The effect of corporate social responsibility on job enthusiasm of Sistan and Baluchistan University employees

Master's Thesis in (Public Administration - Organizations and Methods)

Abstract

This study examines the impact of social responsibility on employees' job enthusiasm. Emphasizing the theoretical foundations, the conceptual model of the research was designed and based on this, 6 hypotheses were developed. The statistical population of this analysis is the University of Sistan and Baluchistan. Sampling was done using stratified random method and the sample size was estimated to be 274 people using Cochran's formula. In this way, 285 questionnaires were distributed to the research community, of which 273 questionnaires were valid and could be analyzed. SPSS 21 and LISREL 8.8 software were used to analyze the data. In this study, one population average, two population average, and multi-population average (ANOVA) tests were used, and the structural equation test was used to answer the research hypotheses. According to the results of the statistical tests, all the hypotheses of the research were confirmed and the corporate social responsibility had an effect on the job enthusiasm of the employees, so that the greatest effect of the association of corporate social responsibility on the attraction variable and the greatest effect of participation in the corporate social responsibility activities on the strength variable. Key words: corporate social responsibility[1], job enthusiasm[2], structural equation test[3]

Chapter 1

General

1-1      Introduction

Corporate social responsibility [1] (CSR) is a concept that has created a new wave in the global economy (Jamali and others, 2009) [2]. Social responsibility is becoming an important business concept. In an environment that is rapidly moving towards globalization, this concept is visible in most countries of the world (Welford, 2005) [3]. In the past, few efforts have been made in the field of social responsibility. But today, in addition to national pressures, organizations are under global pressures from different markets and institutions to operate in this field (Bartlett and Globe, [4] 2007). Along with these pressures and the expansion of globalization, managers in different fields and sectors have been asked to take steps towards corporate social responsibility (Jamali et al., 2009). The field related to the business method or procedure includes one of the most dynamic and challenging issues that company leaders are facing today. For today's managers, it is no longer enough to carry out tasks such as planning, organizing and controlling and calling themselves effective, but responding to the needs of society and the wishes of citizens and internal and external customers of their organizations is considered one of their more important tasks. In fact, companies will go beyond their historical role of earning profits, paying taxes, hiring employees based on laws, and will play a significant role in researching wider social goals. Corporate social responsibility is a superior approach to business that takes into account the social impact of an organization on society, both domestic and foreign, and its main goal is to bring together all sectors, including government, private and volunteers, to cooperate with each other in order to align economic interests with the environment on the one hand, and on the other hand to cause success, growth and sustainability of business (Khalili, 2016).

2-1 Statement of the problem

In recent years, the number of companies and Business organizations that have announced that they have accepted social responsibility have been increasing. The topic and concept of corporate social responsibility in the last few years, due to the growth of non-governmental organizations, protest movements against the power of companies, increasing social awareness, development of capital markets and public companies, and financial and ethical scandals of large companies, has become a dominant and dominant paradigm in the atmosphere of corporate governance. In our country, there are companies and institutions, both private and public, that have promoted social responsibility in their business. But despite these activities, there is no proper understanding of the whole subject and its relationship with business performance, and observations indicate that there is a lack of studies at the national level in this field.

CSR can be seen as the activity of a business or responsible companies that take care of the society - where they operate. (Zhu and Tan [5], 2008).

In the questionnaire that was distributed among the top 100 Iranian companies, this concept is not given much attention in Iran, but the idea that industrial owners have of the social responsibility of companies is mainly in environmental fields, charitable assistance, creating and maintaining employment, efforts that have led to receiving certificates such as compliance with consumer rights or organizational or environmental excellence, and financial support for conventions and conferences. In other words, Iranian companies call their activities as corporate social responsibility. (Omidwar, 1386)

Today, the challenges and opportunities that arise through addressing or ignoring the social responsibility of companies cannot be ignored in any way. Stakeholders force companies to play a social role both at the national and local levels and at the international and global levels. Challenges include various aspects of the social duties of companies such as environmental protection, safety, corporate governance, human resources management, human rights, and consumer rights. One of the most important stakeholders of the organization are the employees of the company itself, and it can be said that the existence and nature of the organization depends on this group of stakeholders. Few researches in the field of social responsibility have investigated and investigated the company's employees.  Many studies have shown that organizations that carry out social responsibility activities have satisfied customers and have been favorably evaluated by customers. (Bruan and Dassin [6], 1997).

However, the effectiveness of CSR on internal stakeholders (employees) is still unclear. (Larsen and others[7], 2008).

The current theoretical foundations state that CSR activities can be broadly understood from the perspective of employees (Rodrigo and Arenas[8], 2008). One of the important topics in the field of company employees is the topic of job enthusiasm [9]. Career passion has become a very famous and widely used concept in management (Robinson et al. [10], 2008), however, most of the content written about it in the theoretical foundations of pioneers has a practical basis rather than a theoretical and empirical foundation. In addition, in many cases it has been addressed in a way that overlaps with other management concepts (Sacks [11], 2006). Therefore, an attempt is made to examine the concept of job passion in this research in a more subtle way and from the perspective of the company's social responsibility.

The university is a cultural institution and despite its own cultural layers and elements, it has obvious and hidden relationships with the culture of the wider society. The mission of the university is, on the one hand, to transfer the cultural assets and achievements to new generations, and on the other hand, to innovate and expand new perspectives in the society. This mission of the university is realized through education and research, and these two functions both connect the university with the society and provide the possibility of its pioneering in various fields. And therefore, the university has a vital role towards the society and the community around it. The important point about this research is that, unlike the previous studies that have only examined employees' perception of CSR, in the present study, the participation of employees in CSR activities is considered.

An interesting point to note is that there has not been a comprehensive research on the relationship between CSR and job enthusiasm, and this research tries to examine how this effect is based on theoretical foundations. The title is a moral concern for managers. There are many points in this field, why organizations should act ethically and adhere to their social obligations, some of them are mentioned in this part:

A) Improving the performance of the organization: In the last decade, a large number of researches have been conducted to obtain the relationship between business efficiency and social duties of companies, one of the most recent of these researches is related to the studies of DePaul University in 2002 (Steves, 2004), which shows that in the year 2001, the business performance of the companies that have achieved the best citizenship ethics has been far better than the rest of the S&P 500 index companies.

B) Cost reduction: Doing social tasks by organizations will greatly help to reduce their costs, for example, preventing waste is a good example that will improve efficiency.