Influence of Perceived Socially Responsible Human Resource Management on Task Performance and Social Performance

• Main Authors: Danping Shao, Erhua Zhou, Peiran Gao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-06-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: socially responsible human resource management; prosocial identity; empathy; organizational citizenship behavior; volunteering
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/11/3195

While previous research has already revealed the positive influence of socially responsible human resource management (SRHRM) on organizations, little is known about whether employees’ perceived SRHRM can lead to a win−win situation between organization and society. We address this void by examining whether employees’ perceived SRHRM can contribute to organizational performance (operationalized as task performance and organizational citizenship behavior, OCB), and social performance (operationalized as volunteering). Using a sample of 314 employee−supervisor dyads from three large manufacturing enterprises in Southeast China, we found that perceived SRHRM could increase employees’ OCB and volunteering, but not task performance, through both cognitive (i.e., prosocial identity) and affective (i.e., affective empathy) paths. Furthermore, perceived SRHRM was more positively related to prosocial identity and affective empathy when distributive justice was high. We finally discuss the implications of our findings for both theory and practice.