Do employees feel morally elevated by their organisation’s CSR, and so contribute to it?

Based on an article by HERICHER, C., F. BRIDOUX, N. RAINERI, published with the title, “I feel morally elevated by my organisation’s CSR, so I contribute to it”, in the Journal of Business Research, September 2023

Organisation's CSR

Issues

Companies attach increasing importance to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). They do so by relying on their employees’ adherence to their CSR commitment. Thanks to the spur of moral elevation, they do not need to offer personal financial incentives to ensure that employees go along with their socially responsible practices. By effectively communicating their CSR identity to their employees, organisations can convince them that CSR practices correspond to their moral values. 

Research questions

How does an organisation’s CSR lead employees to feel a sense of moral elevation? How can this sense of moral elevation reinforce the affectio societatis and motivate employees to get more involved in CSR activities? Does the feeling of collectively belonging to a company that pursues CSR objectives play a role?

Data and methods

The authors draw from the deontic justice theory, according to which social actors (both individual and collective) have a moral obligation to uphold the principles of justice. If employees are aware that their organisation is involved in CSR practices, they behave in accordance. To test this hypothesis, the authors employ two empirical methods: an experiment in which 149 participants are placed in a fictitious company to test their moral sensitivity to the CSR commitment of the firm (strong or weak, depending on the scenario assigned to each participant); and an online survey of 361 participants working at a for-profit company in the United Kingdom to test their perception of and behaviour towards the ecological commitment of their company. 

Key messages

  1. When employees perceive a strong environmental commitment from their company, and when it corresponds to an authentic, disinterested CSR identity (rather than a strategic, self-interested one) they have a strong sense of moral elevation.
  2. The company’s CSR identity and ecological commitment creates a moral responsibility in employees and motivates them to get more closely involved in CSR activities. 
  3. Similar to a sense of organisational pride, moral elevation contributes to the sense of being a citizen of the company, which confirms the importance of deontic justice in prosocial behaviours within firms. 
  4. Employees therefore adhere to CSR practices because they conform to moral injunctions (beyond personal incentives and predispositions to act in a socially responsible manner). 
  5. By considering the natural environment as a company stakeholder in its own right that needs to be involved and committed, companies align their employees’ environmental concerns with their own CCSR involvement. 
  6. A company that engages in CSR practices should not only communicate on related initiatives, but also on its overall behaviour towards its stakeholders, including the environment, in order to develop its CSR identity. 
  7. A company that engages in CSR practices should not only communicate on related initiatives, but also on its overall behaviour towards its stakeholders, including the environment. 

Key words: corporate social responsibility (CSR), deontic justice, moral elevation, identity