Employee CSR engagement matters : A study about how to influence employees' CSR engagement

Abstract: Companies that have a well-formulated Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practice is one step in the right direction of contributing to a prosperous society where future generations are not compromised. Although companies may have a CSR practice, it is not guaranteed that that the practice is effective. Essentially, employees have a key role in the success of the company’s CSR practice. Employees are major actors in carrying out and actualizing the company’s CSR initiatives and without the employees’ willingness to engage in CSR initiatives, the company will fail to uphold a CSR practice. Therefore, it is essential for companies to understand how employees can become engaged in the CSR practice. We have extracted previously identified factors that have played a role in employees CSR engagement, i.e. attitudes towards CSR, organizational identification, management support, training and development, recognition, CSR culture, and internal CSR communication. In order to get a deeper understanding of employee CSR engagement, it was perceived of relevance to examine in what way these factors influence employees’ engagement in CSR. The study has been conducted at a case company operating in the green service support sector. Trough semi-structured interviews, this study consists of experiences and perceptions from both managers and employees. Whilst the study focuses on the employee perspective, managers are included in order to get a more comprehensive understanding of employee CSR engagement. We found that both internal and external factors can be drivers or impediments for employee CSR engagement. Matching values and attitudes towards CSR were found to be drivers, because working with an important societal mission, or consider and value CSR on a personal level positively influence CSR engagement among individual employees. Supportive managerial behaviour, more specifically, inspirational managers, setting clear goals and appropriate recognition was also found to be drivers for CSR engagement. Furthermore, in terms of CSR integration, insufficient CSR culture and internal CSR communication was found to be impediments. This because, employees did not feel they knew how to contribute, nor did they experience that CSR was prioritized. Additionally, two new factors were found; time constraints as an impediment, and social interactions as a driver. Keywords: Corporate social responsibility, employee engagement