International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhm

Effect of CSR activities on meaningfulness, compassion, and employee T

engagement: A sense-making theoretical approach
Owais Nazira, Jamid Ul Islamb,*
a
Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India
b
College of Business Administration, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Despite growing recognition of CSR’s importance in hospitality industry, empirically-derived insight into its
Corporate social responsibility drivers, dynamics, and outcomes remains limited, as investigated in this study. Built on the sense-making the-
Employee engagement oretical perspective to explore the effect of CSR activities on employee engagement while examining the
Meaningfulness mediating role of meaningfulness and compassion on the relationship between CSR and employee engagement.
Compassion
To investigate our hypotheses, we conducted a questionnaire survey among 350 employees of selected luxury
Sense-making
Hotels
hotels in New Delhi, India. The results reveal CSR’s positive effect on employee engagement. In addition,
meaningfulness and compassion partially mediate the association of CSR with employee engagement. This study
identifies how CSR activities bring out a helping behavior in the form of compassionate acts, and offer meaning
to employees in the hospitality context that is, otherwise, paralyzed by work-life imbalances and employee
cynicism.

1. Introduction (Bailey et al., 2017); scholars of work psychology term the desire of
doing something meaningful as fundamentally important to employee
“Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for well-being (Bailey et al., 2019; Lysova et al., 2019). Consequently,
recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor, in employees and employers seek job contexts that are truly meaningful
short for a sort of life rather than a Monday to Friday sort of dying” for employees even if it means taking a marginal pay-cut (Achor et al.,
(Terkel, 1972, p. 11). 2018).
Researchers and practioners alike are increasingly searching for
Work represents a primary source of identity, meaning and be-
interventions that can offer meaningfulness and enhance organizational
longingness for today’s employees (Lips-Wiersma et al., 2018; Wang
capacity for compassion (Rynes et al., 2012; Shuck et al., 2019). In fact,
and Xu, 2019). However, modern workplaces, in many cases, have led
some studies suggest that Human Resources-related involvements
to an erosion of meaningful work and life itself; thus, harming em-
strengthening meaningfulness and compassion may have additional
ployees psychologically and physically (Bailey et al., 2017, 2019).
individual-level benefits related to employee on-the-job performance
Stress, poor working conditions and increasing issues like loneliness
(Bailey et al., 2019; Eldor, 2018; Fletcher, 2019). Specifically, re-
have lately led employees to look for jobs that offer them meaning and
searchers underline the need for such effective HR intrusions that au-
opportunities to show compassion towards their surroundings and co-
thentically lead to meaningfulness and facilitate behavioral outcomes
workers alike (Hur et al., 2018). In this direction, an increasing line of
like employee engagement within their workplaces (Fletcher and
research seeks firms to offer jobs that integrate the day-to-day job ac-
Schofield, 2019; Gurlek and Tuna, 2019; Lysova et al., 2019).
tivities of employees with their surrounding communities and society at
Moreover, an increasing number of sometimes un-forecasted chal-
large (Steger, 2019; Tsui, 2013). As humans have an innate need of
lenges such as recessions, terror attacks, and pandemics mean that or-
doing something meaningful i.e., doing work which is personally and
ganizations and their employees have to build capacity to survive and
socially valuable and significant, doing something valuable and socially
deliver under extreme trauma (Barnett et al., 2020). For instance, the
relevant strengthens an individual’s self-worth and esteem (Kahn and
2008, Mumbai (India) terror attacks saw hotel employees sacrifice their
Heaphy, 2014; Yeoman, 2014). Moreover, in an era where increased
own lives to save others (Deshpandé and Raina, 2011). In 2011, a fire in
societal materialism has resulted in the erosion of meaningfulness
Kolkata, India saw hospital staff abandon their patients to death (Rynes

⁎
Corresponding author at: E-356, Building-102, Prince Sultan University, Riyadh, 11586, Saudi Arabia.
E-mail addresses: uwayseidi@gmail.com (O. Nazir), jammicms.kmr@gmail.com (J.U. Islam).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2020.102630
Received 25 November 2019; Received in revised form 25 May 2020; Accepted 12 July 2020
0278-4319/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam
et al., 2012). Hence, compassion or disdain for others may emerge in
organizational situations least expected. Thus, the traditional notions of
work itself are under the scanner and increasing line of research in this
direction seeks to redefine and redesign work (Jung and Yoon, 2016;
Mulki and Lassk, 2019). The creation of compassion is a highly cher-
ished organizational goal since it leads employees socially coordinate
actions that alleviate the suffering of colleagues and customers alike
(Dutton et al., 2014). This holds even more significance in hospitality
firms which are “compassionate arenas” because of the type of work
employees have to perform regularly. In other words, organizations
especially in the hospitality sector, due to the nature of work in this
sector, are trying to build a “compassionate workplace” that can offer
more than appraisals, promotions and money to employees (Zoghbi-
Manrique-de-Lara et al., 2019). In fact, researchers note that compas-
sion organizing offers key competitive edge to organizations since it not
only offers a buffer in case of organizational trauma, but it leads to the
development of a compassionate organizational culture even after an
employee leaves! (Lown et al., 2019; Mihelič and Culiberg, 2019).
