Boosting employee retention through CSR: A configurational analysis

Internal stakeholders' perception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) plays a crucial role for organizations in pursuing innovative, sustainability-based business models. The majority of research on CSR has examined its effects on organizations' financial performance or external stakeholders' behavior toward CSR. However, little attention has been devoted to employees' behavior toward CSR. The current study investigated how organizations' CSR initiatives and the fulfillment of employee job needs (existence, relatedness and growth, or ERG) affect employees' job satisfaction and retention intention. Methodologically, the study applied the fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis method to capture the integrative effects of explanatory factors on the outcomes by examining the case of a leading chain department store in Asia. The results revealed that an organization's efforts on CSR could enhance the fulfillment of employees' ERG needs. Moreover, the perceived CSR initiatives could generate positive effects on employees' satisfaction and retention intention by fulfilling employees' ERG needs.