Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Echoes of Corporate Social Responsibility: How and When Does CSR Influence Employees’ Promotive and Prohibitive Voices?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Good medicine is bitter to the taste but good for the disease;

Good advice is harsh to the ear but beneficial to action.

-- Ancient Chinese Saying

Abstract

In this study, we examine whether, how, and when corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases promotive and prohibitive voices in accordance with ethical climate theory and multi-experience model of ethical climate. Data from 382 employees at two time points are examined. Results show that CSR is positively related to promotive and prohibitive voices. Other-focused and self-focused climates mediate the relationship between CSR and the two types of voice (promotive and prohibitive voice). Moreover, humble leadership moderates the positive relationship between CSR and other-focused climate. Such leadership moderates the negative relationship between CSR and self-focused climate. Humble leadership also moderates the indirect effect between CSR and the two kinds of voice through other-focused and self-focused climates. The findings of this study provide important insights into how and when CSR influences employee voice.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aguinis, H. (2011). Organizational responsibility: Doing good and doing well. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (Vol. 3, pp. 855–879). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aguinis, H., & Glavas, A. (2012). What we know and don’t know about corporate social responsibility: A review and research agenda. Journal of Management, 38(4), 932–968.

    Google Scholar 

  • Archimi, C. S., Reynaud, E., Yasin, H. M., & Bhatti, Z. A. (2018). How perceived corporate social responsibility affects employee cynicism: The mediating role of organizational trust. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 907–921.

    Google Scholar 

  • Argandona, A. (2015). Humility in management. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1), 63–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnaud, A. (2010). Conceptualizing and measuring ethical work climate: Development and validation of the ethical climate index. Business & Society, 49(2), 345–358.

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnaud, A., & Schminke, M. (2012). The ethical climate and context of organizations: A comprehensive model. Organization Science, 23(6), 1767–1780.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aryee, S., Walumbwa, F. O., Mondejar, R., & Chu, C. W. (2017). Core self-evaluations and employee voice behavior: Test of a dual-motivational pathway. Journal of Management, 43(3), 946–966.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, C. W., & Skitka, L. J. (2012). Corporate social responsibility as a source of employee satisfaction. Research in Organizational Behavior, 32, 63–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beaudoin, C. A., Cianci, A. M., Hannah, S. T., & Tsakumis, G. T. (2018). Bolstering managers’ resistance to temptation via the firm’s commitment to corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3789-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bharanitharan, K., Chen, Z. X., Bahmannia, S., & Lowe, K. B. (2018). Is Leader humility a friend or foe, or both? An attachment theory lens on leader humility and its contradictory outcomes. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3925-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brammer, S., He, H., & Mellahi, K. (2015). Corporate social responsibility, employee organizational identification, and creative effort: The moderating impact of corporate ability. Group and Organization Management, 40, 323–352.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brammer, S., Millington, A., & Rayton, B. (2007). The contribution of corporate social responsibility to organizational commitment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18(10), 1701–1719.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burris, E. R., Detert, J. R., & Romney, A. C. (2013). Speaking up vs. being heard: The disagreement around and outcomes of employee voice. Organization Science, 24(1), 22–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carmeli, A., Brammer, S., Gomes, E., & Tarba, S. Y. (2017). An organizational ethic of care and employee involvement in sustainability-related behaviors: A social identity perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(9), 1380–1395.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chamberlin, M., Newton, D. W., & Lepine, J. A. (2017). A meta-analysis of voice and its promotive and prohibitive forms: Identification of key associations, distinctions, and future research directions. Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 11–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, M. Y., & Wang, L. (2015). The mediating effect of ethical climate on the relationship between paternalistic leadership and team identification: A team-level analysis in the chinese context. Journal of Business Ethics, 129(3), 639–654.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, J., & Esteban, R. (2007). Corporate social responsibility and employee commitment. Business Ethics: A European Review, 16(1), 19–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cropanzano, R., Byrne, Z. S., Bobocel, D. R., & Rupp, D. E. (2001). Moral virtues, fairness heuristics, social entities, and other denizens of organizational justice. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 58(2), 164–209.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Roeck, K., El Akremi, A., & Swaen, V. (2016). Consistency matters! How and when does corporate social responsibility affect employees’ organizational identification? Journal of Management Studies, 53(7), 1141–1168.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Roeck, K., & Farooq, O. (2018). Corporate social responsibility and ethical leadership: Investigating their interactive effect on employees’ socially responsible behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 151(4), 923–939.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Roeck, K., & Maon, F. (2018). Building the theoretical puzzle of employees’ reactions to corporate social responsibility: An integrative conceptual framework and research agenda. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(3), 609–625.

