7th International Conference on Management Studies (ICMS-2021,) June, 05 - www.EUROKD.com

7th International Conference on Management Studies
                (ICMS-2021,) June, 05

Chrisalena Athanasiadou
    Georgios Theriou

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Author’s Photos
Chrisalena Athanasiadou               Georgios Theriou

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Author’s short biographies
•   Chrisalena Athanasiadou is an Mphil student in the ‘International Business
    Administration’ program of the Department of Management Science and
    Technology, International Hellenic University, Greece. Her research interests are
    corporate social responsibility (CSR), ethical leadership and flexible work practices.

•   Georgios Theriou is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management and
    Knowledge Management at the Department of Management Science and
    Technology, International Hellenic University, Greece. He received his PhD in HRM
    from Democritus university of Thrace, Greece in 2009. His current research focuses
    on high performance work systems, talent management and ethical leadership.

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Introduction

•   Repercussions of the COVID‐19 pandemic

•   Employees in the aviation industry: severely affected by the pandemic

•   CSR, sustainability in aviation

•   Gap: external CSR mostly studied in the aviation sector, little research on internal
    CSR and micro‐CSR

•   Purpose of the study: To provide a model based on which the effect of CSR on
    employees is explained.

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The Literature Review
•   CSR construct was first defined by Bowen in the 1950s

•   Variety of definitions due to contextuality

•   “the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic expectations that society has of
    organizations at a given point in time” Carroll (1979, p.500)

•   Stakeholders (Freeman, 1984)

•   Internal & external stakeholders, internal & external CSR

•   Macro‐CSR & micro‐CSR

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The Literature Review
•   Aviation industry: competitive market, vulnerable financial health

•   Faced many crises but has proven resilient

•   COVID‐19 consequences on aviation

•   Environmental impact of aviation: generally recognized in the past

•   CSR & sustainability in aviation: indispensable in the COVID‐19 context

•   “the license [for aviation] to grow [again] will be very much embedded in
    sustainability” Henrik Hololei, Director‐General for Mobility and Transport in the
    European Commission

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The Study

               The ‘PLANE’ model

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The Study
•   Employee perceptions of CSR: CSR measurement, outperform subjective
    measures of CSR (Tafolli and Grabner‐Krauter, 2020)
•   Organizational pride: is related to feelings of self‐respect and pleasure
    resulting from organizational membership (Jones, 2010)
•   Organizational trust: feeling of being vulnerable towards the actions of
    another individual whom you cannot control but expect that will perform
    in a certain favorable way ((Mayer et al., 1995)
•   Empathetic leadership: characterized by the leader’s ability to identify
    the followers’ feelings and provide emotional support (Bani‐Melhem,
    2020)
•   Employee CSR participation: involvement and active participation of
    employees in CSR initiatives and occurs via different ways such as
    employee volunteering, payroll giving or employee‐led CSR (Haski‐
    Leventhal, 2018)

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The Study
•   Work engagement: a “positive, fulfilling work‐related state of mind”
    characterized by vigor, absorption and dedication (Schaufeli et al., 2006,
    p. 792)
•   Job insecurity caused by COVID‐19: the perception of a potential job loss
    against the will of the job holder (Vander Elst et al., 2013)
•   Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB): non‐compulsory behavior
    regulated by an individual’s judgement, not formally rewarded but
    contributes to an advancement in the way the organization works
    (Organ, 1988)

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Research Question(s)

• How do employee perceptions of their companies’ CSR
  initiatives affect them at the emotional, attitudinal and
  behavioral level in the COVID‐19 pandemic era?

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Methodology

• Integrative literature review
• Step1: Formulating the research question
• Step 2: Compiling a list a list of crucial factors relevant to CSR
  activities, employees, CSR in the aviation industry and COVID‐
  19
• Step 3: Proposing a theoretical framework
• Step 4: Providing theoretical support for the proposed model
• Step 5: Making future research suggestions

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Results

•   Proposition 1: Employee perceptions of CSR               positively   affect
    organizational pride. Based on social identity theory.

•   Proposition 2: Employee perceptions of CSR               positively   affect
    organizational trust. Based on previous research.

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Results
•   Proposition 3: Empathetic leadership will enhance feelings of organizational pride
    resulting from employee perceptions of CSR. Based on conservation of resources
    theory.

•   Proposition 4: Empathetic leadership will enhance feelings of organizational trust
    resulting from employee perceptions of CSR. Based on social exchange theory.

•   Proposition 5: Employee CSR participation will enhance feelings of organizational
    pride resulting from employee perceptions of CSR. Based on social identity and
    self‐determination theories.

•   Proposition 6: Employee CSR participation will enhance feelings of organizational
    trust resulting from employee perceptions of CSR. Based on cue consistency
    theory.
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•

Results
•   Proposition 7: Organizational pride positively affects work engagement. Based on
    social identity theory.

•   Proposition 8: Organizational pride negatively affects job insecurity caused by
    COVID‐19. Based on previous research.

•   Proposition 9: Organizational trust positively affects work engagement. Based on
    social exchange, attachment and conservation of resources theories.

•   Proposition 10: Organizational trust negatively affects job insecurity caused by
    COVID‐19. Based on conservation of resources theory.

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Results

•   Proposition 11: Work engagement positively affects employee OCB. Based
    on conservation of resources and attachment theories.

•   Proposition 12: Job insecurity caused by COVID‐19 negatively affects
    employee OCB. Based on psychological contract theory.

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Discussion
•   The ‘PLANE’ model proposes that perceived CSR ultimately affects extra‐role
    behavior of employees.

•   The path that may lead to this implies the creation of feelings of pride for and trust
    towards the organization which are regulated by empathetic leadership and the
    extent to which employees are involved in CSR activities.

•   Subsequently, work engagement of employees may rise and feelings of job
    insecurity may fade away.

•   Finally, employees who are more engaged and less insecure of their jobs react with
    higher level of OCB.

•   Conservation of resources, social identity and attachment theories support our
    propositions.

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Implications
•   The process via which CSR impacts employees’ emotions, attitudes and behaviors
    has not been clarified.

•   CSR can boost sustainability in aviation especially when it is implemented in a
    strategic manner (Sherhan et al., 2018).

•   CSR affects not only the firm but also its employees.

•   The ‘PLANE’ model could offer an explanation on how CSR affects employees by
    building on a stimulus‐emotions‐attitudes‐behaviors model.

•   Companies within the aviation industry which engage in CSR initiatives may benefit
    their employees and, consequently, the firm itself.

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Suggestions for Further Research

•   Empirical research is necessary in order to confirm the application of the
    ‘PLANE’ model, especially within the context of COVID‐19.

•   Replication of empirical research in other industries and cultural contexts
    is suggested.

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Bright Future is Yours

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