Internal CSR under constraints : when working from home hurts the CSR-creativity link

The COVID-19 pandemic situation hit companies worldwide unexpectedly and created a momentum of tremendous change when governmental restrictions of social distancing caused an increase in employees suddenly working from home. To address this uncertainty and provide companies with measures to face identification crisis, diminishing creativity, and overall reduced well-being among employees, we conducted this study based on current research trends in human resource practices and emphasized the newly established research interest on the impact that internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions have on creativity. Further, we theorize that internal CSR actions not only influence creativity but also lead to threatening stress when mal established. We analyze these relationships via an empirical model using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results show that companies should focus on internal CSR for two main reasons. First, it increases employees’ creativity. Second, it reduces one severe aspect of stress namely threat followed by a capacitive liberation for more creativity. Emphasizing internal CSR actions may also prevent employees to distract from the company and lose their identification in times of uncertainty, as working from home as working from home reduces the positive effect of internal CSR on creativity which can be grounded in social identity theory.

DDC Class

330: Wirtschaft

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Internal CSR under constraints : when working from home hurts the CSR-creativity link