    Google Scholar 

  • Detert, J. R., & Burris, E. R. (2007). Leadership behavior and employee voice: Is the door really open? Academy of Management Journal, 50(4), 869–884.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edinger-Schons, L. M., Lengler-Graiff, L., Scheidler, S., & Wieseke, J. (2018). Frontline employees as corporate social responsibility (CSR) ambassadors: A quasi-field experiment. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3790-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • El Akremi, A., Gond, J. P., Swaen, V., De Roeck, K., & Igalens, J. (2018). How do employees perceive corporate responsibility? Development and validation of a multidimensional corporate stakeholder responsibility scale. Journal of Management, 44(2), 619–657.

    Google Scholar 

  • Faller, C. M., & zu Knyphausen-Aufseß, D. (2018). Does equity ownership matter for corporate social responsibility? A literature review of theories and recent empirical findings. Journal of Business Ethics, 150(1), 15–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farooq, O., Payaud, M., Merunka, D., & Valette-Florence, P. (2014). The impact of corporate social responsibility on organizational commitment: Exploring multiple mediation mechanisms. Journal of Business Ethics, 125(4), 563–580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Farooq, O., Rupp, D. E., & Farooq, M. (2017). The multiple pathways through which internal and external corporate social responsibility influence organizational identification and multifoci outcomes: The moderating role of cultural and social orientations. Academy of Management Journal, 60(3), 954–985.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fast, N. J., Burris, E. R., & Bartel, C. A. (2014). Managing to stay in the dark: Managerial self-Efficacy, ego defensiveness, and the aversion to employee voice. Academy of Management Journal, 57(4), 1013–1034.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flammer, C., & Luo, J. (2017). Corporate social responsibility as an employee governance tool: Evidence from a quasi-experiment. Strategic Management Journal, 38(2), 163–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frostenson, M. (2016). Humility in business: A contextual approach. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(1), 91–102.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, P. P., Tsui, A. S., Liu, J., & Li, L. (2010). Pursuit of whose happiness? Executive leaders’ transformational behaviors and personal values. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55(2), 222–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavas, A. (2016a). Corporate social responsibility and organizational psychology: An integrative review. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 144.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavas, A. (2016b). Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: Enabling employees to employ more of their whole selves at work. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 796.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavas, A., & Godwin, L. N. (2013). Is the perception of ‘goodness’ good enough? exploring the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility and employee organizational identification. Journal of Business Ethics, 114(1), 15–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Glavas, A., & Piderit, S. K. (2009). How does doing good matter? Journal of Corporate Citizenship, 36, 51–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gond, J., El Akremi, A., Swaen, V., & Babu, N. (2017). The psychological microfoundations of corporate social responsibility: A person-centric systematic review. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 225–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guerci, M., Radaelli, G., Siletti, E., Cirella, S., & Shani, A. R. (2015). The impact of human resource management practices and corporate sustainability on organizational ethical climates: An employee perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(2), 325–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. D., Dunford, B. B., Alge, B. J., & Jackson, C. L. (2016). Corporate social responsibility, ethical leadership, and trust propensity: A multi-experience model of perceived ethical climate. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(4), 649–662.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, S. D., Dunford, B. B., Boss, A. D., Boss, R. W., & Angermeier, I. (2011). Corporate social responsibility and the benefits of employee trust: A cross-disciplinary perspective. Journal of Business Ethics, 102(1), 29–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hejjas, K., Miller, G., & Scarles, C. (2018). “It’s like hating puppies!” Employee disengagement and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3791-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hu, J., Erdogan, B., Jiang, K., Bauer, T. N., & Liu, S. (2018). Leader humility and team creativity: The role of team information sharing, psychological safety, and power distance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 103(3), 313–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hur, W. M., Moon, T. W., & Ko, S. H. (2018). How employees’ perceptions of CSR increase employee creativity: Mediating mechanisms of compassion at work and intrinsic motivation. Journal of Business Ethics, 153(3), 629–644.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. A., Newman, A., Shao, R., & Cooke, F. L. (2018). Advances in employee-focused micro-level research on corporate social responsibility: Situating new contributions within the current state of the literature. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3792-7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. A., Willness, C. R., & Glavas, A. (2017). When corporate social responsibility (CSR) meets organizational psychology: New frontiers in micro-CSR research, and fulfilling a quid pro quo through multilevel insights. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 520.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kakkar, H., Tangirala, S., Srivastava, N. K., & Kamdar, D. (2016). The dispositional antecedents of promotive and prohibitive voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(9), 1342–1351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knoll, M., & Redman, T. (2016). Does the presence of voice imply the absence of silence? The necessity to consider employees’ affective attachment and job engagement. Human Resource Management, 55(5), 829–844.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, A. N., Liao, H., Tangirala, S., & Firth, B. M. (2017). The content of the message matters: The differential effects of promotive and prohibitive team voice on team productivity and safety performance gains. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(8), 1259–1270.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, C., Liang, J., & Farh, J. L. (2018). Speaking up when water is Murky: An uncertainty-based model linking perceived organizational politics to employee voice. Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206318798025.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, J., Farh, C. I. C., & Farh, J. L. (2012). Psychological antecedents of promotive and prohibitive voice: A two-wave examination. Academy of Management Journal, 55(1), 71–92.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liang, J., Shu, R., & Farh, C. I. (2018). Differential implications of team member promotive and prohibitive voice on innovation performance in research and development project teams: A dialectic perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior,. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, S.-H. J., & Johnson, R. E. (2015). A suggestion to improve a day keeps your depletion away: Examining promotive and prohibitive voice behaviors within a regulatory focus and ego depletion framework. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), 1381–1397.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, X., Chen, Z. X., Herman, H. M., Wei, W., & Ma, C. (2017). Why and when employees like to speak up more under humble leaders? The roles of personal sense of power and power distance. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-017-3704-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, W., Mao, J., & Chen, X. (2017). Leader humility and team innovation: Investigating the substituting role of task interdependence and the mediating role of team voice climate. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu, W., Tangirala, S., Lam, W., Chen, Z., Jia, R. T., & Huang, X. (2015). How and when peers’ positive mood influences employees’ voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), 976–989.