Despite their academic and practical relevance, compassion and
meaningfulness have been two understudied constructs in the work-
psychology related literature (Simpson et al., 2019; Han et al., 2020;
Afsar et al., 2020). Correspondingly, we argue that CSR participation
represents an important human resource management intervention that
can nurture meaningfulness and compassion among employees vis-à-vis
engage them with their work. For example, Walmart after a host of
issues that put its work environment in a negative light, introduced a
CSR initiative called ‘Personal Sustainability Plan’ that motivated em-
ployees to take part in socially responsible initiatives. Walmart reported
thousands of new business solutions as a result of the initiative (Glavas,
2012). Similarly, Price Waterhouse Coopers introduced a CSR project to
its employees called ‘Project Ulysses’ and reported improved pro-
ductivity amongst its employees. Finally, LaRosa’s Pizzeria famously
staved off bankruptcy after a fire, when 200 volunteers who had
benefited from its CSR initiatives over the years came out to help
(Detwiler, 2005). CSR, therefore, can be a significant intervention that
improves employee well-being and business sustainability.
We recognize that CSR (defined as “corporate behaviors that aim to
affect stakeholders positively and that go beyond its economic inter-
ests” Turker, 2009, p. 413) has received attention from academics
across the world (Nazir and Islam, 2019). However, the focus over-
whelmingly has either been on customer-based outcomes such as cus-
tomer satisfaction (Martinez et al., 2014), customer brand preference
(Jeon et al., 2020), and customer revisit intention (Ahn, 2019); or on
firms’ financial performance (Franco et al., 2019), leaving the micro-
CSR aspect from employees’ perspective under-explored (Kang et al.,
2020; Nazir and Islam, 2019). This is unfortunate, since the focus on the
effect of CSR on internal stakeholders like employees offers a far more
robust research opportunity (Supanti and Butcher, 2019). Moreover,
this research gap is of special concern in the hospitality sector, wherein
the well-being of employees is of paramount significance (Kang et al.,
2020; Kim et al., 2017). The reason being that quality of the service
experienced by customers is closely tied to the quality of interaction
between employees and customers.
Given the priority of employee’s well-being in hospitality industry
as well as the academic quest to focus on the challenging proposition of
actually understanding how to engage employees, this study examines
whether and how CSR related activities can engage employees in the
hospitality industry. Specifically, we propose a conceptual model
(Fig. 1) comprising constructs very closely related to employee well-
being viz. meaningfulness, compassion and employee engagement.
Thus, we expand the understanding of how luxury hotel companies can
achieve competitive advantage by channelizing their CSR activities in
such a way that employees find their work meaningful, feel compas-
sionate, and are engaged with their work places. Our proposed con-
ceptual model is in line with a nascent and growing number of studies
which suggest that amongst the various employee behavioral outcomes
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630
that are influenced by CSR related activities, strategic focus needs to be
on work meaningfulness, compassion, and employee engagement (Hur
et al., 2018; Rupp et al., 2018).
This study makes some important contributions. First, by introdu-
cing a novel combination of these constructs while undertaking the
mediating role of meaningfulness and compassion at work, we offer
empirical insight into their interface, which has remained untested thus
far, particularly in the hospitality context. Second, this study introduces
sense-making as the psychological mechanism to explain the impact of
CSR related initiatives on employee engagement, thereby responds to
call for research related to the psychological underpinnings and me-
chanisms of micro-CSR (Aguinis and Glavas, 2019; Hur et al., 2018).
Third, the expansion of an enhanced understanding of micro-CSR per-
spective by focusing on the hospitality sector of an emerging economy
context of India also exemplifies a valuable contribution to the litera-
ture, as most of the CSR related studies have been conducted in the
developed economies (Fatma et al., 2016; Nazir and Islam, 2019). Be-
sides, our results show that CSR activities can critically help, impact,
and transform employees by re-energizing and engaging them at their
workplaces. This is highly significant across all business sectors given
the competition and turnover among employees today (Montani et al.,
2020). Therefore, even if only a small percentage of employees are
engaged through CSR, it implies a huge competitive edge to organiza-
tions (Gallup, 2013). This study thus shows that CSR cannot be sub-
sidiary but an indispensable tool that offers genuine, in demand, and
long-term well-being of employees.
2. Literature review
2.1. Sense-making as the underlying mechanism
The objective of several recent studies in CSR literature has been
studying CSR from an employee perspective (De Roeck and Maon,
2018; Kang et al., 2020). The general outcome of such studies is that
CSR is responsible for the change in attitude and behavior of em-
ployees. Among these studies, a considerable number showcase a po-
sitive relationship between the impacts of CSR on various employee
level outcomes. Although studies (e.g., Aguinis and Glavas, 2019; Basu
and Palazzo, 2008) offer many useful propositions, they do not offer
any empirical investigation of the proposed relationships. Similarly, a
handful of studies such as Haq et al. (2017) and Bouraoui et al. (2019)
have conducted their research in contexts that exclude the hospitality
context. Therefore, we intend to fill this research void in micro-CSR
literature by uncovering new or understudied mechanisms that explain
how and why CSR impacts employees of the hospitality industry. We
propose that the new CSR-employee dynamics can be viewed through
the sense-making theoretical perspective (Weick, 1995) to better un-
derstand the relational mechanism (Richter and Arndt, 2018). Weick
(1995) defines sense-making as “the making of sense” (p. 4). He un-
derstands sense-making as something that goes beyond individual ex-
periences and conceptualizes it as the process that gives meaning to
work. Moreover, Weick (1995) proposes identity as an important
component of the sense-making process. Therefore, when employees
observe that their organization is doing something to solve the most
complex and emotionally loaded situations they face daily, they iden-
tify themselves with the organization (Eldor, 2018). Additionally,
Kramer (2017) notes that an important principle of sense-making is,
“when individuals collectively select a certain interpretation of some
experience, they are at the same time selecting a particular identity for
themselves” (Kramer, 2017, p. 1).
