Commitment to sustainable development: Exploring the factors affecting employee attitudes towards corporate social responsibility-oriented management

Employee contributions are indispensable to the success of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices; however, surprisingly little research has focused on how positive attitudes toward CSR-oriented management can be facilitated among employees. Applying a relational demography approach and related theories, this study examines employees' emotional identification and behavioral engagement with CSR-oriented mission activities. Data from a Fortune Global 500 company in Japan show the direct effect of position and the asymmetric effects of position dissimilarity. Lower-positioned employees tend to report enhanced positive attitudes toward CSR-oriented mission activities when working with a greater number of higher-positioned colleagues. Furthermore, perceived mission-based support mediates the effect of the interaction between position dissimilarity and position on employees' attitudes toward CSR-oriented activities. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that companies should recognize the importance of managerial members as role models and provide employees with sufficient support to facilitate positive attitudes toward CSR practices.