Synthesizing the affinity between employees' internal‐external CSR perceptions and work outcomes: A meta‐analytic investigation

Abstract This paper contains a meta‐analytic review of 140 research articles and 320 effect sizes to explore how employees' perceptions of internal and external corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities influence an array of work outcomes at three levels (emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral). We aim to discover the underlying psychological and methodological factors affecting this linkage. This study reveals that CSR is more strongly connected with employees' psychological‐emotional reactions (i.e., organizational trust and pride) and work attitude (i.e., organizational commitment) rather than work behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior). Although each type of CSR's association with four work outcomes is positive and significant, wide variance exists in effect sizes reported across studies, warranting a search for substantive moderators. Meta‐regression and subgroup analyses indicate the moderating effects of specific study‐level attributes viz. CSR typology, type of organizational commitment, source & type of organizational citizenship behavior, study design, and other contextual factors. It is found that the CSR‐to‐employee outcome relationship significantly contrasts across industries, regions, and cultures. This paper enriches the extant micro‐CSR literature by emphasizing that CSR can cultivate positive employee sentiments, work attitudes, and behaviors, provided CSR is embedded and integrated innately with sustainable human resource management and core business processes while rising above legal requirements and egocentric motives. Important implications for theorists and managers and potential avenues for future research are conferred in this paper.