The Mediating Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Relationship between Ethical Leadership and Organizational Identification: A Research in Banking Sector

Abstract

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept that encourages businesses to actively incorporate environmental and social issues into their daily operations and interactions with their stakeholders. CSR phenomenon not only highlighted the concept of ethical leadership (EL) but also affected organizational identification (OI) of employees by fostering the sense of belonging. There has seen a surge over the years in the research on CSR, EL and OI. In the literature, despite there is research on dual relationships, the tripartite relationship between concepts have not been analyzed. The purpose of this study is to consider this gap by investigating the mediating effect CSR in the relationship between EL and OI in the context of banking sector in Zahedan city of Iran. The data were collected through the survey method and the study was carried out on 278 personnel working in bank branches located in Zahedan city of Iran. The data gathered are analyzed using Hayes (2013) Model 4 Process plugin. Results of the analysis cleared that EL has a positive and significant effect on CSR and OI. Likewise, CSR has a positive and significant effect on OI. It has been also determined that CSR has a full mediation effect in this relationship between EL and OI. The findings provide an added value for the literature for theory and practice by emphasizing the importance of CSR in the relationship between EL and OI.