Workplace Corporate Social Irresponsibility in Supply Chain Operations: Generation and Gender Impacts on New Talent Recruitment

Abstract

Amidst stakeholder demands for transparency and the recent pandemic, the inner workings of supply chains have become more visible. This visibility has shone a spotlight on workplace corporate social irresponsibility (CSI)—actions within a company's internal supply chain operations perceived to harm the well-being of its employees. At the same time, companies scrambling to recruit new talent for operations and supply chain management (OM/SCM) face dual challenges in the shortage of diverse talent and the emergence of new generations in the workforce. Research indicates that younger generations and women more broadly expect social responsibility from their employers, but it is unclear how they perceive social irresponsibility when evaluating job offers. To begin to address this gap, we draw on attribution theory and develop hypotheses that examine prospective employees’ responses to workplace CSI in supply chain operations and whether their responses vary with gender and pay. Results from a conjoint task and mixed effects models reveal that both young men and young women respond negatively to job offers from firms with pervasive workplace CSI across their supply chain operations and atypical levels of workplace CSI relative to other firms. Although we do not find gender differences in general, supplementary analyses offer more nuanced insights (e.g., young men respond less favorably than young women when workplace CSI is pervasive, whereas young women respond more favorably than young men to above-average pay). Overall, our study advances understanding of the spillover effects of workplace CSI on new talent recruitment and highlights that the new generation's preferences run deeper than traditional gender-based expectations. In doing so, we offer timely guidance for executives and human resource managers as companies struggle to recruit diverse new OM/SCM talent.