IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i21p14606-d965213.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Employees Perceptions about Corporate Social Responsibility—Understanding CSR and Job Engagement through Meaningfulness, Bottom-Up Approach and Calling Orientation

Author

Listed:
  • Sara Cunha

    (Faculty of Economics, University of Porto, 4050-290 Porto, Portugal)

  • Teresa Proença

    (Faculty of Economics and Management, CEF.UP, University of Porto, 4050-290 Porto, Portugal)

  • Marisa R. Ferreira

    (School of Management and Technology, CIICESI, Porto Polytechnic Institute, 4200-072 Porto, Portugal)

Abstract

This article analyses the effect of employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on job engagement, and we measure meaningfulness experienced and the role of cross-level sensemaking factors, such as the bottom-up approach and calling orientation. Drawing on qualitative data, collected among workers that had CSR implemented in their companies, our findings suggest that both calling orientation and meaningfulness influence the positive impact of the CSR perceptions on job engagement through sequential mediation. The calling orientation has an important role in this relationship because meaningfulness alone does not influence the relationship between CSR and job engagement. Additionally, employees’ perceptions of CSR positively influence job engagement. Furthermore, our research indicates that the meaningfulness experienced by workers increases in the presence of a bottom-up approach in what concerns the definition and implementation of CSR actions of the company. Overall, this research expands our understanding of how people find meaningfulness through individual experiences of CSR.

