Employee response to CSR in China: the moderating effect of collectivism

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between employees’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception and their organizational identification in a Chinese context. The moderating effect of employees’ collectivist orientation on the relationship between CSR perception and organizational identification is also examined.

Data were collected from 308 employees of 7 firms in Zhejiang Province, located in southeast China. Hierarchical regression analyses were utilized to test the hypotheses.

The results indicate that all three dimensions of CSR perception in this study, specifically, economic, philanthropic and strategic CSR perception, are strongly and positively related to the organizational identification of employees. Employees’ collectivist orientation positively influences the relationship between strategic CSR perception and organizational identification. In contrast, collectivist orientation negatively influences the relationship between economic CSR perception and organizational identification. However, no moderating effect of collectivism on the relationship between philanthropic CSR perception and organizational identification was found.

The findings highlight the positive relationship between employees’ CSR perception and their workplace attitudes, shedding particular light on how employees’ personal values influence their responses to CSR in Chinese organizations.

This study extends the current understanding on the relationship between CSR and organizational identification. Particularly, the authors include multiple dimensions of CSR (economic, philanthropic and strategic CSR) in the research model, demonstrating that the link between CSR perception and organizational identification is influenced by employees’ collectivist orientation.