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin, K. D., & Cullen, J. B. (2006). Continuities and extensions of ethical climate theory: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Business Ethics, 69(2), 175–194.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClean, E. J., Burris, E. R., & Detert, J. R. (2013). When does voice lead to exit? It depends on leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 56(2), 525–548.

    Google Scholar 

  • McClean, E. J., Martin, S. R., Emich, K. J., & Woodruff, C. T. (2018). The social consequences of voice: An examination of voice type and gender on status and subsequent leader emergence. Academy of Management Journal, 61(5), 1869–1891.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miyazaki, A. D., Grewal, D., & Goodstein, R. C. (2005). The effect of multiple extrinsic cues on quality perceptions: A matter of consistency. Journal of Consumer Research, 32, 146–153.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morris, J. A., Brotheridge, C. M., & Urbanski, J. C. (2005). Bringing humility to leadership: Antecedents and consequences of leader humility. Human Relations, 58(10), 1323–1350.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, E. W. (2011). Employee voice behavior: Integration and directions for future research. The Academy of Management Annals, 5(1), 373–412.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, E. W. (2014). Employee voice and silence. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1, 173–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, E. W., Wheeler-Smith, S. L., & Kamdar, D. (2011). Speaking up in groups: A cross-level study of group voice climate and voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(1), 183–191.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman, A., Round, H., Bhattacharya, S., & Roy, A. (2017). Ethical climates in organizations: A review and research agenda. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(4), 1–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ng, T. W., Yam, K. C., & Aguinis, H. (2018). Employee perceptions of corporate social responsibility: Effects on pride, embeddedness, and turnover. Personnel Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12294.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oc, B., Bashshur, M. R., Daniels, M. A., Greguras, G. J., & Diefendorff, J. M. (2015). Leader humility in Singapore. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(1), 68–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ou, A. Y., Tsui, A. S., Kinicki, A. J., Waldman, D. A., Xiao, Z., & Song, L. J. (2014). Humble chief executive officers’ connections to top management team integration and middle managers’ responses. Administrative Science Quarterly, 59(1), 34–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ou, A. Y., Waldman, D. A., & Peterson, S. J. (2018). Do humble CEOs matter? An examination of CEO humility and firm outcomes. Journal of Management, 44(3), 1147–1173.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2012). Modeling how to grow: An inductive examination of humble leader behaviors, contingencies, and outcomes. Academy of Management Journal, 55(4), 787–818.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, B. P., & Hekman, D. R. (2016). How does leader humility influence team performance? Exploring the mechanisms of contagion and collective promotion focus. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), 1088–1111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Owens, B. P., Johnson, M. D., & Mitchell, T. R. (2013). Expressed humility in organizations: Implications for performance, teams, and leadership. Organization Science, 24(5), 1517–1538.

