Does CSR make better citizens? The influence of employee CSR programs on employee societal citizenship behavior outside of work

• Author: Lisa D. Lewin,Danielle E. Warren,Mohammed AlSuwaidi
• Date: 01 September 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/basr.12212
• Published date: 01 September 2020

Bus Soc Rev. 2020;125:271–288.

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271

wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/basr

Received: 24 May 2020

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Accepted: 26 May 2020

DOI: 10.1111/basr.12212

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Does CSR make better citizens? The influence

of employee CSR programs on employee societal

citizenship behavior outside of work

Lisa D.Lewin1

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Danielle E.Warren2

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MohammedAlSuwaidi3

© 2020 W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University.

1Management, Marketing and Finance,

SUNY College at Old Westbury, Old

Westbury, NY, USA

2Management & Global Business, Rutgers,

The State University of NJ, Newark, NJ,

USA

3College of Business and Economics,

United Arab Emirates University, Al Ain,

United Arab Emirates

Correspondence

Danielle E. Warren, Management & Global

Business, Rutgers, The State University of

NJ, Newark, NJ, USA.

Email: dwarren@business.rutgers.edu

Abstract

While corporate social responsibility (CSR) is expected to

benefit the firm and attract employees, few have examined

the effects of CSR on employees outside of work. Extending

the organizational citizenship literature, we conceptual-

ize employee engagement in CSR at work and outside of

work as a form of “societal citizenship behavior.” Across

two studies of working adults, we examine the relationship

between identification with an employer that engages in

CSR and different forms of employee societal citizenship

behaviors (e.g., donations, volunteering) outside of work. In

Study 1 (N=430 employees), we focus upon CSR donation

programs and find that identification with an employer that

engages in CSR and participating in employer CSR donation

programs affect employee citizenship behavior (donations)

outside of work. In Study 2 (N=285 employees), we exam-

ine a broader set of citizenship behaviors inside and outside

of work and find the relationships hold. Identification with

an employer that engages in CSR relates positively to citi-

zenship behavior at work and outside of work. In total, our

study results suggest that employer CSR affects employee

citizenship behaviors outside of work. We end with direc-

tions for future research.

KEYWORDS

charity, corporate social responsibility (CSR), organizational

citizenship

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LEWIN Et aL.

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INTRODUCTION

Each year, companies adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs that directly involve em-

ployees such as employee charitable donations through payroll systems, matching employee charitable

donations with company funds, and employer sponsored volunteer programs (America's Charities,

2015). Employers widely believe that participation in these types of programs improves employee

engagement (America's Charities, 2015). For example, 90% of Fortune 500 companies have employee

volunteer programs on company time, and all 100 firms on Fortune's list of “100 Best Companies to

Work For” encourage employee volunteering in one form or another (Cycyota, Ferrante, & Schroeder,

2016). Related research has shown that companies use employee-oriented CSR policies as a strategic

management tool to increase employee engagement (Flammer & Luo, 2017).

Participation in employee-oriented CSR programs has been shown to have positive social benefits

for both charitable organizations and the employees that participate (Cycyota et al., 2016; Peloza

& Hassay, 2006). For example, Peloza and Hassay (2006) interviewed employees who volunteered

through their firms with several charities and found that partnering with firms gave legitimacy to

charities and their associated causes, which enabled the charities to attract new supporters. Some of

their interviewees went on to volunteer on their personal time, and even to recruit family members.

While research has begun to explore the relationship between CSR as promoting employee organi-

zational identification and organizational commitment (e.g., Daily, Bishop, & Govindarajulu, 2009; El-

Kassar, Messarra, & El-Khalil, 2017; Newman, Miao, Hofman, & Zhu, 2016; Tahlil Azim, 2016), there

has been very little research examining the effects of organizational identification as it relates to CSR,

on employee behaviors within and beyond the workplace. In a review of the literature, Gond, El Akremi,

Swaen, and Babu (2017) find that employee behaviors studies in relation to CSR have focused on extra-role

and organizational citizenship behaviors, in-role performance, and employee retention, but there is no dis-

cussion of any behaviors outside the workplace. Previous research has documented the effects of employee

organizational identification on organizational citizenship and prosocial behavior directed at coworkers and

the organizations themselves (e.g., O’Reilly & Chatman, 1986), but we know little about the ways that CSR

affects employee behavior outside of work. This paper seeks to explore the question of whether identifying

with a firm that engages in CSR leads individuals to increase citizenship behaviors at work and beyond.

In this paper, we employ two studies that tackle the question of whether employer CSR programs

lead to employees who are more willing to give back to society at work and outside of work. Our first

study includes a sample of 430 employees who work for firms that engage in CSR programs. We

examine the relationship between employee identification with the employer and employee engage-

ment in donation programs at work and donations outside of work. We find that employees who more

strongly identify with their CSR-friendly employer are more likely to participate in donation programs

at work and subsequently more likely to donate outside of work.

In the second study, we broaden the scope of employee citizenship behaviors performed at work

and outside of work by adapting O’Reilly and Chatman's (1986) scale of prosocial behavior to in-

corporate society. We examine the same relationship between organizational identification with a

CSR-friendly employer and societal citizenship behaviors, but we test the relationships with a sample

of 285 employees, in which roughly half of the employees do not work for employers that offer CSR

programs. The nature of the second sample provides an opportunity to test the relationships with a

broader mix of employees and more citizenship behaviors and we find the relationships hold. More

specifically, identification with an employer that offers CSR programs leads to more citizenship be-

haviors at work and subsequently, citizenship behaviors outside of work. By using a behavioral mea-

sure for both studies (donating study pay), we are able to gain insight into the causal relationships. By

asking the study participants to donate their study pay to charity at the start of the study, we are able to