Given that companies nowadays spend millions of dollars on CSR
activities and governments are introducing stringent socially re-
sponsible codes of conduct for firms and employees alike (Merli et al.,
2019), it is important to understand how employees reflect and make
sense of CSR-related initiatives promoted by their firms. Therefore,
sense-making from a CSR perspective holds huge significance. Sense-
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam
Fig. 1. Conceptual Model.
making takes place when individuals are faced with situations that are
very challenging and complex; activities where employees need to
make decisions about their actual purpose on real stakeholders of tasks
they have been assigned. This is something commonly associated with
CSR projects where employees are to act, and respond to activities not
related to their firm’s core objectives but complex developmental pro-
jects that affect their surrounding communities and the planet at large.
The ‘relational component’ of CSR suggests that employees with a
high community orientation may feel engaged and derive mean-
ingfulness through caring about their surrounding community, more
relevant in a collectivistic, relationship-oriented Indian context. The
reason is that in some cultural contexts, individuals see themselves as
separate and unique personalities (individualism) with a lesser pro-
pensity to identify with any large group (Hofstede and Minkov, 2010),
whereas others tend to identify and define themselves highly with their
(collectivistic) communities (Epitropaki and Martin, 2005). The latter is
an orientation associated with cultures, such as in India where people
prefer “we-ness” and root their personal identity in groups. We pro-
pound that Indian employees with a high community orientation tend
to be highly concerned about their companies’ CSR activities. Such
activities make sense to the employees if they have a very broad and
strong impact on the community and as a result, employees are engaged
and experience meaningfulness at work. Furthermore, CSR activities
involve projects for the community as well as the employees them-
selves. These activities constitute facilitation of tasks specifically and
directly to employee happiness and well-being. As a result, the sense-
making mechanism reinforces positive attitude and caring behavior
among employees (viz. meaningfulness and compassion).
2.2. CSR and employee engagement
Engaging employees is a key success mantra for all great organi-
zations (Nazir and Islam, 2017). It’s reported that overall disengaged
employees cost U.S. firms a humongous $550 billion every year (Young
et al., 2018). Besides, a recent survey shows that only 16% of employees
around the world are fully engaged (Bradley and Olivier, 2019); thus,
repercussions and opportunities associated to an engaged workforce are
immense. Employee engagement is defined as “a positive fulfilling work
related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication and absorption”
(Schaufeli et al., 2002, p.74). Extant academic literature on the subject
shows that working for firms perceived to be unethical and socially
irresponsible may lead to a host of negative reactions amongst em-
ployees like hopelessness and disengagement (Andersson, 1996). On
the other hand, employees working for socially responsible
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630
organizations experience intrinsic rewards like motivation and job sa-
tisfaction (Young et al., 2018). However, literature linking CSR and
their work-related engagement is still scarce and in its embryonic stage
(Rupp et al., 2018).
For employees of the contemporary working places, being socially
responsible is a ‘core belief’ deeply rooted in their self-concept
(Korschun et al., 2014); thus, organizations seen participating in so-
cially responsible initiatives signal their ethical temperament and fa-
cilitates their trust upon such organizations. CSR is, therefore, an im-
portant construct with high relevance to the studies related to employee
engagement. Moreover, in the Indian collectivistic orientation context,
CSR-related activities of the firm reflect care and concern for both
employees as well as external stakeholders of the society (Hoi et al.,
2018). Thus, in this context, organizational CSR, by catering to the
relational needs of its employees, contributes to their feeling of
‘meaningful existence’ and thereby an important additional nutriment
of employee engagement (Aguinis and Glavas, 2019). Thus, we posit:
H1. CSR-specific activities positively affect employee engagement.
2.3. CSR and meaningfulness
Erickson (2011) argues that even if all that businesses wanted is
money, meaningfulness is the new money. Researchers assess if em-
ployees find their work to be meaningful that would help businesses
save an average of $6.43 million for every 10,000 workers in annual
turnover-related costs (Achor et al., 2018). Kahn (1990) defined
meaningfulness as a state in which employees “felt worthwhile, useful,
and valuable-as though they made a difference and were not taken for
granted” (Kahn, 1990, p. 704). In fact, work meaningfulness literature
differentiates three types of meaningfulness experienced by employees;
depending on the type of job orientation they specifically have. The first
type of meaningfulness is experienced when the employee’s job or-
ientation consists of primarily achieving materialistic tangible benefits
such as job security (Bellah et al., 1985). The second type of mean-
ingfulness is experienced where the employee job orientation is pri-
marily career orientation such as aiming at promotions (Aguinis and
Glavas, 2019). The third orientation has been classified as a “calling”
orientation where employees feel they are making this world a better
place (Beadle and Knight, 2012).
