The purpose of this paper was to explore the relationship between internal and external corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices and employee engagement. An additional objective was to examine the underlying psychological mechanism by proposing work meaningfulness as a mediator of the relationship between CSR and employee engagement. The study also contributes to the theory of CSR by establishing gender as a moderator between CSR and engagement.
Data were collected using an electronic questionnaire distributed to employees in a private manufacturing company operating in Athens, Greece, which has adopted a sustainable development strategy. Non-parametric statistics and bootstrapping procedures were used in simple regression and PROCESS statistical analyses to evaluate the study hypotheses.
Results indicated that internal CSR practices influence employee outcomes more than external CSR practices, suggesting that organizations should strengthen their internal CSR practices to achieve a higher sense of work meaningfulness and stronger employee engagement. Compared to their female counterparts, male employees were found to be more sensitive and responsive to CSR practices.
This empirical research contributes to existing literature by examining the distinct impact of internal and external CSR practices on engagement through the prism of meaningfulness and gender.
