تاثیر مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت ها بر مشارکت کارکنان Corporate social responsibility influences employee engagement

1. Introduction The most commonly used definition of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been derived from Davis (1973) who describes it as a combination of social benefits and economic gains where companies empower the society’s betterment. In the past two decades, CSR has grown into a very popular idea (Nan and Heo, 2007) for businesses around the world. The benefits of CSR for both firm and society have been widely acknowledged by consumers, NGOs, governments and media (Kerr et al., 2008). Extensive literature brings to light the corporate external profits of CSR (Zappala`, 2004; King and Lenox, 2002). For example, empirical research has shown an indirect positive relationship between responsibility and turnover increase (McGuire et al., 1988). Similarly, the stakeholder theory invites businesses to displace the mono-stakeholder concept and establish a multi-stakeholder approach (Cornell and Shapiro, 1987; Freeman, 1984; Wood and Jones, 1995; McGuire et al., 1988). On the contrary, literature supports that there are important internal gains for sustainable companies. Hence, it is believed that corporate citizenship can have a strong influence on employee morale, motivation, commitment, loyalty and training (Weiser and Zadek, 2000; Zappala`, 2004; Orlitzky et al., 2003). Quite parallel to what this research paper aims to confirm, Waddock and Graves (1997) note that organisations with CSR activities can benefit from empowering and encouraging their staff’s commitment and productivity. The author also links increased staff productivity to an increase in financial performance. Equally, Peterson (2004) found a positive correlation between employees’ perceptions of CSR and organisational commitment, mainly when organisational values and ethics are in agreement with the employees’ personal values and norms. Similar to this study, in the research studies by Kim et al. (2009), Babcock-Roberson and Strickland (2010) and Glavas and Piderit (2009), additional employee-centric variables and their relationship to CSR policies were statistically measured, such as employee commitment to the company, employee identification with their firm and staff’s creative involvement. Their studies were based on the organisational level (CSR activities) and individual level (employee-centric variables). Correspondingly, this study aims to show the correlation between CSR strategies (organisational level) and employee engagement, motivation and job satisfaction (individual level).