Currently, work design and performance management systems pri-
marily capture and measure the first two types of job orientations
employees have: job and career, thereby sidelining the “calling” or-
ientation (Albrecht, 2013; Riza et al., 2019; Xie et al., 2019). By not
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam
focusing on this orientation, our management systems are only in-
creasing employee disengagement and dissatisfaction (Lysova et al.,
2019). Therefore, this study captures the calling orientation of mean-
ingfulness and proposes that apart from job and career, employees can
also derive meaningfulness when they are working for socially re-
sponsible organizations that they feel are making a difference to their
community. Meaningfulness literature calls this type of meaningfulness
as “meaningfulness at work” (Pratt and Ashforth, 2003). Meaningfulness
at work is an important psychological process that represents a way in
which employees find connection and fit with an organization. In other
words, it’s a subtle process that cements social identification of em-
ployees with their colleagues and overall organization (Fletcher and
Schofield, 2019). However, very less is known about why and how it
occurs (Lysova et al., 2019; Sturges et al., 2019). We argue that CSR
activities satisfy the calling orientation of employees even in instances
where job roles are not attached to some humane purpose but em-
ployees find ‘meaningfulness at work’ since they realize that their firm
is working for some great social purpose (Rosso et al., 2010). Thus, we
hypothesize;
H2. CSR-specific activities positively affect employees’ meaningfulness
at work.
2.4. CSR and compassion
Compassion at work is an emotion which is described as “will-
ingness to devote time, effort, and money to aid others” (DeSteno,
2018, p. 3). Compassion at work leads to a workplace environment
which nurtures employees to think of collective gains rather than in-
dividual benefits only (Miller et al., 2012). The increase in societal
expectation that businesses need to do more than earning a profit ap-
plies to all industries (Abaeian et al., 2019). However, we argue that the
hospitality sector due to the nature of its operations is linked in-
extricably to its surrounding environments and societies. And thus, to
truly make an impact socially, researchers propose need for organiza-
tional contexts which “cultivate and sustain individual and collective
ethical strength to achieve successful and durable moral performance in
organizations” (Sekerka et al., 2014, p. 439). CSR provides such an
ideal context by enhancing compassionate acts among employees that
eventually contribute to the hotel’s success. Furthermore, social identity
theory (Tajfel, 1974) theorizes that employees experience pride and
motivation to maintain a positive social reputation because of the firm’s
CSR specific activities. The reason is that alongside external CSR ac-
tivities meant for external stakeholders, CSR also includes internal di-
mension such as taking care of employees themselves (Skudiene and
Auruskeviciene, 2012). This leads to a perception of status within the
organization (Hur et al., 2018) and as a result, employees change their
attitude and behavior in a way which leads to strong pro-social beha-
viors such as compassion at work.
Thus we hypothesize;
H3. CSR-specific activities positively affect compassion among
employees
2.5. Meaningfulness and employee engagement
Kahn (1990) identified ‘meaningfulness’ as a key prerequisite to
actually experience engagement and described it as “a feeling that one
is receiving a return on investments of one’s self in a currency of phy-
sical, cognitive, or emotional energy.” (p. 703). A growing number of
studies conceptually relate meaningfulness as a major driver of em-
ployee engagement (Albrecht, 2013). Regretfully, subsequent empirical
research conclusively linking meaningfulness and engagement is still
limited (Whittington, 2017). For example, Steger and Dik (2010) ar-
ticulate that inspite of “the intuitive appeal of the claim that viewing
work as a meaningful and socially valuable part of one’s life, there is a
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630
need for continued effort in developing a theory of work as meaning’’
(p. 132). Given that the desire to make a difference is innate and uni-
versal among people, this has, of course, major repercussions for work.
The traditional workplace models saw work through an instrumental
lens (Whittington, 2017). However, with major advancements in
human civilization and rich progress in work psychology, everything
that constitutes work is under the microscope. An enlightened per-
spective of work sees it as an avenue to showcase one’s personal un-
iqueness and identity. As Ashmos and Duchon (2000) articulate, “Em-
ployees want to be involved in work that gives meaning to their lives”
(p. 136), and contribute to the well-being of others. In other words,
meaningful work is in demand, since it ultimately makes work and life
engaging (Whittington, 2017). Therefore, we posit;
H4. Meaningfulness positively affects employee engagement.
2.6. Compassion and employee engagement
Academic literature about the phenomenon of compassion in the
workplace is rare and limited (Eldor, 2018). But recent research linking
compassion and its perceived benefit for employees and organizations
across different sectors is slowly picking pace (Hur et al., 2018). Prior
studies suggest that compassionate acts lead to positive work outcomes
such as employee creativity (Hur et al., 2018), high-quality work con-
nections (Dutton et al., 2002), and reduced employee stress and
burnout (Eldor, 2018). Weick (1995) argues that identity is an im-
portant component of the sense-making process. This claim is further
supported by a study wherein volunteers working for an NGO who
strongly identified themselves with the organization reported an in-
crease in their intentions to volunteer for the NGO and also make fi-
nancial donations to it (Gossett and Smith, 2013). Moreover, when
employees observe their organization to be doing something to solve
the most complex and emotionally loaded situations they face daily,
they identify themselves with the organization (Hur et al., 2018). As a
result, they feel proud of their organization’s actions which results in
employee engagement. Furthermore, based on social identity theory
(Tajfel, 1974), we suggest that compassion at work leads to a workplace
environment which nurtures employees to think of collective gains
rather than individual benefits only (Miller et al., 2012). The use of
compassion as an ‘emotional coping mechanism’ is particularly salient
in our context, since employees routinely encounter situations in CSR
projects loaded with complexity, stress and work load. Therefore, we
hypothesize;
H5. Compassion positively affects employee engagement.
