The Relationship between Employee Motivation and Corporate Social Responsibility

“To be doing good deeds is man’s most glorious task.” - Sophocles

What comes to mind when you hear - “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”? I know for a fact that I associate CSR with the eager, sometimes even deceptive efforts of organisations to upkeep their reputation – which caused even the best of companies to fail (Think Volkswagen and their ‘clean’ cars). Although, as Hsieh et al. (2021) suggests, CSR is beyond that. Employees themselves can be involved in creating the culture of CSR too, and this culture can be healthy when employees are motivated in the right way.

Through interviewing and coding the responses of 30 participants from 11 Vietnamese companies, Hsieh concluded that there were several intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for an employee to engage in voluntary CSR activities. But why is motivation important here? The researchers found that such employees ultimately create more business value for their organisation, where stronger relationships can be built between stakeholders, amongst many other benefits. Therefore, it is vital to understand how organisations can leverage on these motivations to encourage better CSR.

In the Personal characteristics – CSR capacity – Organisation reinforcement (PCO) model termed by Hsien et al. (2021), employees may depend on extrinsic motivations when participating in CSR activities, such as receiving gifts or free lunches. Although, intrinsic motivation is perhaps more effective in encouraging CSR in the long run – as experiencing personal satisfaction and reaching self-actualisation will be embedded for a long time. I suggest that organisations should strive to build an ethical and empathetic climate from top-down, and offer CSR activities that considers the interests of their employees, meanwhile providing opportunities for development and growth as well.

Doing good deeds should stem from within. That way, organisations can sustain a healthy culture of CSR, supported by their employees’ goodwill and kindness.

References

Hsieh, Y.-C., Weng, J., Pham, N. T., & Yi, L.-H. (2021, September 30). What drives employees to participate in corporate social responsibility? A personal characteristics - CSR capacity - organizational reinforcing model of employees' motivation for voluntary CSR activities. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1967422