired workplace behaviors through the mediation of organizational identification. But this effect becomes less effective with the contingency of abusive supervision. Our results reveal several means by which organizations can manage their CSR initiatives and human resources, for instance by concentrating on abusive supervision while evaluating their employees’ behavior.