CSR and affective organizational commitment: a moderated mediation model exploring the roles of prestige and psychosocial development

On-going decreases in average employee tenure and associated increases in turnover necessitate a better understanding for the factors that underlie organizational commitment. CSR initiatives offer a promising avenue for enhancing commitment, while simultaneously improving the overall impact organizations have on their varied stakeholders. Drawing on social identity and P-O fit theories, a moderated mediation model incorporating perceived external prestige and psychosocial development was tested. Data were collected from 333 participants (M-age = 42.65), employed across a variety of industries and levels. Prestige mediated the relationships between various stakeholder-directed contexts of CSR and affective commitment. Furthermore, ego strength was found to moderate the second stage of the mediated effect. The results of this study suggest that the mediating role of prestige is contingent on an employee's psychosocial development, such that as ego strength increases, prestige becomes a less critical component of the model. Implications, limitations, and opportunities for future study are discussed.