The joy dividend: how employee-first CSR builds happiness that performs

Most corporate social responsibility (CSR) budgets point outward. They fund community programs, environmental pledges, and reputation campaigns aimed at customers and regulators. A recent study by Malik et al. (2026) of Pakistan's banking sector argues that many leaders are aiming in the wrong direction. Some of the strongest returns on CSR come from turning it inward, toward the people already on the payroll. They surveyed 366 white-collar employees at commercial banks in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. To limit the bias that distorts single-sitting surveys, they gathered responses in three waves spaced two weeks apart, then analyzed the data with partial least...