An empirical study on the impact of corporate social responsibility in the manufacturing and service sector in India

Purpose This study aims to understand the corporate social responsibility (CSR) perspective of the employees working in manufacturing sector and service sector and further investigates whether there is any significant difference in their opinion on the basis of their gender and their hierarchical position in the organization. Design/methodology/approach In total, 300 employees of manufacturing and service sector companies have participated in this study. To test the hypotheses, the researcher has used two-way ANOVA, with diagrammatic presentation with the help of SPSS. Findings The results showed that there was a non-significant effect of gender on the perceived impact of CSR and employees at various level of hierarchy perceived the impact differently by the type of companies in which they work. Specifically, there was significant difference in the perceived impact for officers, managers and assistant managers in manufacturing and service sector, whereas for executives, the perceived impact varied significantly in manufacturing and service sector. Research limitations/implications This study has analysed the perception of 300 employees including the employees of the manufacturing and service sectors. Also, the analysis is based on two demographic variables, i.e. gender and hierarchical level which may be considered as the limitation of the study. Practical implications The major contribution of this study is the fact that the employees have similar kind of opinion for the efforts and initiatives taken by their companies for CSR practices. The work culture, corporate ethics, managerial support and sectorial priorities do not have much influence on the employees in terms of CSR. However, the employee’s opinion may change after reaching to higher position in organization. Originality/value This study is totally unique in nature. As per the researcher’s knowledge, no documented study is available that investigates the CSR perspective of employees from two major sectors, i.e. manufacturing and service sector that validates this study.