Corporate social responsibility, organizational trust and commitment: a moderated mediation model

Purpose Drawing from the deontic justice theory and the social exchange theory, the purpose of this study attempts to identify the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) and employees' affective commitment, mediated through organizational trust. Furthermore, the authors seek to understand how the attitude of employees toward the importance of CSR, moderates the aforementioned relationship. Design/methodology/approach The respondents for this descriptive study were drawn from a sample of 500 employees working in manufacturing companies in India. Self-reporting questionnaires were administered among the respondents, who were selected through the judgment sampling method. Measurement model analysis was done using IBM AMOS 21.0 and path analytic procedures using PROCESS 3.0 macro was used to test the proposed hypotheses. Findings Results revealed that there is a significant indirect effect of all three dimensions of CSR on affective commitment, through organizational trust. The conditional indirect effects varied significantly, and it was identified that both employee-CSR and customer-CSR had a significant indirect effect on employee affective commitment. However, social/nonsocial CSR did not have a conditional indirect effect on affective commitment, through attitude toward the importance of CSR and organizational trust. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow inference of causality and pose limitations for generalization of results. Though the limitation of common method bias is inherent in studies with self-reporting measures, the authors adopted several procedural remedies to minimize its effect. The study results, particularly the role of attitude toward the importance of CSR need to be tested among employees in different industry sectors. Future studies should examine the same theoretical model in different nations, where CSR activities are not mandated by law. Originality/value This study is pioneering in conceptualizing and empirically testing a theoretical model that examined the combined influence of perceived CSR, employees' attitude toward the importance of CSR and organizational trust on their affective commitment toward the organization. This study extends the literature by examining the indirect/mechanisms linking CSR and employees' affective commitment. Exploring more on the employee individual differences and its influence on organizational outcomes will definitely improve individual and organizational functioning.