Corporate Social Responsibility for Organizational Resilience: History
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Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou
,
Anna Anastasopoulou
,
Panagiotis Trivellas

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been found to be important in boosting organizations’ sustainability and resilience against crisis. An organization seeks to satisfy its shareholders as a primary concern, its success can be affected by other stakeholders. Organizational CSR programs should not only take into account customers, suppliers, and other external stakeholders [21] but also include internal activities in which employees can participate.

  • CSR
  • job performance

1. Introduction

The concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become increasingly prominent in a growing number of countries in recent years, and it continues attracting intense attention from both academics and practitioners in many industries [1][2][3]. In response to societal pressure and ethical obligations, more and more organizations are seeking to exhibit their commitment to CSR principles and are putting increasing emphasis on the social impact of their activity [4][5]. Future organizations could severely jeopardize their survival if they do not effectively integrate CSR in their corporate strategy and culture [6][7]. Engagement in CSR activities has been shown to be a reliable indicator of how resilient an organization is to the COVID-19 pandemic’s external shock [8]. In addition, according to Harwood et al. [9], CSR programs seem to have the capacity to endure pressure, shock, or change brought on by conflicting priorities and/or resource limitations in an organization. Therefore, it appears that CSR is not only an organizational activity resilient to crises and external pressures [9] but also an activity that helps organizations foster their resilience and cope with and recover from external threats [10][11][12][13][14][15].

2. Corporate Social Responsibility for Organizational Resilience

2.1. Examining Human Resource Management Benefits of CSR Perceptions

Contemporary organizations are increasingly aware of the strategic significance of CSR to improve their business decisions and results [16][17][18]. The notion of CSR entails not only compliance with legislation but also ongoing contributions to society’s well-being; thus, CSR initiatives impact not only profit seeking groups such as shareholders, but also customers, employees, and the local community [19]. Organizations can enact both internal CSR practices related to improving working conditions and external CSR practices related to environmental protection and economic and social development [20]. Organizations that have integrated CSR into their strategy are regarded more favorably by stakeholders.
CSR and the concept of stakeholder theory can be regarded as critical notions when inquiring about the role of business in society, and their relationship has been studied for many decades [21]. According to stakeholder theory, managers are required to take into account the values, wants, and expectations of their key stakeholders [22], i.e., any individual or group that can affect or be affected by the organization’s activity. An organization’s value and performance can be critically affected by the strategic actions organized to satisfy the interests and expectations of different stakeholder groups [23][24]. More specifically, CSR actions focusing on the well-being of the internal stakeholders (e.g., employees, managers), the most influential groups in an organization [25], could strengthen employee performance and loyalty, which in turn could boost the organization’s financial performance [26][27]. Moreover, employees can significantly impact external stakeholders’ perceptions about the organization, favorably affecting the corporate image and reputation as well as customer satisfaction [28][29]. Employees appreciate working for organizations that are regarded as ethical, in terms of both how they treat their employees and how they engage with the community [30]. Since employees are crucial to an organization’s success, their positive attitude and the support of organizational actions are of critical interest to the upper management [31].
According to the stakeholder approach, organizations are expected to play a prolific role in broader society by investing in CSR actions. Employee perceptions of CSR activities can be defined as the degree to which employees perceive that an organization supports activities related to society’s well-being [32]. The present study has adopted an approach with three dimensions of employee perceptions of CSR activities: philanthropic CSR, ethical CSR, and environmental CSR [33]. The first CSR dimension, philanthropy, can be described as the voluntary offering of resources to solve social problems and benefit or help people and local communities without pursuing personal gains. Ethical CSR entails practices that improve the workplace and enforce fairer treatment for employees in ways that go above and beyond what an organization is legally required to do [34]. Finally, environmental CSR is related to the impact of an organization’s actions on the ecosystem and the need for constant efforts to reduce the eventual damaging effects of business processes on the natural environment [35].
HRM can significantly contribute to the development as well as the execution of CSR strategies due to its growing critical influence on an organization’s relationships with employees [36][37]. Sustainability in the workplace is becoming an issue of increasing significance for human resource management [38]. The way employees view CSR actions can influence the perceptions of the organization and could lead to changes in their behavior [39]. Aguilera et al. [40] underline that employees’ perceptions of firms’ CSR posture positively affect their willingness to participate in and contribute to firms’ activities. Perceptions of CSR practices influence both employee attitudes and behaviors [41][42]. Branco and Rodrigues [43] have associated CSR activities with a significant number of internal benefits: (i) increased staff motivation, morale, commitment, and loyalty to the organization, (ii) reduced staff turnover, (iii) positive employee attitudes regarding workplace quality, and (iv) improved job performance and operational efficiency. Valentine and Fleischman [30] and Mansour et al. [44] have found a positive correlation between perceptions of CSR and job satisfaction. Ali et al. [1] and Shaikh et al. [45] highlight a favorable relationship between perceptions of CSR and employee commitment, while other studies have linked such perceptions directly with employee performance [46][47][48][49]. Confirming the positive impact of CSR on employee commitment and morale, Porter and Kramer [50] stress that employees appear willing to work harder and for less when they work for socially responsible organizations. Similar studies have linked high CSR performance with increased employer attractiveness [51].

2.2. Psychological Empowerment and Its Implications on HRM Outcomes

Psychological capital and empowerment can be regarded as the keys to better understanding the enablers for building a sustainable workplace [52]. Empowerment can be described as a psychological phenomenon that should be felt by employees instead of obliging them to be empowered. Oladipo [53] portrays psychological empowerment as an individual’s cognitive state characterized by perceived control, competence, and goal internalization. Psychological empowerment entails employee perceptions of the extent to which they can perform their work in an independent and self-effective way [54]. Seibert et al. [55] consider it as an “intrinsic task motivation reflecting a sense of control in relation to one’s work and an active orientation to one’s work role” (p. 981). Maynard et al. [56] stress that psychological empowerment is a state of consciousness perceived by employees and reflects employee perceptions, wants, and feelings about the possibilities of shaping their work role. It is not something that an organization does or imposes on its employees but a frame of mind that staff members have regarding their role in the organization, a type of intrinsic motivation.
Psychological empowerment manifests in four major dimensions: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact [57]. Meaning describes how well employee perceptions and values fit job requirements. Competence reflects the degree of confidence regarding employees’ skills, enabling them to fulfill his/her duties successfully [58]. Self-determination describes employees’ sense of having a choice to initiate and regulate work processes. Impact describes the degree to which an employee believes that they can influence activities and outcomes at work [59].

2.3. Job Performance

Human capital is a major source of competitiveness for contemporary organizations [60], a significant contributor to increased organizational performance [19], and a central pillar of success [61] and organizational resilience [62]. Employees show that the quality of products/services and their well-being are related to job performance [63]. Employee performance can be defined as the degree to which the level of one’s productivity meets the organization’s standards of performance [64]; it is related to one’s ability to effectively perform a certain job compared to what the employee is expected to do [65]. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment have an impact on transformational leadership with respect to employee performance. Individual performance refers to employee results and behaviors that are associated with and contribute to organizational goals [66] and entails that all employees’ work achievements are accomplished in the process of undertaking work responsibilities [67]. Employee performance can be categorized into in-role behavior, referring to task performance, and extra-role behavior, referring to contextual performance [68]. Task performance includes behaviors and outcomes achieved by employees instead of the monetary benefits they receive [69]. Contextual performance entails roles and voluntary actions that are not officially prescribed but contribute to the social and psychological core of an organization and generate great corporate benefits [70].

This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su151511946

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