    Google Scholar 

  • Podsakoff, P. M., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J. Y., & Podsakoff, N. P. (2003). Common method biases in behavioral research: A critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(5), 879–903.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.

    Google Scholar 

  • Preacher, K. J., Rucker, D. D., & Hayes, A. F. (2007). Addressing moderated mediation hypotheses: Theory, methods, and prescriptions. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 42(1), 185–227.

    Google Scholar 

  • Qin, X., DiRenzo, M. S., Xu, M., & Duan, Y. (2014). When do emotionally exhausted employees speak up? Exploring the potential curvilinear relationship between emotional exhaustion and voice. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(7), 1018–1041.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rego, A., Cunha, M. P., & Simpson, A. V. (2018). The perceived impact of leaders’ humility on team effectiveness: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(1), 205–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rego, A., Owens, B., Leal, S., Melo, A. I., Cunha, e, Gonçalves, M. P., L., & Ribeiro, P. (2017a). How leader humility helps teams to be humbler, psychologically stronger, and more effective: A moderated mediation model. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(5), 639–658.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rego, A., Owens, B., Yam, K. C., Bluhm, D., Cunha, M. P. E., Silard, A., et al. (2017b). Leader humility and team performance: Exploring the mediating mechanisms of team psycap and task allocation effectiveness. Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316688941.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rego, A., & Simpson, A. V. (2018). The perceived impact of leaders’ humility on team effectiveness: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics, 148(1), 205–218.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, D. (2011). An employee-centered model of organizational justice and social responsibility. Organizational Psychology Review, 1(1), 72–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, D. E., Ganapathi, J., Aguilera, R. V., & Williams, C. A. (2006). Employee reactions to corporate social responsibility: An organizational justice framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(4), 537–543.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, D. E., Shao, R., Skarlicki, D., Paddock, E. L., Kim, T. Y., & Nadisic, T. (2018). Corporate social responsibility and employee engagement: The moderating role of CSR-specific relative autonomy and individualism. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 39(5), 559–579.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupp, D. E., Shao, R., Thornton, M. A., & Skarlicki, D. P. (2013). Applicants’ and employees’ reactions to corporate social responsibility: The moderating effects of first-party justice perceptions and moral identity. Personnel Psychology, 66(4), 895–933.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheidler, S., Edinger-Schons, L. M., Spanjol, J., & Wieseke, J. (2018). Scrooge posing as Mother Teresa: How hypocritical social responsibility strategies hurt employees and firms. Journal of Business Ethics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-018-3788-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simha, A., & Cullen, J. R. (2012). Ethical climates and their effects on organizational outcomes: Implications from the past and prophecies for the future. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 20–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skarlicki, D. P., van Jaarsveld, D. D., Shao, R., Song, Y. H., & Wang, M. (2016). Extending the multifoci perspective: The role of supervisor justice and moral identity in the relationship between customer justice and customer-directed sabotage. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 108–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, M. A., & Rupp, D. E. (2016). The joint effects of justice climate, group moral identity, and corporate social responsibility on the prosocial and deviant behaviors of groups. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(4), 677–697.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turker, D. (2009). How corporate social responsibility influences organizational commitment. Journal of Business Ethics, 89(2), 189–204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vardaman, J. M., Gondo, M. B., & Allen, D. G. (2014). Ethical climate and pro-social rule breaking in the workplace. Human Resource Management Review, 24(1), 108–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. (1987). A theory and measure of ethical climate in organizations. In W. C. Frederick (Ed.), Research in corporate social performance and policy (pp. 51–71). Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Victor, B., & Cullen, J. B. (1988). The organizational bases of ethical work climates. Administrative Science Quarterly, 101–125.

