| dc.description.abstract | During the COVID-19 pandemic, American billionaires became 60 percent wealthier, as the government and nonprofits were struggling to assist the devastating impact this left on our society. Whereas nonprofits and the government are not able to fix all of societal issues, we need greater contributions from for-profit leaders. This is where Human Resource Development academics come in—this is our responsibility to highlight the positive impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR), especially regarding employees in the workplace. As many CSR activities are designed to attract customers with minimal consideration of real issues, we can challenge business leaders and encourage them to have more balanced CSR programs by considering all stakeholders (including employees).
Previous studies have highlighted that some CSR efforts lead to more productive, positive work environment for employees. Specifically, I found that employees can be more engaged at work due to CSR, but underlying mechanisms are unclear, as majority of the researchers have focused on the direct relationship of CSR activities with employee behaviors. The purpose of this quantitative study was to expand CSR literature by investigating if employees’ perceptions on the organizations’ CSR activities can positively impact work engagement through mediation of employee trust.
For this study, I collected 391 responses from US retail industry employees. I identified a positive relationship between CSR, trust, and employee engagement while employee trust partially mediates the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. The results of this study might be interest to CSR researchers, industrial psychologists, business leaders, business consultants, and some graduate/postgraduate social science students as it expands upon the impacts of CSR on organizational wellness. | |
