Company’s CSR Initiatives Relation to Employee Retention

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Statement of research question
Proposed methods
Reflections
References

Introduction

This research seeks to find answers to questions on how a company’s CSR initiatives affect its employee retention. The research questions that this research will address include the extent to which companies involve their employees in CSR initiatives, how involvement of employees in CSR activities affect their decision to stay, and the extent of variation in terms of involvement of low-level employees and executive employees in CSR activities.

The question of how company’s involvement in CSR and how it affects turnover and retention is remarkable since every company is interested in retaining its pool of talents. A well-researched response to the query that this proposal puts across will be used to solve the problem of employee turnover, which has been a major issue that faces companies in the Kingdom of Sound Arabia (KSA).

Statement of research question

Companies will also use CSR as a tool for internal marketing in a bid to pull the employees closer. When employees become good corporate citizens, their interest to turnover will be reduced.

This claim has been proven by companies such as General Motors and General Electric, which have deployed CSR in the KSA where it (CSR) is still seen as a programme for giving back some profits to the community, rather than upholding it for the sake of company employees.

The cost of carrying out CSR is low in relation to the cost that is incurred because of turnover. The proposal seeks to confirm whether communicating and integrating effective CSR within the workforce can have multiple benefits to the community, top employees, and the lower employees. To be inclusive in the survey, the target segment will comprise low-level and senior employees.

Concern of HR Manager with information-withholding by employees

Some employees may withhold information concerning their intention to quit or stay in an organisation. Withholding of information in fear of victimisation by the management will result in a distorted data and hence wrong results and analysis. Therefore, the HR will disclose the issue to the targeted employees that the gathered data will be used only for this research purposes and that employees should not write personal details in the questionnaires.

Findings of this research will help the organisation to boost its performance since it will elicit insight on the feelings of employees about involvement or failure to participate in CSR initiatives. Intentions of employees to quit or remain will help organisations to plan on retention strategies.

Theoretical framework

According to Glavas and Kelley (2014), the issue of corporate social responsibility in businesses can be traced back to 1953. From another perspective, Powell, Davies, and Norton (2013) reveal that a company that has good corporate citizenship programmes experiences low turnover rates.

According to a research by Jones, Willness, and Madey (2014), company’s involvement in CSR has been used in attracting potential employees while at the same time retaining the current ones in America. This research confirms that employees want to remain in a company that not only values corporate citizenship but also one that has an environment that is conducive for employees to thrive.

In his research, Mellat-Parast (2013) observes that although there has been an increase in companies’ involvement in CSR activities, only few of them in the KSA are reaping the expected benefits. Sanchez-Hernandez and Grayson (2012) assert that big companies such as General Electric and Cisco have adapted the application of CSR as a facet of internal marketing. From another angle, Girard and Sobczak (2012) reveal how secondary researches declare corporate citizenship a remedy for employee turnover.

CSR has worked in internal marketing in such companies since employees understand and own companies’ values. Moreover, Mellat-Parast (2013) says that employees want to be associated with such values for their personal growth. A CSR strategic plan should incorporate the needs of every employee.

A review of secondary researchers shows a positive relationship between CSR and customer retention (Bhattacharya, Sen & Korschun 2007). According to Mirvis (2012), the perspective of employees on a CSR initiative should be employed from the planning stage.

Employee involvement in CSR entails making them part of the decision-making team (Powell, Davies, and Norton 2013; Yim & Fock 2013; Rodrigo & Arenas 2008). Employees should be involved in the planning and execution of every stage of the CSR activities. This participation enhances their morale, citizenship, and loyalty to the company.

However, Girard and Sobczak (2012) affirm that banks in the KSA continue to ignore the plight of employee involvement since they pursue customers. In most organisations, the Chief executives (57%) and the managers (53%) make decisions on CSR.

Glavas and Kelley (2014) and Mushtaq (2013) claim that ignoring employees in the decision-making process results in high turnover. Most of the organisations in the Middle East run CSR programmes for customers and the society.

Korschun, Bhattacharya, and Swain (2014) assert that companies can enhance employee retention by involving them in CSR initiatives. Therefore, companies in the KSA can adopt this strategy. Michailides and Lipsett (2013) suggest that companies should consider money that is spent in CSR activities investment, rather than expenditure.

Corporate social responsibility assures a company of customer and investor loyalty since it lessens job turnover. Researches on employee behaviour emphasise the importance of increased involvement of employees in bonding activities such as CSR (Michailides & Lipsett 2013; Davies & Crane 2010).

