How Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility Raises Employees’ Creative Behaviors Based on Appraisal Theory of Emotion: The Serial Mediation Model

Abstract

This study examines the micro-level consequences of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and hypothesizes that perceived CSR affects the perception-emotion-attitude-behavior sequence. We hypothesized that perceived CSR affects organizational pride (OP) (emotion), affects affective commitment (AC) (attitude), and enhances the employees’ creative behaviors (behavior) by using the lens of appraisal theory of emotion (ATE). This study also hypothesizes that the association of perceived CSR and employee creative behaviors (ECBs) is serially mediated by OP and AC. The time-lagged data were collected from employees of only those companies participating in CSR activities to analyze the sequential mediation effect. We have tested the hypotheses of this study through Hayes approach. Results showed that perceived CSR kindles the employees’ creative behaviors. Furthermore, “organizational pride” and “affective commitment” serially mediate the association of perceived CSR and ECB. Hence, the hypothesized perception-emotion-attitude-behavior model received a significant support and demonstrated that micro-level positive consequences of CSR could be created through emotional, attitude, and behavioral mechanisms. The organization should promote their CSR activities using documentaries and contents to improve their perception of environmental and social issues, and it enhances employees’ pride and creativity.