The well-being of individuals is seriously at stake due to rapid economic development and ongoing issues like globalization and insecure labor markets. The interest in sustainability and sustainable development is growing due to this complexity. The well-being of the individual, the environment, and the individual’s background are the main emphases of the psychology of sustainability and sustainable development [
1]. The concept of corporate social responsibility has been at the center of attention for quite some time. In comparison, Bowen defines corporate social responsibility as the duty of corporations to make their policies and actions compatible with society’s ideals [
2]. In general, the expectations of social responsibility place a requirement on companies, mandating that they meet specific public standards and safeguard the welfare of the general public [
3]. Since the social responsibility of the body is an extension of the individual’s social responsibility, it differs from it as to the individual’s role as an independent entity in society [
4,
5]. The concept of individual social responsibility refers to an ethical theory in which people are held accountable for performing their civic duties and holding that their acts must be directed toward the betterment of society as a whole [
6].
Theory and Hypotheses
Sustainability in the workplace is becoming an increasingly important issue for human resource management [
1]. Even though sustainable workplaces have received substantial scholarly and practical attention over the years, the time has come for new insights and study [
8]. This study offers findings with implications for combating professional success, drawing from the relatively new topic of positive organizational behavior. Data collected from a large sample of working adults employed by various companies suggests that psychological capital and empowerment may be the keys to a greater understanding of the variability in perceived indicators of success as well as of the intention to quit a job. Specifically, the data suggest that psychological capital and empowerment may be the key to better understanding the variation in apparent indicators of success [
1,
7,
8].
The value of the possessions and resources that are at hand to meet a particular demand is referred to as “capital.” When considering an entrepreneurial endeavor, “capital”—fixed, working, or growing capital—often comes to mind. However, it’s also crucial to consider other forms of capital. These comprise the intangible assets and resources provided by individuals working in an entrepreneurial enterprise, most significantly, the senior management team. Most recently, psychological capital has also been included in these categories [
9]. In contrast to human capital, which is defined as “what you know,” and social capital, which is defined as “who you know,” a person’s psychological capital is reflected in how they consider themselves or how highly they regard themselves [
10]. Knowledge, skills, and experience gained via financial investment in education and training are referred to as “human capital” [
11]. The interpersonal network created by relationship investment is known as “social capital” [
12]. Researchers in social science, economics, finance, political science, psychology, human resource management, and organizational behavior have focused on human and social capital to address a growing number of concerns in their respective domains. Human resources and their interrelationships are vital to the functioning of any institution, whether it be a corporation, a nation, an economy, or the global economy. Based on this concept of economic capital, human capital is an investment in knowledge and skills with market returns. Social capital is a market-return investment in social interactions. Contextual performance highlights how employees contribute to the psychological and social makeup of the firm even when they are not directly involved in its production or service operations. The three fundamental vocational competencies for employees to be competent for their jobs and obtain the core competitive advantages for their careers are human capital, social capital, and psychological capital, according to intelligent career theory. Human capital, social capital, and psychological capital can all contribute to excellent work performance as individual competitive advantages [
13].
As a result, psychological capital is a person’s feeling or view of their capacity to successfully employ the financial, human, and/or social capital that they provide to an organization productively [
14]. The concept of psychological capital arose from the positive psychology movement [
7]. It signified the significance of research into what is well with individuals and what adds to flourishing and development potential, including succeeding at work. Researchers expanded positive attention to the workplace several decades ago by emphasizing the benefits of micro-oriented positivity in people and macro-oriented happiness in organizations. Once believed to be the property of brilliant people, positive psychological resources such as hope and resilience now have a factual basis for their development [
7,
8,
9].
A construct of psychological capital (PsyCap) is defined as an individual’s positive state of development, characterized by (1) having confidence (self-efficacy) to take on and put forth the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making positive attributions (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, transmitting paths to goals (hope); and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining a positive attitude. In other words, psychological capital implies a positive assessment of an individual’s capacity to overcome obstacles via persistent effort, and this assessment reflects four dimensions: self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism [
10,
14,
15]. Furthermore, psychological capital outnumbers both human capital (expertise, knowledge, skills, and capacities) and social capital (relationships, networks). It focuses on “who you are today” and “who you may become” if your psychological resources are cultivated and fostered in the job [
16,
17].