Insights from this literature review forms a good foundation for this research to delve deeper into the issue of how CSR can help in solving the problem of job turnover.

Proposed methods

The study will adopt a quantitative survey method to investigate the impact of CSR on employee retention. This method is preferred to qualitative method since it involves the collection of data from a given population sample to determine the status of the population in reference to one or more variables.

Quantitative method attempts to describe things such as behaviour, attitude, values, and characteristics in an empirical way. Since employee retention is dependent on attitude and behaviour, this method will be well suited. Since quantitative method is suitable in answering questions about the status of a phenomenon, it will be feasible to understand the current application of CSR as a tool for guaranteeing employee retention by companies in the KSA.

The rationale behind the choice of quantitative method is that it studies individuals or objects as whole units and not in parts. The approach also provides an in-depth investigation with a view of understanding a certain issue more broadly.

Quantitative methods are also used in the preliminary and explorative studies that allow researchers to gather, summarise, present, and interpret information for clarification. The sources of data in this research will be employees in commercial banks in the central district of the Kingdom of Sound Arabia.

The choice of location will be based on how accessible the banks are to the researcher. This choice is informed by Singleton’s (2003) finding that the ideal setting for any study should be easily accessible to the researcher. Another basis for the choice of location is that secondary sources show that no similar studies have been carried out in this area.

Sampling of the target population will also be carried out to gather information concerning companies’ involvement in CSR activities and the impact that their participation has had on their employees. It will involve selecting representative company individuals or objects from a randomly selected group of companies and employees. The selected group must contain elements that represent the characteristics that one expects in the entire population.

According to Gay, Mills, and Airasian (2002), if a sample is well selected, the research findings can be generalised to the whole group population. Thus, it is fundamental for this research to select a small but adequately representative sample since it will save considerable effort, time, and finances. In this case, the study sample will comprise executive employees and low-level workers from commercial banks that are situated in this district.

The main instruments of research that will be used in this study will be questionnaires. In this case, a questionnaire will be prepared for the target groups, namely low-level employees and executive employees. The questionnaires will have both open- ended and closed-ended questions. In their research, Kombo and Tromp (2006) found that the closed form of questionnaires is easy to administer and fill.

They enable the researcher to cover a relatively wide range of information in a short period. Anonymity of the respondent will be highly regarded. Kothari (2008) also states that anonymity of the respondents elicits more and candid responses. Employees will be assured of privacy and use of the information that will be obtained in this research.

Reflections

When reflecting on the entire process of gathering data, analysing it, and coming up with methods of presenting it to the target audience, it is crucial to figure out any obstacles that might come into play. First, time limitation may affect the process of carrying out this research.

Time limitation will be a force because a comprehensive research involves various stages for example preparation of data collection tools, testing them for reliability, data analysis, and presentation. Since this research will work on scheduled time limits, this plan may have an indirect impact on its findings. The second perceived limitation is the inaccessibility of some targeted areas where the research is to be conducted.

A considerable number of the banks that will be studied in this research are located in the outskirts and hilly places where accessibility is a major challenge. This situation may limit the researcher’s mobility and ability to reach many banks. Accessing the relevant persons to give the right information may also be a force to reckon.

For example, accessing the senior employees of the bank may be limited based on their tight schedules. Banks also work with deadlines. This case may affect the amount of time that employees will be allowed to respond to questions. The third major limitation that the researcher will reflect on is financial aspect of carrying out the research.

Research has some financial implications since the researcher must meet the cost of travelling to the areas of study, preparation of questionnaires, printing, and packaging costs. Since the research will be carried out in a city, the cost of some of the services such as transport, food, and stationery may be high.

This situation will have an implication on the available budget for the research. The fourth limitation will be the limited disclosure of personal information by the targeted population. Ethical problems of personal information disclosure may limit the amount of information that employees will disclose.

The banking sector is characterised by secrecy of information. As such, employees may have a great influence on their willingness to disclose job-related information. Some employees may refuse to express their feelings about the company’s CSR activities.

For example, information about employees’ plans to quit or remain in the company may not be well shared. It may also be unethical to request employees to express their intentions of quitting their jobs in addition to the reasons that are triggering them to quit. Some of the employees may see disclosure of how CSR activities are handled by the management as compromising the authority of the administration (Ali et al. 2010).

Senior employees may also perceive it as compromising their loyalty to the management. The fifth obstacle that the research needs to reflect on covers personal issues such as the political ideologies of the researcher. The capitalistic ideology of the researcher may also come into play in a largely communistic society.

