Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is no longer a legal obligation but discretionary aimed at fulfilling the needs of stakeholders. The failed leadership in Africa has made discretionary CSR initiatives very important in the life of employees and local community. The chapter reports a micro-level study that considered the effect of CSR initiatives directed to employees and local communities on employee organizational identification (OID) and employee creativity (ECR). The results obtained show that CSR directed to employees has both direct and indirect relationships with ECR through OID, while CSR directed at local community has only indirect relationship with ECR through OID. The results position CSR initiatives as strategic to the performance of business instead of just being philanthropic. This means that managers must take special interest in developing and implementing CSR initiatives since their outcome has an effect on employee behavior. The study also demonstrates the need to factor the importance of each CSR initiatives directed at various stakeholders in future study.