An Investigation of Enhancing Moderators for the CSR-AC Relationship

Abstract

A substantial amount of research indicates that there is a positive relationship between employees’ perception of their workplace’s degree of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and affective commitment (AC). Yet, little is known about how the employee’s cognitive processes modify this relationship. First, drawing on the self-concern and other-orientation as moderators (SCOOM) hypothesis (De Dreu & Nauta, 2009), the current thesis tests the hypothesis that the relationship is enhanced by cognitive processes rooted in other-orientation (OO): Being biased towards information that is relevant to outcomes on the collective level increases the employees' AC to the organisation when they have a positive evaluation of its CSR climate. Further, as previous studies indicate that perceived organisational support (POS) positively enhances the effect of CSR on AC, the study also aims to investigate whether organisational support will act as a moderator in a new context. A cross-sectional study was carried out to test these hypotheses. The study was set in the legal industry, through the collection of data from Norwegian law firms, a largely neglected context for research on CSR and AC. The main findings indicate that OO is insignificant for the CSR-AC relationship, while the statistically significant moderating effect of POS was replicated. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed. Keywords: affective commitment; corporate social responsibility; perceived organisational support; other-orientation; Norway; law firm; legal industry; private sector