1. Introduction
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law” [
1]. Various organizations have begun to recognize the strategic importance of CSR to the sustainability of their business operations, as consumers are willing to reward companies perceived to be socially responsible and penalize those perceived to be socially irresponsible [
2]. Accordingly, CSR has received extensive scholarly attention in the past two decades, and numerous empirical studies have evaluated the impact of CSR practices on external stakeholders, particularly customers [
3,
4].
Extending the literature on CSR effects, some researchers have examined the impact of CSR on internal stakeholders, such as employees [
5,
6]. For example, they have examined the influence of CSR on employees’ attitudes toward their organization, such as organizational commitment [
6,
7], organizational identification [
8], and job satisfaction [
9]. However, a thorough literature review identified several significant research gaps.
First, limited research has focused on employees’ behaviors that benefit their organization, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) [
10,
11]. Researchers have noted that OCB, a discretionary employee behavior, is critically important because it contributes to the effective functioning of an organization [
12]. In the few studies examining the effect of CSR on OCB, researchers have reported inconsistent results; some support a significant effect, and others do not [
13]. Therefore, to address this discrepancy, this study examines whether and how employees’ CSR perception affects their OCB.
Another research gap is that researchers have generally measured the influence of employee perceptions of CSR practices directed at a single group of stakeholders and have not distinguished between CSR initiatives targeting different stakeholders (e.g., employees, community, and customers). As a result, it is still unclear how employees’ perceptions of organizational CSR practices toward different stakeholders influence their work behaviors [
14]. Thus, this study examines the comparative influence of different components of CSR (i.e., internal and external CSR, hereafter ICSR and ECSR) on employees. Although organizational justice theory expects that an organization showing responsibility toward external stakeholders also cares for its internal stakeholders (i.e., employees) [
15], some organizations do not strike a balance between ICSR (for employees) and ECSR (for external stakeholders) in practice [
16]. In other words, firms may prefer ECSR over ICSR because ECSR can earn firms a good reputation, while they have a limited understanding of the benefits of ICSR. As a result, employees may perceive unfairness, which may hinder firms from maximizing the positive outcomes from CSR activities because employees are also primary stakeholders who are critical to the long-term success and survival of hospitality firms [
17]. Theoretically, employees are both beneficiaries of ICSR initiatives and contributors to ECSR programs. Hence, employees’ perceptions of the two types of CSR are likely to emerge through different mechanisms and have disparate impacts on their attitudes and behaviors.
The other gap in the literature is the lack of studies examining the mediating factors explaining the mechanism by which employees’ CSR perception affects their attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Accordingly, researchers have called for more recognition of mediating factors in CSR research. For example, Farooq et al. [
7] and Nazir and Islam [
18] urged future research to identify potential mechanisms explaining the effect of CSR on employees. Adopting social identity and social exchange theories, some researchers have identified the mediating effects of employees’ cognitive responses, such as their company identification [
19] and organizational trust [
7]. However, the influence of employees’ emotional responses, such as organizational pride, has been ignored. Given that emotions have a significant impact on human behavior [
20], this lack of consideration creates a significant research gap. Furthermore, prior research suggests that employees’ sense of meaningfulness through their work drives positive employee attitudes and behaviors [
21]. However, little research has examined the influence of meaningful work in the hospitality industry [
18].
The main objectives of this study are (1) to clarify the contradictory findings on the influence of CSR on OCB and (2) to develop and test a conceptual model that enhances our understanding of CSR and its consequences in the hotel business context. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following research questions:
Research question 1: Do hotels’ CSR practices impact their employees’ OCB?
Research question 2: If so, how do hotels’ CSR practices influence employees’ OCB?
Research question 3: Which CSR practices—ICSR or ECSR—have a more significant impact on OCB?
To answer these research questions, this study employs Mehrabian and Russell’s (1974, hereafter M-R) model and examines the influence of various CSR practices on OCB. The M-R model argues that stimuli affect individuals’ emotions, in turn eliciting their responses. As the original M-R model primarily focuses on emotional responses to stimuli, this study extends the model by examining the underlying cognitive (i.e., meaningfulness of work) and emotional (i.e., organizational pride) mechanisms by which CSR practices influence employees’ OCB. This study contributes to the existing CSR literature by testing the influence of different CSR practices on OCB and revealing the underlying mechanisms by which CSR benefits organizations. Additionally, the findings have practical implications for the development of CSR programs, internal education, and training programs to attain positive employee outcomes.
5. Discussion
The extant CSR literature has reported mixed findings on the influence of firms’ CSR activities on OCB [
13]. Thus, this study was motivated by the need to clarify the contradictory findings in the literature. By focusing on different CSR activities toward different stakeholders (i.e., employees, community, and customers), this study investigated the effect of CSR on hotel employees’ OCB. Grounded in an extended M-R model, this study proposed that CSR influences OCB through the mechanisms of organizational pride and meaningfulness of work. The results confirmed that hotels’ CSR activities benefiting employees (H1a), the community (H1b), and customers (H1c) affect employees’ organizational pride. CSR activities toward customers were found to increase employees’ sense of the meaningfulness of work (H2c). Organizational pride significantly affected employees’ OCB and the perceived meaningfulness of work (H3 and H4). This study further identified that the meaningfulness of work increases OCB (H5).