Suggested Citation

  • Sara Cunha & Teresa Proença & Marisa R. Ferreira, 2022. "Employees Perceptions about Corporate Social Responsibility—Understanding CSR and Job Engagement through Meaningfulness, Bottom-Up Approach and Calling Orientation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-24, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14606-:d:965213
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14606/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/21/14606/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gawke, Jason C. & Gorgievski, Marjan J. & Bakker, Arnold B., 2019. "Measuring intrapreneurship at the individual level: Development and validation of the Employee Intrapreneurship Scale (EIS)," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 806-817.
    2. Dennis A. Gioia & Kumar Chittipeddi, 1991. "Sensemaking and sensegiving in strategic change initiation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 433-448, September.
    3. Sendlhofer, Tina & Tolstoy, Daniel, 2022. "How employees shape CSR transparency: A sensemaking perspective," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 150(C), pages 268-278.
    4. Glavas, Ante & Kelley, Ken, 2014. "The Effects of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Attitudes," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 24(2), pages 165-202, April.
    5. Deborah E. Rupp & Ruodan Shao & Daniel P. Skarlicki & E. Layne Paddock & Tae-Yeol Kim & Thierry Nadisic, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement : The Moderating Role of CSR-Specific Relative Autonomy and Individualism," Post-Print hal-02312131, HAL.
    6. Abraham Carmeli & Gershon Gilat & David A. Waldman, 2007. "The Role of Perceived Organizational Performance in Organizational Identification, Adjustment and Job Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 972-992, September.
    7. Marko Sarstedt & Jun-Hwa Cheah, 2019. "Partial least squares structural equation modeling using SmartPLS: a software review," Journal of Marketing Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(3), pages 196-202, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yi Luo & Hua Jiang & Linzhi Zeng, 2023. "Linking Informative and Factual CSR Communication to Reputation: Understanding CSR Motives and Organizational Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Martin, Ursula M. & Thapa, Urusha & Aguinis, Herman, 2024. "Punishing the good? How to minimize an unfair CSR-washing label," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 199-207.
    3. Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Anna Anastasopoulou & Panagiotis Trivellas, 2023. "Employee Performance Implications of CSR for Organizational Resilience in the Banking Industry: The Mediation Role of Psychological Empowerment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, August.
    4. Ahmad Nasser Abuzaid & Elham Hmoud Al-Faouri & Manal Mohammad Alateeq & Saif-aldeen Marwan Madadha & Mohammed Yasin Ghadi & Aymn Sulieman Al-Qatawenh & Dmaithan Abdelkarim Almajali & Haya Abdul Kareem, 2024. "The Relationship between Perceptions of High-Performance Work Systems and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Considering the Moderating Effect of a Positive Diversity Climate," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Katarzyna Andruszkiewicz & Tomasz Wierzejski & Marek Siemiński, 2024. "The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainable Development Practices on Employer Branding—A Case Study of an International Corporation Operating in Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-16, March.
    6. Susana Rodrigues & Teresa Proença & Marisa R. Ferreira, 2024. "Insights into employee perspectives on corporate social responsibility policies and practices: Embeddedness, participation, and meaningfulness through work," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3502-3516, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yi-Ping Chang & Hsiu-Hua Hu & Chih-Ming Lin, 2021. "Consistency or Hypocrisy? The Impact of Internal Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-21, August.
    2. Mehran Nejati & Azadeh Shafaei, 2023. "Why do employees respond differently to corporate social responsibility? A study of substantive and symbolic corporate social responsibility," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 2066-2080, July.
    3. Kenneth Roeck & François Maon, 2018. "Building the Theoretical Puzzle of Employees’ Reactions to Corporate Social Responsibility: An Integrative Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(3), pages 609-625, May.
    4. Won‐Moo Hur & Tae‐Won Moon & Han‐Geun Lee, 2018. "Employee engagement in CSR initiatives and customer‐directed counterproductive work behavior (CWB): The mediating roles of organizational civility norms and job calling," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1087-1098, November.
    5. Matthias Gotsch & Carsten Gandenberger & Luisa Serafimov & Mathias Miemiec, 2023. "Top‐down and bottom‐up strategies for the implementation of corporate social responsibility: A qualitative survey of an international IT services company," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(4), pages 1645-1663, July.
    6. Bonnie Simpson & Jennifer L. Robertson & Katherine White, 2020. "How Co-creation Increases Employee Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Engagement: The Moderating Role of Self-Construal," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 331-350, October.
    7. Marc Scholten & Manuela Faia Correia & Teresa Esteves & Sónia P. Gonçalves, 2022. "No Place for Pointless Jobs: How Social Responsibility Impacts Job Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-25, September.
    8. Milica Slijepčević & Nevenka Popović Šević & Jelena Krstić & Tamara Rajić & Milan Ranković, 2024. "Exploring the Nexus of Perceived Organizational CSR Engagement, Job Satisfaction, Organizational Pride, and Involvement in CSR Activities: Evidence from an Emerging Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Sabrina Scheidler & Laura Marie Edinger-Schons & Jelena Spanjol & Jan Wieseke, 2019. "Scrooge Posing as Mother Teresa: How Hypocritical Social Responsibility Strategies Hurt Employees and Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 339-358, June.
    10. Wioleta Kucharska, 2020. "Employee Commitment Matters for CSR Practice, Reputation and Corporate Brand Performance—European Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, January.
    11. Magda B. L. Donia & Sigalit Ronen & Carol-Ann Tetrault Sirsly & Silvia Bonaccio, 2019. "CSR by Any Other Name? The Differential Impact of Substantive and Symbolic CSR Attributions on Employee Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 503-523, June.
    12. Joana S. P. Story & Filipa Castanheira, 2019. "Corporate social responsibility and employee performance: Mediation role of job satisfaction and affective commitment," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1361-1370, November.
    13. Fuqiang Zhao & Manita Kusi & Yun Chen & Wei Hu & Fawad Ahmed & Dinesh Sukamani, 2021. "Influencing Mechanism of Green Human Resource Management and Corporate Social Responsibility on Organizational Sustainable Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-15, August.
    14. Deepak Subba & Sanjeev Kumar, 2018. "Employees’ responses to corporate social responsibility: a study among the employees of banking industry in India," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 45(4), pages 301-312, December.
    15. Ilka Marie Frerichs & Thorsten Teichert, 2023. "Research streams in corporate social responsibility literature: a bibliometric analysis," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 231-261, February.
    16. María Garrido‐Ruso & Beatriz Aibar‐Guzmán, 2022. "The moderating effect of contextual factors and employees' demographic features on the relationship between CSR and work‐related attitudes: A meta‐analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(5), pages 1839-1854, September.
    17. Kenneth De Roeck & Assâad El Akremi & Valérie Swaen, 2016. "Consistency Matters! How and When Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Employees’ Organizational Identification?," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(7), pages 1141-1168, November.
    18. Donia, Magda B.L. & Tetrault Sirsly, Carol-Ann, 2016. "Determinants and consequences of employee attributions of corporate social responsibility as substantive or symbolic," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 232-242.
    19. Shelia D. Hammon & William E. Gillis & Marjorie L. Icenogle, 2023. "From social responsibility to employee engagement: evidence from the public sector," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(4), pages 1223-1247, December.
    20. Huang, Miaojia & Geng, Shuang & Yang, Wen & Law, Kris M.Y. & He, Yuqin, 2024. "Going beyond the role: How employees' perception of corporate social responsibility fuels proactive customer service performance," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:21:p:14606-:d:965213. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.