To what extent the impact of a CSR policy and practice on employee engagement depend on the forms taken by the policy itself?

Abstract

The paper “To what extent the impact of a CSR policy and practice on employee engagement depend on the forms taken by the policy itself?” has been written by Alessia Capra, with the supervision of Professor Olivier Saulpic. Its objective is to establish whether it exists a mere difference of the employees ’workforce sentiment implications deriving from different forms of CSR activities and in which terms these latter differ. Because prior literature has focused on the relationship of CSR and customer perceptions and little research has been devoted to exploring the effects onto primary stakeholders, this paper aims at filling this gap. This mere focus on employees’ internalization of CSR perceptions is driven by the consideration of workers as both key enablers and beneficiaries of CSR. Specifically, prior literature has observed that both a substantive involvement in CSR activities and a strong ESG reporting practice produce positive and complementary workforce impacts. If a remarkable CSR action program impacts on a more internal workforce perspective, ESG reporting gives rise to external personnel implications. Indeed, the former leads to build a strong employees psychological and behavioral attachment, while the latter induces greater attractiveness in engaging with the current and future workforce. Through the collection and analysis of corporate interviews, a common thread was drawn: a voluntary CSR action-based program contributes in enhancing organizational engagement and attachment by leveraging on the policy meaning and employees’ organizational identity, while a remarkable mandatory ESG reporting induces employees’ satisfaction and represents a competitive advantage for talent attractiveness and retention.

Date of Award	19 Oct 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Olivier Saulpic (Supervisor)