2.7. Mediating effect of meaningfulness
Prior research strongly supports the mediating role of mean-
ingfulness. While Johns et al. (1992) and Oldham (1996) suggest
meaningfulness as a strong mediator between work characteristics and
work outcomes, Humphrey et al. (2007) identified meaningfulness to
mediate the linkage between employee motivational characteristics and
work outcome. In the CSR context, Aguinis and Glavas (2019), explain
how employees make their work meaningful. According to sense-
making perspective, employees come to identify themselves with or-
ganizations not only because they are on their payroll but because they
observe their organizations take care of communities and people not a
direct part of their organization (Quinn and Thakor, 2018). This en-
courages employees to trust and identify with their organization, which
eventually provides meaning to their membership and work in the or-
ganization (Hansen et al., 2011). By working in CSR related activities,
employees find more meaning and are psychologically better engaged
with their work. Therefore, we hypothesize;
H6. Meaningfulness mediates the relationship between CSR-specific
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630

Table 1 3.2. Sample and data collection

Demographic information (n = 350).
Demographic variable Frequency Percentage We collected data from full-time employees working in four and five
star (luxury) hotels in New Delhi, India for more than a year. Using
Gender contacts generated through personal references and university alumni
Male 184 52.57
group, the lead researcher contacted the HR offices of some luxury
Female 166 47.43
Age (years)
hotels. After getting due consent, the questionnaire packages were de-
20–29 189 54.00 livered to the HR officers who accepted the request to dispense the
30–39 105 30.00 questionnaires to different employees. The HR officers were requested
40–49 35 10.00 to handover the questionnaires evenly among male and female re-
50 & above 21 06.00
spondents and to a diverse sets of employees so that common method
Education
Bachelor’s 161 46.00 bias is avoided (Podsakoff et al., 2003). The lead author delivered a
Master’s 117 33.42 total of 600 questionnaires to ten luxury hotels (60 each). 392 ques-
Doctoral 14 04.00 tionnaires were collected back from the respective HR offices after a
Others 58 16.58
period of four weeks (May 16–June 13, 2019), of which 42 were in-
Job position
Upper-level manager 31 08.86
complete and were, therefore, excluded from further analysis. Conse-
Middle-level manager 122 34.85 quently, 350 usable questionnaires (62 from hotel A, 58 from hotel B,
Lower-level manager 144 41.15 64 from hotel C, 51 from hotel D, 66 from hotel E, and 49 from hotel F)
Non-managerial employee 53 15.14 were considered fit for further analysis.
Duration with the hotel (years)
Among the 350 respondents, 184 (52.57%) were males and 166
1–3 168 48.00
4–6 121 34.58 (47.43%) were females. More than half of the respondents (54%) were
7–9 37 10.57 aged between 20–29 years. Majority of the respondents (46%) were
10 & above 24 06.85 Bachelor’s degree holders, followed by Master’s degree holders
(33.42%). Less than half of the respondents (47.71%) were employed as
lower-level managers, followed by middle-level managers (38.28%).
activities and employee engagement. Around half of the respondents (48%) had a work experience of one to
three years with the same hotel, followed by 34.57% respondents with a
work experience of four to six years with the same hotel. Table 1
2.8. Mediating effect of compassion summarizes the respondents’ demographic profiles.

Prior studies demonstrate the mediating role of compassion in the

3.3. Measures
relationship between CSR activities and work outcomes such as crea-
tivity and affective organizational commitment (Abdelmotaleb et al.,
All the constructs included in our model were measured by using
2018). However, research examining the mediating role of compassion
well-established scales. Minor alterations were made to relevant scales
on work engagement is missing. Built on sense-making and social
as required, so as to ensure appropriate fit with our study context. The
identification theory perspectives, positive sense-making about a firm
questionnaire comprised two sections. The opening section included
through its CSR-specific activities induces employees’ feeling of pride
general questions to capture respondents’ demographic profile. The
about their company, which profoundly influences their helping and
second section measured the constructs used in our study. CSR-specific
caring behavior (Dutton et al., 2010). This caring and helping behavior
activities were measured by adopting items from Maignan and Ferrell
(a reflection of compassion), due to its other-oriented nature leads
(2000) and Rupp et al. (2018). Meaningfulness was measured using the
employees to work together for the sake of collective benefits and hence
scale items from May et al. (2004). Compassion was measured through
enhances employee engagement. Thus, we hypothesize;
Lilius et al. (2008). Finally, employee engagement was measured by
H7. Compassion mediates the relationship between CSR-specific adapting items from Schaufeli et al. (2006) scale.
activities and employee engagement.