5.1. Theoretical Contributions
The results of this study provide several significant theoretical contributions. First, this study enriches our understanding of the CSR effect on positive work outcomes in the hospitality industry. Previous research has discussed the significant influence of CSR on employees’ attitudes toward their firms [
6,
8,
9]. However, limited research has focused on employees’ extra-role behaviors in the workplace. As OCB increases customer satisfaction, thereby improving organizational performance [
10], it is critically important to understand how CSR practices promote employees’ OCB. Furthermore, the few studies that have examined the effect of CSR on OCB have reported inconsistent results [
13]. Thus, this study contributes to the extant literature by clarifying the contradictory findings in the literature. In support of previous research that identified a significant influence of CSR on OCB [
10], the results showed that hotels’ CSR programs are effective in enhancing their employees’ OCB.
Second, this study responds to calls for research to clarify the mechanisms through which CSR influences employees’ work-related behaviors [
18]. We developed and tested a mediation model based on an extended M-R model by also examining employees’ cognitive responses to their firms’ CSR activities. Accordingly, we hypothesized that hotels’ CSR impacts employees’ organizational pride and meaningfulness of work, which then result in OCB. Our findings showed that a full mediation model, which does not include the direct effect of CSR, has better model fit indices and a stronger ability to predict employees’ OCB than a partial mediation model. This is similar to previous studies that identified indirect effect of CSR on employees’ OCB. For example, He et al. [
10] found that employees’ organization identification serves as a full mediator between CSR and OCB. Findings from this study provide an alternative mechanism how CSR affects OCB.
The results also support previous findings of positive relationships between CSR and organizational pride [
31,
48] as well as between CSR and meaningfulness of work [
50]. Furthermore, corroborating previous research that found positive consequences of organizational pride in the workplace [
34,
35], we found that stronger organizational pride is associated with perceptions of more meaningful work and with OCB. Additionally, this study provides empirical support for the significant relationship between the meaningfulness of work and OCB [
11].
Another important contribution of this study is its examination of the comparative influences of different CSR activities on employees’ perceptions and behaviors. Utilizing multiple dimensions of CSR directed toward different stakeholders, namely, employees, society, and customers, this study’s findings provide a more nuanced understanding of which types of CSR are effective in eliciting positive emotional and cognitive responses from employees, which ultimately lead to higher levels of OCB. The results showed that ECSR activities that benefit both communities and customers have a stronger influence on employees’ organizational pride and on the perceived meaningfulness of work than ICSR activities do. Similarly, Fu et al. [
13] found that hotel employees’ OCB are directly influenced by the firm’s social-responsibility reputation (e.g., philanthropy) rather than employee treatment reputation (e.g., competitive salary and career development). Furthermore, previous research found that employees perceive CSR activities that support external stakeholders as goodwill toward the community [
73]. Perceived meaningfulness of work is related to individuals feeling that their work benefits the world [
43].
5.2. Managerial Contributions
This study has several implications for hotel management. First, we demonstrated that hotels’ CSR activities can be used for HRM strategies. The findings further suggested that different types of CSR activities are effective in enhancing employees’ organizational pride and meaningfulness of work. Combined, the results indicate that employees who have more positive emotional and cognitive evaluations of their organization and work are more likely to engage in OCB. Thus, hotel management can allocate resources effectively when developing CSR programs by focusing on different stakeholders. For example, the results showed that CSR activities contributing to the welfare of employees and other stakeholders (i.e., community and customers) are important for enhancing employees’ organizational pride. On the other hand, CSR practices benefiting customers are significant for developing employees’ sense of the meaningfulness of their work.
As hotel employees’ perceptions of their companies’ CSR activities significantly influence employee attitudes and behaviors in the workplace, hotel managers should actively share CSR information with their staff. Furthermore, hotel managers can utilize internal education and training programs to improve employees’ understanding of the firm’s CSR practices. Moreover, compared with employees’ perceptions of CSR, their actual participation in CSR activities is more effective for promoting positive attitudes toward the organization and work-related outcomes [
11,
18]. Therefore, hotel management should carefully develop CSR activities in which employees can enjoy participating.
Finally, considering that hotels’ CSR activities impact employees’ OCB through organizational pride and perceived meaningfulness of work, hotel management needs to develop and maintain a work environment that promotes pride and a sense of meaningful work among employees. For example, the creation of a recognition culture, which communicates an employee’s extraordinary work behavior among their colleagues, can foster employees’ organizational pride. Furthermore, hotel managers should devote significant effort to exploring the sources and characteristics of meaningfulness and actually implement relevant strategies in the workplace, such as providing autonomy in decision-making.
5.3. Limitations and Future Research
This study has several limitations. First, it was conducted in China using a sample of Chinese hotel employees. Therefore, our findings may not be generalizable to other countries and/or other industries. Given that cultural factors may play a role in influencing employees’ CSR perceptions as well as their behaviors, future research utilizing samples of different nationalities is required to validate this study’s findings. Furthermore, to collect data, this study employed a self-report survey method, which might be susceptible to social desirability bias. Although this study utilized an online survey method to avoid such response bias and used statistical tests to ensure that CMB did not influence the results, future research can validate this study’s findings by employing multiple data sources (e.g., supervisors’ evaluations of work behaviors).
Furthermore, this study adopted a cross-sectional design, which is limited in explaining the causal relationship between CSR and employees’ attitudes and behavioral outcomes. We recommend longitudinal research to address the limitation of our cross-sectional design. In addition, this study did not consider the influence of other organizational contexts. For instance, organizational culture [
74] and employees’ perception of organizational support [
75] influence employees’ engagement with their organization and positive work-related outcomes. Therefore, future research should consider adding these factors to the current theoretical model and test the interaction effects of CSR and organizational contexts.