Employee response to CSR in China: the moderating effect of collectivism
| Published date | 01 April 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-05-2017-0146 |
| Date | 01 April 2019 |
| Pages | 839-863 |
| Author | Lifang Zhao,Jiman Lee,Sungok Moon |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Employee response to CSR in
China: the moderating
effect of collectivism
Lifang Zhao and Jiman Lee
School of Business, Yonsei University, Seoul, The Republic of Korea, and
Sungok Moon
Department of Hotel Management, Korea Tourism College,
Icheon, The Republic of Korea
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’corporate social
responsibility (CSR) perception and their organizational identification in a Chinese context. The moderating
effect of employees’collectivist orientation on the relationship between CSR perception and organizational
identification is also examined.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected from 308 employees of 7 firms in Zhejiang Province,
located in southeast China. Hierarchical regression analyses were utilized to test the hypotheses.
Findings –The results indicate that all three dimensions of CSR perception in this study, specifically,
economic, philanthropic and strategic CSR perception, are strongly and positively related to the
organizational identification of employees. Employees’collectivist orientation positively influences the
relationship between strategic CSR perception and organizational identification. In contrast, collectivist
orientation negatively influences the relationship between economic CSR perception and organizational
identification. However, no moderating effect of collectivism on the relationship between philanthropic CSR
perception and organizational identification was found.
Research limitations/implications –The findings highlight the positive relationship between employees’
CSR perception and their workplace attitudes, shedding particular light on how employees’personal values
influence their responses to CSR in Chinese organizations.
Originality/value –This study extends the current understanding on the relationship between CSR and
organizational identification. Particularly, the authors include multiple dimensions of CSR (economic,
philanthropic and strategic CSR) in the research model, demonstrating that the link between CSR perception
and organizational identification is influenced by employees’collectivist orientation.
Keywords China, Collectivism, Corporate social responsibility, Strategic CSR
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become both a focus of research and an essential
part of business strategy (McWilliams and Siegel, 2001; Porter and Kramer, 2006) in the last
two decades. CSR refers to the responsibility of businesses to society; it encompasses the
economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that various stakeholders have of
organizations (Carroll, 1979; Turker, 2009). In addition, it is key to building relationships
among stakeholders (Waddock and Smith, 2000; De Roeck et al., 2014). Many empirical
studies have demonstrated the impact of CSR on organizational performance. CSR is
suggested to have a positive effect on business performance, enhancing corporate image
and reputation and increasing financial performance (Waddock and Graves, 1997;
McWilliams and Siegel, 2000; Brammer and Millington, 2008). In general, research on CSR
has focused at the institutional and organizational levels, while CSR research on the
individual level is comparatively limited (Aguinis and Glavas, 2012). However, CSR is a Personnel Review
Vol. 48 No. 3, 2019
pp. 839-863
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-05-2017-0146
Received 12 May 2017
Revised 15 July 2018
Accepted 15 October 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean
Government (NRF-2017S1A3A2065831).
839
Employee
response
to CSR
construct that manifests itself within organizations at many levels (Aguilera et al., 2007;
Glavas and Kelley, 2014). Several studies have recently suggested that an employee-focused
micro-level study is needed to be explored (Rupp and Mallory, 2015; Frynas and Yamahaki,
2016). Very few studies have examined how CSR affects workplace outcomes of employees,
who are essential internal stakeholders in organizations (e.g. Peterson, 2004; Brammer et al.,
2007; Turker, 2009), especially in countries with emerging economies such as China, where
organizations have just begun to recognize the strategic importance of CSR and the benefits
it might bring (Shen and Jiuhua Zhu, 2011; Hofman and Newman, 2014).
Most employee-focused CSR studieshave shown that CSR influences a rangeof employee
attitudes andbehaviors in the workplace(Turker, 2009; Jones, 2010; Kimet al., 2010; De Roeck
et al., 2014; Newmanet al., 2015), including employeeorganizational identification (Jones, 2010;
Kim et al., 2010),organizational commitment( Brammeret al., 2007), job satisfaction(Valentine
and Fleischman, 2008) and employee attraction and retention (Greening and Turban, 2000).
Notwithstandingthe findings of these researchstudies, considerable uncertainty still remains.
Specifically, we do not know how CSR motivates employees to behave in positive ways
toward theirorganizations (Aqueveque andEncina, 2010), most previousresearch still lacks a
concrete and comprehensive theoretical explanation.
There are three main objectives of our study: to answer the call for research on
employee-focused CSR (Rupp and Mallory, 2015); to examine boundary conditions
influencing the relationship between CSR and employees; and the multiple dimensions of
CSR. Unlike prior CSR research on organizational level, this study focuses on how
employees respond to perceived CSR. Specifically, we significantly extend the findings of
the existing literature by examining how employees’CSR perception influences their
organizational identification. We argue that individual differences exist between employees
in terms of their response to CSR perception. Only a few studies have explored the
conditions that may influence the link between CSR and employees (Peterson, 2004; Hofman
and Newman, 2014). In this study, we investigate the moderating effect of employees’
personal values, specifically their collectivist orientation. Finally, we attempt to examine the
CSR–employee link by developing a multi-dimensional CSR measure more appropriate for
analysis at the individual level. We do this for two main reasons. First, most studies of CSR
have been conducted using aggregate measures, such as KLD (Chin et al., 2013); however,
measures at the individual level can more accurately capture the degree to which
consciousness of CSR has permeated throughout the organization (Glavas, 2016). Employee
perception of CSR, which refers to employees’personal evaluations and interpretations
of an organization’s CSR activities (Azim, 2016), is considered more appropriate in
employee-focused CSR research (Glavas and Kelley, 2014), because it is subjective,
represents employees’interpretations of organizational activities, and reflects the sense-
making process (Weick, 1995). Thus, it has been suggested that further research is needed at
the individual level to determine whether individuals’perceptions of an organization’s CSR
activities influence their attitudes and behaviors in the workplace (Albinger and Freeman,
2000). In this study, we use employees’perception of CSR to examine their connection to
employees’positive attitudinal and behavioral responses. Second, most prior studies on CSR
have used a global measure of CSR or focused on a single dimension of its implications for
specific stakeholders, which provides limited understanding of the CSR–employee link.
In this study, we examine three dimensions of CSR, specifically economic CSR (shareholder
view), philanthropic CSR (stakeholder view) and strategic CSR (based on the CSR model of
Porter and Kramer, 2002), in order to provide a better and more comprehensive
understanding of this link.
Overall, our study contributes to the extant literature in three main ways. First, we
significantlyextend the CSR literatureby focusing on employee-focusedCSR at the individual
level, examininghow employees’CSR perceptioninfluences their organizationalidentification.
840
PR
48,3
To continue reading
Request your trial