The Effect of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR) on Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

With the improvement of the material level, the employees of companies do not only pay attention to the level of wages, but rather focus on the happiness that the work induces, the quality of life, and the psychological well-being. Current research on corporate social responsibility has mostly concerned both macroscopic and institutional aspects, and empirical studies that address microscopic aspects of the organization employees are relatively scant. Therefore, it is the aim of this study to investigate whether corporate social responsibility perceived by employees affects subjective well-being, as well as to examine the intermediary mechanism through which employees perceive subjective well-being. Based on the social identity theory, this study establishes a research model that sets corporate social responsibility, organizational identification, and moral identity perceived by employees as antecedent variables of subjective well-being, and uses organizational support as a moderating variable. The survey data used in this study were collected from social media in the form of a questionnaire. The survey used a total of 508 questionnaires for employees of “Haier”, a Chinese home appliance manufacturing company, for one month in September 2022. The conclusions drawn through this study are that, first, corporate social responsibility has a significant positive (+) effect on subjective well-being, and, second, organizational identification mediates the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility and subjective well-being. Third, moral identity plays a partial mediating role between perceived corporate social responsibility and subjective well-being. Finally, organizational support moderates the relationship between employees’ perceived corporate social responsibility and organizational identification. It is expected that the research result will contribute to better understanding of the mechanism in which perceived corporate social responsibility boosts employees’ subjective well-being, which has huge implications for companies in ways that affect organizational performance as well as corporate loyalty.