4. Data analysis and results

3. Methods A two-step approach (Anderson and Gerbing, 1988), which included

3.1. Research setting
Considering the context specific-nature of CSR, we focus on the
Indian hospitality industry as the study context which is worth a $234
billion currently, expected to reach $492 billion by 2028 (IBEF, 2019;
Nazir and Islam, 2019). Regardless of its potential growth prospectus,
employees of the hospitality industry suffer on parameters like work-
hours, wages, work-life balance, and overall work environment
(Abaeian et al., 2019). As such outcomes are not promising; hotels need
to recognize possible means to foster employee engagement, for which
CSR-activities have been signaled as conducive (Kim et al., 2016). Be-
sides, researchers are paying due interest in elucidating the role that
CSR activities can play in overcoming such work place issues vis-à-vis
help employees find their work engaging (Tsai et al., 2012). This study,
therefore, empirically tests a model to demystify how CSR-activities can
assist employees in finding meaningfulness and compassion in their
work and at the same time enhance their work engagement.
“confirmatory factor analysis” (CFA) and “structural equation mod-
eling” (SEM) was adopted to examine the hypothesized relationships.
The AMOS 20.0 SEM software” was used to run CFA to confirm the
scales’ convergent and discriminant validities (Hair et al., 2010).
Cronbach’s alpha was calculated to access construct reliability (see
Table 2).
4.1. Normality assumption and common method variance
The data demonstrated a normal distribution confirmed by skew-
ness values of items that ranged from −0.622 to 0.058, and kurtosis
values ranged between −1.322 and 1.465, thus within the adequate
range (Wells et al., 2015). We also check common method variance
(CMV) by using Harman’s one-factor test (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Our
results revealed that the first factor accounted for only 37.054%
(i.e. < 50%) of the variance, confirming that CMV is not an issue in
our study.

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O. Nazir and J.U. Islam International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630

Table 2 Table 4
Reliability and validity of the constructs. Structural model results.
Construct and Factor Cronbach’s α Composite Average Source Hypotheses Path Path t-value Test Results
Items loading Reliability Variance Estimate
Extracted
H1 CSR → Employee engagement 0.36 5.963 Supported
Corporate Social 0.915 0.918 0.693 Maignan H2 CSR → Meaningfulness 0.67 10.32 Supported
Responsibility and H3 CSR → Compassion 0.75 12.88 Supported
(CSR) Ferrell H4 Meaningfulness → Employee 0.30 5.308 Supported
CSR1 0.870 (2000); engagement
CSR2 0.868 Rupp et al H5 Compassion → Employee 0.30 5.488 Supported
CSR3 0.804 (2018) engagement
CSR4 0.741
CSR5 0.832
Meaningfulness 0.931 0.933 0.698 May et al
HI90 = 0.060).
(Mgf) (2004)
Mgf1 0.778
With respect to hypotheses testing, the SEM results reveal that CSR-
Mgf2 0.849 specific activities positively affect employee engagement (β = 0.36,
Mgf3 0.855 t = 5.963, p < 0.001), meaningfulness (β = 0.67, t = 10.32,
Mgf4 0.874 p < 0.001), and compassion (β = 0.75, t = 12.88, p < 0.001),
Mgf5 0.828
thereby supporting H1, H2, and H3 respectively (see Table 4 and
Mgf6 0.829
Compassion (Cmp) 0.886 0.889 0.728 Lilius Fig. 2). The results further reveal that meaningfulness has a significant
Cmp1 0.891 et al positive effect on employee engagement (β = 0.30, t = 5.308,
Cmp2 0.847 (2008) p < 0.001), which supports H4. Lastly, compassion affects employee
Cmp3 0.822
engagement positively (β = 0.30, t = 5.488, p < 0.001), therefore, H5
Employee 0.967 0.967 0.766 Schaufeli
Engagement et al
is also supported.
(EE) (2006)
EE1 0.864
4.4. Mediating effects of meaningfulness and compassion
EE2 0.872
EE3 0.894
EE4 0.901 To test the mediating (full/partial) effects of meaningfulness in the
EE5 0.901 relationship between CSR activities and employee engagement, and of
EE6 0.897 compassion in the relationship between CSR activities and employee
EE7 0.882
EE8 0.888
engagement, we employed Baron and Kenny’s (1986) approach. Sub-
EE9 0.747 sequently, we used bootstrapping, as suggested by Zhao et al. (2010). In
full mediation, the predictor (CSR) affects the outcome variables (em-
ployee engagement) only through its effect on the mediating variables
4.2. Reliability and validity analyses (meaningfulness and compassion). Conversely, in partial mediation, the
predictor (CSR) affects the criterion variable (employee engagement)
An adequate reliability of the scale was reflected by the Cronbach’s directly, as well as indirectly through its effect on the mediator vari-
alpha values (> 0.70). To test, convergent validity (CV), we analyzed ables (meaningfulness and compassion; Baron and Kenny, 1986). The
item loadings and the “average variance extracted” (AVE). The item results reveal that CSR has a direct positive effect on employee en-
loadings of the respective variables were above 0.50, indicating an gagement (β = 0.36, p < 0.001) as well as an indirect effect via
acceptable CV (Hair et al., 2010).”An acceptable level of CV was further meaningfulness (β = 0.25, p < 0.001) and compassion (β = 0.29,
exhibited by the (AVE) values of above 0.50. Besides, the composite p < 0.001). These results show that the effect of CSR on employee
reliability for each of the construct was confirmed through the parallel engagement is partially mediated by meaningfulness and compassion,
values of above 0.60 (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). thereby supporting H6 and H7.
