Relevance of CSR for building affective commitment of employees: a multilevel approach

Purpose Drawing on both social identity theory and signalling theory, this paper aims to theorize and empirically examine a moderated mediation model that investigates the underlying mechanism through which perception of Corporate social responsibility (CSR) influence employee affective commitment (AC) (micro-CSR) in case of companies that are among the highest spenders on CSR initiatives targeted at external stakeholders (macro-CSR). Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses were tested on 444 employees of top five banking and four information technology Indian companies. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the measurement model, whereas moderated mediation analysis was done through Hayes PROCESS Macro (v.4). Findings Findings suggest that employees develop a positive attitudinal disposition towards organisations CSR activities even when targeted only at external stakeholders. The research findings support advancement of CSR literature by suggesting that expenditure on CSR initiatives of business sends strong signals to employees of the care and empathy it has for stakeholders and due to prestige, that comes along with it, their self-concept gets accentuated. Lack of influence of employee volunteering (EV) on CSR outcomes highlights the need of integration of CSR initiatives with CSR strategy and human resource policies. Originality/value Results indicate that perception about CSR is directly related to AC, but its influence improves if it is routed through perceived organisational support and organisational trust in that order. Furthermore, the serial mediation of the model is not moderated by EV.