The influence of CSR types on employee identification and citizenship in financial market in Turkey

In financial market, organizations have been adopting Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) increasingly as they experience challenges because of the economic crises, growing competition, and complexity of the industry. Thus, it is vital to grasp the stakeholders’ understanding of and responses to CSR initiatives, such as the employees, who play a critical role in overall performances of organizations. Also, while much of the research in this context investigate developed countries, little is known about CSR in developing countries. This study explores the impacts of different CSR initiatives (i.e. philanthropic CSR vs. non-philanthropic CSR) on employee identification and citizenship in financial industry in Turkey. The two types of CSR initiatives are classified with respect to their relevance to the expectations of employees in the industry. This study also examines the moderation roles of CSR communication on social media and personal fit with CSR type in the CSR – employee reactions relationship. An online survey is conducted to gather data from a sample of 262 employees of one of the biggest banks in Turkey. The results suggest not only the importance of CSR to enhance employee identification and citizenship but also a higher impact of non-philanthropic CSR compared to philanthropic CSR in financial industry in Turkey. Direct effects of both CSR types are observed on employee identification. Instead, the impact of CSR on employee citizenship is mediated by employee identification. It implies a gap between identification and citizenship, despite that these two are often assumed to change instantaneously. The findings also suggest that to convey the philanthropic CSR to employees through social media effectively, it is important to ensure a high transparency of the CSR communication. The additional analysis confirms the relationship between personal fit and employee identification. The findings provide implications to managers with respect to CSR management and communication, in particular, if they target employees as the key stakeholders. Considering the generalization of the findings, observed mechanisms in this study may contribute to unfolding the CSR – employee reactions relationship in other industries in developing countries.