Numerous studies have demonstrated that psychological capital and its dealings are associated with fewer work-related issues and improved well-being and work-related results. Innumerable benefits of psychological capital in the public sector have been demonstrated through research [
18,
19]. Similarly, the research on psychological capital in business, social responsibilities, entrepreneurship, and marketing has shown the significance of psychological capital and its treatments for private and public sector firms [
18,
19]. Psychological capital was reported to be positively or negatively associated with various factors such as organizational improvisation, entrepreneurial behavior, job satisfaction, work turnover, job burnout, professional burnout, belonging to organizational behaviors, job creation, and job performance [
15,
20,
21,
22,
23,
24,
25,
26,
27,
28,
29,
30,
31,
32,
33,
34].
According to Abubakar’s study, there is a considerable link between entrepreneurial behavior, organizational improvisation, and positive psychological capital [
35]. According to Liao’s research, psychological capital and work happiness are positively correlated, whereas turnover and job satisfaction are negatively correlated [
36]. According to Karimi’s (2018) research, there is no link between professional burnout and efficiency, hope, or optimism. Instead, an inverse relationship between psychological capital and burnout was discovered [
16].
According to Amin’s study from 2019, there is a statistically significant positive association between psychological capital and job creation. It has also been demonstrated that psychological capital positively influences both job creation and its many aspects [
17]. According to a previous study, there is a significant association between psychological capital in all of its dimensions, the job performance of university employees, and a positive and significant relationship between psychological capital and job satisfaction [
18].
Even though psychological capital and social responsibility may be conceptually related, the linkages between psychological capital and social responsibility still need to be adequately investigated. Also, the research done before should have looked for differences between the public and private sectors.
Psychological empowerment manifests internal motivation concerning four cognitive factors: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact [
37,
38]. Meaning represents how well employees’ values and beliefs fit job demands [
37,
39]. Competence (self-efficacy) reflects how confident individuals are that their skills will help them succeed in the job [
37,
40]. Impact describes how individuals believe their abilities can affect work activities and outcomes [
41]. Self-determination reflects the individual’s perception of the choice to initiate and regulate work processes [
42] autonomously. In summary, the four cognitive factors reflect an active orientation and feeling of control toward work. Psychological empowerment theory holds that empowered employees have a more positive orientation toward their work [
19]. This demonstrates the direction in which employees want confidence in shaping their work roles and context [
38]. Therefore, experiencing empowerment can result in positive work performance. Many studies have demonstrated that psychological empowerment can affect psychological capital, acting as a potential protective factor [
20]. Employees will therefore experience psychological empowerment at a greater level and think they are more valuable to the company when an organization uses empowerment as an incentive. They will approach their work in the company with a positive outlook and anticipation for the future. In the process, they will also provide more to the organization. Because of this, psychological empowerment can raise the level of psychological capital [
43,
44].
Additionally, prior research has shown that psychological empowerment might favor psychological capital [
44,
45,
46]. The relationship between social responsibility and psychological empowerment has been investigated previously. These investigations were only performed for corporate social responsibility [
47,
48].
Corporate social responsibility, often known as CSR, has evolved into a topic that is not only vitally important for businesses but also important for communities and public policy as a whole. This is because there is a growing awareness of the need for sustainable development. In addition, a discussion of corporate social responsibility is only worthwhile if one grasps the concept that for companies to be socially responsible, individuals must first be socially responsible in their many roles [
49,
50,
51]. Studies have been done on employees views of the employer’s corporate social responsibility [
51,
52,
53,
54], which have been shown to have a favorable relationship with employee engagement in work. On the other hand, no studies have been conducted on individual responsibility and its connection to the workplace or society.
The moral principle of individual social responsibility holds that each of us has to contribute to the common good. To act in a “socially responsibly” manner, one must show concern for others and care for the world around them. Everyone should support social issues. Individual social responsibility can only operate if individuals rise above self-interest and choose solutions that benefit many others. Every person may contribute to society by saving resources, volunteering, and in other ways. Individual social responsibility includes positive social relationships, community service, the preservation of public assets, friendliness toward neighbors, a sense of contentment when helping others, participation in social events, and respect for legal rights. Accordingly, it is necessary to research the relationship between the social responsibility of individuals and its relationship to psychological capital and empowerment. A significant number of studies have also been done on the connection between corporate social responsibility and psychological capital and empowerment [
54,
55,
56]. The intended theoretical framework and the respective hypotheses of the study are depicted in
Figure 1.
Hypothesis 1 (H1). Psychological empowerment is positively related to an individual’s social responsibility.
Hypothesis 2 (H2). Psychological capital is positively related to an individual’s social responsibility.
Hypothesis 3 (H3). Psychological empowerment has a pivotal role in the relationship between an individual’s social responsibility and psychological capital.