“The discriminant validity (DV) was gauged by relating the squared
root of each construct’s AVE with its corresponding correlations (Hair 5. Discussion
et al., 2010). The corresponding inter-construct correlation values were
lesser than the squared root of each construct’s AVE (see Table 3), thus The emergent literature emphasizes the key role of CSR on em-
reflecting an acceptable DV (Hair et al., 2010).” ployee well-being (e.g. Fu et al., 2014; Martinez et al., 2014). Building
on the sense-making mechanism, this study developed a model to em-
4.3. Structural model results pirically test the impact of CSR on employee engagement in the hos-
pitality context through direct and indirect (mediating) mechanisms of
The model exhibited a good fit to the data, reflected by the values of meaningfulness and compassion. Our results reveal that CSR positively
χ2 = 433.691, df = 221, χ2/df = 1.962, CFI = 0.974, NFI = 0.948, affects employee engagement. In sync with prior studies of different
GFI = 0.933, TLI = 0.970, and RMSEA = 0.053 (LO90 = 0.045, contextual grounds (e.g., Jeon et al., 2020 in the context of ride sharing
services of the USA; Tao et al., 2018 in the small, medium, and large
Table 3 corporations of the USA; Lu et al., 2020 in the context of pharmaceu-
Discriminant validity results. tical industry of Pakistan), our results emphasize that although in-
Variables Mean SD 1 2 3 4
stitutional conditions in developing countries like India are somewhat
different and unique (Nazir and Islam, 2019); however, the positive
1. CSR 4.29 1.17 0.832 influence of CSR activities on employee’s behavior seems to be broader
2. Meaningfulness 3.99 1.06 0.52* 0.836 and universal (Jain et al., 2017; Yunis et al., 2018).
3. Compassion 4.12 1.08 0.42* 0.47* 0.853
5. Employee engagement 4.40 1.01 0.60* 0.56* 0.39* 0.875
We also find meaningfulness and compassion to mediate the asso-
ciation between CSR and employee engagement. By showing that CSR
Note: SD denotes standard deviation, Bold figures represent square root of AVE, activities lead to employee engagement via compassion, our research is
*Correlations values are significant (p < .001). in line with studies that argue that CSR activities convert service

6
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam
Fig. 2. Structural model results.
oriented workplace into compassionate arenas (Hur et al., 2018). Since,
compassion is an inherent and fundamental feeling, its existence acts as
a stimulant to enhance and nurture significant attitudinal and motiva-
tional outcomes like employee engagement. Furthermore, our results
also showcase that employee meaningfulness mediates the relationship
between CSR activities and employee engagement. In line with previous
work, we show that CSR participation offers employees experience
personally significant and valuable work (Caligiuri et al., 2013; Kim
et al., 2017; Bailey et al., 2019). As a result of CSR sense making pro-
cesses, the experience of participating in personally relevant commu-
nity oriented CSR initiatives helps employees engage better at CSR
projects and at work itself. As our empirical results support all the
proposed hypotheses, this study offers some important theoretical and
practical implications.
5.1. Theoretical implications
This study adds to the CSR literature in multiple ways. Firstly, given
that most of the CSR related studies have investigated institutional and
macro-level variables like brand preference and financial performance
(Kang et al., 2020); this study contributes by undertaking a micro-level
investigation about the impact of CSR on employee engagement, a re-
lationship that has largely been overlooked in the hospitality context
(Rhou and Singal, 2020; Tsai et al., 2012). We acknowledge the under-
theorization of CSR research from an employee perspective specifically
to the hospitality context as is also suggested by some recent studies
(e.g., Kang et al., 2020; Kim et al., 2020). By commencing CSR research
from a micro-level perspective, this study offers robust insight as well as
narrows down the often asked ‘macro-micro CSR rift’ in the academic
literature.
Secondly, this study contributes by responding to increasing calls
for uncovering important and novel underlying psychological me-
chanisms that connect CSR and employee engagement (Basu and
Palazzo, 2008; Nazir and Islam, 2019). The application of rarely applied
sense-making theoretical mechanism for building the conceptual asso-
ciations among the chosen constructs extends the academic under-
standing of the relational mechanism and further broadens the theo-
retical application of sense-making. This study offers empirical support
to previous studies conducted in various developed countries and dif-
ferent industrial settings, and help extend further the academic body on
CSR literature to the hospitality context of an emerging economy (Kang
et al., 2020; Gurlek and Tuna, 2019; Hu et al., 2019).
7
International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630
Thirdly, despite the growing importance of research on micro-CSR,
there is a strong research gap in terms of examining the relational dy-
namics between CSR and employee engagement (Gurlek and Tuna,
2019; Nazir and Islam, 2019); and in identifying the mediators/mod-
erators of the micro-CSR and employee behavioral outcome equation,
especially in the context of hospitality industry (Glavas, 2016; Nazir
and Islam, 2019). Additionally, Fu et al. (2014) articulate that “….little
work has been done on the potential impact of CSR on employee behavior in
the hospitality context” (p. 68). Therefore, by including two distinct
mediators (i.e. compassion and meaningfulness) while examining the
impact of CSR on employee engagement in the hospitality industry, this
study fills the void that existed in the literature.