  • Vlachos, P. A., Panagopoulos, N. G., Bachrach, D. G., & Morgeson, F. P. (2017). The effects of managerial and employee attributions for corporate social responsibility initiatives. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38, 1111–1129.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vlachos, P. A., Panagopoulos, N. G., & Rapp, A. A. (2014). Employee judgments of and behaviors toward corporate social responsibility: A multi-study investigation of direct, cascading, and moderating effects. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 35(7), 990–1017.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, J., Zhang, Z., & Jia, M. (2017). Understanding how leader humility enhances employee creativity: The roles of perspective taking and cognitive reappraisal. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(1), 5–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, Y. D., & Hsieh, H. H. (2013). Organizational ethical climate, perceived organizational support, and employee silence: A cross-level investigation. Human Relations, 66(6), 783–802.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei, X., Zhang, Z. X., & Chen, X. P. (2015). I will speak up if my voice is socially desirable: A moderated mediating process of promotive versus prohibitive voice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), 1641–1652.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, H., Ou, A. Y., Tsui, A. S., & Wang, H. (2017). CEO humility, narcissism and firm innovation: A paradox perspective on CEO traits. The Leadership Quarterly, 28(5), 585–604.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zoghbi-Manrique-De-Lara, P., & Guerra-Baez, R. (2016). Exploring the influence of ethical climate on employee compassion in the hospitality industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 133(3), 605–617.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the supports from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No.71672139) and the Humanities and Social Science Talent Plan of Shaanxi Province.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Management, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, Shaanxi, China

    Juan Wang & Zhe Zhang

  2. School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China

    Ming Jia

Authors
  1. Juan Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zhe Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ming Jia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Juan Wang.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

All authors declare that they no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

CSR Manipulation

We followed the existing literature (Rupp et al. 2013; Thornton and Rupp 2016; Farooq et al. 2017; Ng et al. 2018) to manipulate CSR in terms of community-targeted CSR, environment-targeted CSR, and internal CSR in the scenarios. In a high CSR condition, the participants were provided specific information about their company—a fictitious company named A. For community-targeted CSR, the corresponding company engaged with the local community by donating a large number of their profits (e.g. 20%) into community programs, and their company always topped the philanthropy ranking list. In addition, this company fully supported a wide range of employee volunteering initiatives. For instance, this company supported 99% of such activities last year. For environment-targeted CSR, the corresponding company actively invested considerable funds to maintain low carbon emissions and protect environmental practices every year. This company not only complied with all applicable environmental regulations but also went beyond minimum regulation standards to ensure that their environmental practices lead the industry. For internal CSR, the corresponding company often actively adopted practices that improved employees’ well-being and developed their skills/careers.

In a low CSR condition, the participants were told that their company engaged with the local community by donating a small amount of their profits (e.g. 0.01%) into community programs, and their company always ranked last in the philanthropy ranking list. In addition, this company selectively supported certain employee volunteering initiatives. For instance, this company supported 10% of such activities last year. In the environment-targeted CSR condition, the participants learned that their company invested a small amount of funds to maintain low carbon emissions and protect environmental practices every year. This company was also in compliance with certain environmental regulations. In the internal CSR condition, the participants were informed that their company seldom adopted practices that improved employees’ well-being and developed their skills/careers.

Humble Leadership Manipulation

We manipulated humble leadership on the basis of the predominate conceptualizations of the construct within the existing literature (Owens et al. 2013; Ou et al. 2014, 2018; Owens and Hekman 2016; Rego et al. 2017a, b). In the high humble leader condition, the participants were informed about the following characteristics of their direct leader, Yi Zhang. He was a leader who believed that something in the world is greater than himself. He was fully aware of his personal strengths and limitations. He often appreciated and complimented others on their strengths and unique contributions. He actively sought feedback and ideas from his employees frequently. He devoted a great deal of time to improve the society. However, he was not interested in obtaining fame for himself and kept a low profile.

In the low humble leader condition, the participants were told that their direct leader, Yi Zhang, was a leader who believed that nothing in the world is greater than himself. He was unaware of his personal strengths and limitations. He rarely appreciated and complimented others on their strengths and unique contributions. He seldom sought feedback and ideas from his employees. He devoted little time to improve the society. Furthermore, he was interested in obtaining fame for himself and kept a high profile.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Wang, J., Zhang, Z. & Jia, M. Echoes of Corporate Social Responsibility: How and When Does CSR Influence Employees’ Promotive and Prohibitive Voices?. J Bus Ethics 167, 253–269 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04151-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04151-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation