How Do Employees Respond to the CSR Initiatives of their Organizations: Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries

Abstract

This research presents a new perspective of social exchange to explain the employee responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of their organizations. In particular, the current study aims to explore the social exchange based mediation mechanism between CSR actions and employee turnover intentions. Considering this theory, we propose that organizational trust is the primary outcome of CSR, which in turn influences the affective organizational commitment (AOC) and reduces the turnover intentions (TOI) of employees. Moreover, we posit that different types of CSR actions have different effects on employees due to their relative importance. To test the suggested research model, we analyzed the data collected on 304 employees working in the Star hotel in South Asia. Results of the study demonstrate the organizational trust to be a mediator between CSR and AOC and that CSR negatively impacts the turnover intentions of employees through the mediation of trust and AOC. Moreover, the results show the relevance of examining the disaggregated effects of different types of CSR actions on employees’ turnover intention. The study concludes with implications for future research and for policy-makers.