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1453704098-THEEFFECTSOFCORPORATESOCIALRESPONSIBILITYONEMPLOYEEENGAGEMENT.docx (Size: 648.89 KB / Downloads: 6)
Introduction
This thesis explores theeffects of corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employee engagement and the significance of those effects compared to other top drivers of employee engagement. It looked at this subject fromdifferent facets using varied research methods and verified the connection between CSR and employee engagement. The ultimatepurpose ofthis thesis is to informcompanies about CSR’s role and how to design CSR efforts when it comes to improving employee engagement.
Before further exploring this theme, it isnecessary to understand the definition of both corporate social responsibility and employee engagement that the thesis used and the grounds on which the theme came into existence.
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) — also known as corporate responsibility, corporate citizenship, responsible business, sustainable business and corporate sustainability — “is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute toeconomic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as ofthe local community and society at large (Holme&Watts,
2000).” The aimof CSR is to give back a portion of a corporation’s profit to society (Reputation Institution, 2010).Despite the skepticismof whether CSR is truly ingrained in corporations’ strategy or whether it is simply a sideshow associated with companies’ public relations activities, the concept of corporate socialresponsibilityhasbecome increasingly important to businesses today and to those organizations who seek to influence industries and society at large. Because of severe competition and the public’s attention on social responsibility, corporations need to be socially responsible citizens to survive and to grow business in today’s competitive market.
Employee engagement is employees’positive emotional and intellectual attachment and employees’ commitment to an organization’s success, which in turns influences him/her to apply additional discretionary effort to work (Kore Access, 2008; Gibbons, J. 2006; Towers Perrin, 2005 as cited in Endres&Mancheno-Smoak, 2008). Although employee engagement isa relatively new concept that emerged in recent years, it has been widely regarded as necessary for successful businesses. The best performing corporations know that a high level of employee engagement is linked to achieving corporate goals and differentiates them fromtheir competitors, and therefore it is necessary to incorporate employee engagement into the business strategies (Gallup,
2011). An increasing number of corporations began to realize theauthenticity of the notion that higher employee engagement was associated with a wide range of business outcomes, such as improved customer service, increased productivity, retention and increased profits.
On the one hand, it is true that companies need CSR to stand out fromtheir competitors; successful companies also need CSR to shape their public images and reputations. On the other hand, companies want employee engagement because it is connected tobusiness performance. When correlated together, business analysts noticed that CSR can affect employee engagement to some extent. In fact, CSR is among one of the top drivers of employee engagement in some studies (TowersPerrin,n.d.).There are two reasons that mightexplain thecorrelation.
First, there is no doubt that employees are one of the most important components of a corporation’s business operations. Asstakeholders in and an audience of a corporation, the employees are obligated tounderstand explicitlythe corporation’s
mission and vision as well as its strategies.Engaged employees who work with passion and feel a profound connection to the corporation (Gallup, 2004 as cited in Endres&Mancheno-Smoak, 2008) are willing to align themselves with its strategies, mission and values, which allows themto see the value of their work and regard themselves contributing to organizational goals. CSR is commonly regarded as associated with corporations’ mission, vision, values and culture, and CSR initiatives are able to articulate themin a practical way. Corporations that advocate this idea ingrain CSR into their business strategies. For this reason, it follows that engaged employees should embrace CSR for its connection to the corporation’s values and mission.
The other reason is that CSR helps organizations“win the war for talent (Bhattacharya & Sen &Korschun, 2008, p37).” An increasing number of both existing employees and potential employees are attracted to corporations that are socially responsible corporate citizens. Growing evidence shows that an organization’s reputation for CSR is one of the features that attractand retain extraordinary talent. People simply like to work with corporations that share their values. Knowing the corporation contributes to society allowsemployees to match their values with the company’s and further alignthemselves with the organizationalgoals.Thiscould affect the level of employee engagement.
Even though those two reasons seemrationaland authentic, there is little evidence that the degree to which CSR is important to a company’s employee engagement,
exceeds the importance of other well-recognizeddrivers, suchas senior managements’ concern for employees’ well-being and opportunities to improve employees’ skills and capabilities. What’s more, the performances of both CSR and employee engagement can bemeasured quantitatively and qualitatively throughresearch methods, such as surveys and interviews But there are few well-recognizedand acceptedmethods to measure the correlation between CSR and employee engagement, especially how CSR can affect employee engagement.
The purpose of this thesis is to verify that CSR is one of the top drivers of employee engagement. To achieve the aim, an examination of CSR’s effects on employee engagement was performed through a series of qualitative and quantitative research methods. Six different aspects of CSR and employee engagement were reviewed in
Theory. Several pertinent piecesof literature were highlighted to support the foundationof this thesis. The details and key findings ofliterature review are explored in Chapter Two. The core hypothesis, which is how CSR can affect employee engagement, was examined in Chapter Three. Three deductions that derived fromthe main hypothesis can also be found in the same chapter. Additionally, a variety of empirical research methods, including qualitativeinterviews; qualitative questionnaire; qualitative case studies; quantitative survey; quantitative data comparison; and quantitative data re-analyzing,
were adopted to verify the hypothesis. Thedetails of each methodology are presented in Chapter Four and Five. Chapter Six covers the study’s outcomes andhow its conclusions were reached.
Finally, the study compared the importance of CSR’s effects to other well- recognized top drivers of employee engagement. It identified the degree and circumstances that CSR can affect employee engagement and demonstrated different scenarios when the two are associated. What’s more, the thesis also points out that most corporations in the United States overlook the fact that employees’ workplace safety and human rights are part of CSR, and thereforethey deserve special attention when those two aspects go internationally.
The thesis will hopefullyhelp corporations better understand the role of CSR when it relates to employee engagement. Itdepicts a clear picture of the degree and circumstances that CSR can affect employee engagement. When it comes to increasing the level of its employee engagement, a corporation can match its own situation with different scenarios shown at the end of the study to foresee the outcomes, and further tailor the investment in CSR. By adopting the thesis’ recommendations andcustomizing the commitment accordingly, corporations would be able to make good use of CSR’s effects at the accurate time and under propercircumstances without wasting money and effort.