A Multilevel Model of Responsibility Towards Employees as a Dimension of Corporate Social Responsibility

This multilevel study addresses labor relations (LA) and human resource management (HRM) practices within the context of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The study adds to the growing literature on multilevel CSR by addressing the specific aspect of responsibility towards employees through LA-HRM practices in industrial firms. We design a multidimensional model of LA-HRM oriented CSR with the wider institutional environment, industrial setting and organizational setting as antecedents. The model and findings allow for a broad view of factors associated with practices of LA-HRM as important attributes of CSR. The predictive power of the institutional setting as well as industrial setting are shown to be moderately strong, while contrary the research hypothesis the organizational setting generally exhibits weak predictive power. The former finding reinforces the central role of the external environment and actors in firms’ internal application of LA-HRM practices and CSR. The later finding suggests that contrary to previous assertions, LA-HRM is generally not within the discretional power and influence of firms, and not a not a key area in the context of firms’ voluntary CSR policy but is dominated by externally mandated regulatory requirements.