Variations in ideologies between different employees may also affect the results. Some of the targeted populations are deeply divided in terms of political ideologies of profit maximisation. Hence, they have shallowly embraced CSR. This situation may have an impact on their responses to in the questionnaire.

The ideology of the researcher may also indirectly affect the questions that he or she asks on the questionnaires. Biasness in political ideologies may result in incorrect information gathering and analysis. The outcome is a negative effect on the information that is deduced from the research.

Timetable

Activity	Time
Research Proposal Development and Writing	Nov – Dec 2014
Research Piloting	Jan 2015
Preparation of Research materials and Data Collection	Jan-Feb 2015
Research Data Analysis	March 2015
Final Research Report Writing	April 2015
Submission of Final Research Report for Approval	May 2015

References

Ali, I, Rehman, K, Ali, S, Yousaf, J & Zia, M 2010, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility Influences, Employee Commitment And Organisational Performance’, African Journal Of Business Management, vol. 4 no. 12, pp. 2796-2801.

Bhattacharya, C, Sen, S & Korschun, D 2007, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility As An Internal Marketing Strategy’, Sloan Management Review, vol. 1 no. 1, pp. 1-29.

Davies, A & Crane, A 2010, ‘Corporate social responsibility in small-and medium-size enterprises: investigating employee engagement in fair trade companies’, Business Ethics: A European Review, vol. 19 no. 2, pp.126-139.

Gay, L, Mills, G & Airasian, P 2002, Education research: competence for analysis and Application, Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Girard, C & Sobczak, A 2012, ‘Towards a Model of Corporate and Social Stakeholder Engagement: Analysing the Relations Between a French Mutual Bank and Its Members’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 107 no. 2, pp. 215-225.

Glavas, A & Kelley, K 2014, ‘The Effects of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility on Employee Attitudes’, Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 24 no. 2, pp. 165-202.

Jones, A, Willness, R & Madey, S 2014, ‘Why Are Job Seekers Attracted By Corporate Social Performance? Experimental and Field Tests of Three Signal-Based Mechanisms’, Academy of Management Journal, vol. 57 no. 2, pp. 383-404.

Kombo, D & Tromp, D 2006, Proposal and thesis writing: An introduction, Pauline’s Publications Africa, Nairobi.

Korschun, D, Bhattacharya, B & Swain, D 2014, ‘Corporate Social Responsibility, Customer Orientation, and the Job Performance of Frontline Employees’, Journal of Marketing, vol. 78 no. 3, pp. 20-37.

Kothari, C 2008, Research methodology; Methods and techniques, New Age International Publishers, New Delhi.

Mellat-Parast, M 2013, ‘Quality citizenship, employee involvement, and operational performance: an empirical investigation’, International Journal of Production Research, vol. 51 no. 10, pp. 2805-2820.

Michailides, P & Lipsett, G 2013, ‘Surveying Employee Attitudes on Corporate Social Responsibility at the Frontline Level of an Energy Transportation Company’, Corporate Social Responsibility & Environmental Management, vol. 20 no. 5, pp. 296-320.

Mirvis, P 2012, ‘Employee Engagement and CSR: Transactional, Relational, And Developmental Approaches’, California Management Review, vol. 54 no. 4, pp.93-117.

Mushtaq, N 2013, ‘Paramount Role Of Corporate Social Responsibility In Retaining Employees And Corporate Reputation: An Extract From Pakistan’s Banking Sector’, Journal Of Business And Finance, vol. 1 no. 3, pp. 126-138.

Powell, M, Davies, P & Norton, D 2013, ‘Impact of organisational climate on ethical empowerment and engagement with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)’, Journal of Brand Management, vol. 20 no. 9, pp. 815-839.

Rodrigo, P & Arenas, D 2008, ‘Do Employees Care About CSR Programmes? A Typology Of Employees According To Their Attitudes’, Journal Of Business Ethics, vol. 83 no. 2, pp. 265-283.

Sanchez-Hernandez, I & Grayson, D 2012, ‘Internal marketing for engaging employees on the corporate responsibility journey’, Intangible Capital, vol. 8 no.2, pp. 275-307.

Singleton, A 2003, Approaches to Social Research, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Yim, F & Fock, H 2013, ‘Social Responsibility Climate as a Double-Edged Sword: How Employee-Perceived Social Responsibility Climate Shapes the Meaning of Their Voluntary Work?’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 114 no. 4, pp. 665-674.

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