Furthermore, specific to the hospitality sector, researchers have
noted that it has been plagued by ethical scandals ranging from sexual
harassment, inappropriate employee behavior to trade secret theft al-
legations (Dimitriou and Ducette, 2018). These problems are further
compounded by internal problems such as poor wages and job in-
security (Zientara et al., 2015). Thus, the hospitality sector is afflicted
by high employee turnover and labor shortages (Ineson et al., 2013).
Therefore, we contribute to literature by validating that CSR partici-
pation with its explicit focus on employee welfare (in terms of mean-
ingfulness and compassion) offers a genuine recourse to enhance em-
ployee engagement in the hospitality sector. In sum, CSR participation
offers contexts where employees can develop compassionate feelings
intrinsically and find a meaning in what they do, leading to an en-
hanced level of work engagement.
Lastly, this study contributes by commencing CSR research from an
emerging (non-Western) context to thoroughly investigate the appli-
cation and universality of theories and models that currently dominate
CSR research in the Western-context. Some researchers suggest that the
dynamics and outcomes of interaction between CSR constructs may
vary due to different institutional frameworks that exist between de-
veloping and developed countries (Jammulamadaka, 2018). Therefore,
by responding to calls for a closer attention to different national busi-
ness configurations across the globe (Matten and Moon, 2008), this
study adds further insight to CSR literature by generalizing the ap-
plicability of CSR studies across geographic contexts.
5.2. Managerial implications
With the ever-escalating competition and growth in the hospitality
industry, it has become critical for hotels (we refer to luxury hotels, as
O. Nazir and J.U. Islam
our study context) to identify how to cultivate and retain an engaging
workforce. Therefore, on the managerial agenda, CSR undertakings
hold enormous significance in this direction. Regardless of its practical
relevance in the hospitality sector (particularly to luxury hotels), CSR,
at times is considered a cost addition due to financial investments.
However contrarily, our results reveal that CSR actually represents a
sustainable value addition that nurtures engagement and well-being of
employees. Socially responsible activities bring out a helping behavior
in the form of compassionate acts, and offer meaning to employees in
an environment that is, otherwise, paralyzed by corporate frauds and
employee cynicism (Nazir and Islam, 2019).
The influence of CSR-perceptions on employee outcomes is over-
represented in CSR research. We show that actual CSR participation can
act as a tool for consciously cultivating workplace compassion across
the luxury hotels. There are many organizations that emphasize com-
passion and purpose in their vision and mission statements; however,
very few actually recognize that CSR participation can be an important
element of their overall strategy to enhance compassion or connection
to a higher purpose. Workplaces at times can be hostile or stressful
leading employees to often experience grief and suffering (Rynes et al.,
2012). The impact of grief and related negative emotions in the service
context can prove to be pervasive and dramatically reduce the pro-
ductivity and resilience of an organization (Dutton et al., 2014). Given
the multitude of labor and external threats to hospitality sector, it’s the
duty and necessity of modern firms (luxury hotels) to provide work that
leads to the welfare of their employees. CSR participation, by enhancing
compassion and work meaningfulness among employees, helps build
and nourish an organizational culture that offers greater pain-sharing,
and resilience among employees (Worline and Dutton, 2017). Our work
is, therefore, expected to help luxury hotel management fulfill a moral
duty because meaningful work is a fundamental human need.
Achor et al. (2018) in their study carried among 2285 American
professionals across 26 industries found out that 9 out of 10 people
were willing to earn less for more engaging and meaningful work,
which reflects the practical relevance of our study. Great organizations
recognize that work fulfills individual needs other than financial ones
too. The workplace of today ought to be a primary source of community
and a place to feel connected. In fact, the hospitality industry is widely
mentioned as more sensitive to CSR issues because of “bidirectional
relationship that exists between the tourist product offered and its
natural, economic, social and cultural environment’’ (Rodríguez and
Cruz, 2007, p. 825). Therefore, these demands of the modern work-
places and our results mean that managers need to offer a holistic work
environment that offers jobs and tasks directed towards not only profits
but community and long term social sustainability. Particularly in the
hospitality sector, job tasks need to be redesigned in ways that offer a
chance of making a social contribution to all employees. This implies
that CSR needs to be embedded in jobs, work culture and the long-term
strategic outlook of firms.
Given that hospitality work is highly stressful due to uncertain
working hours and labor issues, this study provides a practical sug-
gestion for organizations to rely on and implement. Our results can help
the hospitality industry (luxury hotels in particular) survive the up-
coming future talent war. The World Travel & Tourism Council (2015)
forecasted that the hotel industry faces serious labor shortage over the
next upcoming decade. Retaining, attracting, and engaging future
workforces will be a key challenge of the hospitality industry in future
(Goh and Lee, 2018). Given that an increasing number of surveys
showcase that employees are switching jobs because their current work
fails to make any meaningful contribution to their personal life, it’s only
going to get tougher. Hence, our work offers a practical tool to luxury
hotel managers by suggesting that actual CSR participation can satisfy
this oft-neglected need of current and upcoming generations.
Additionally, investing in CSR-specific activities could be a great
asset in rewarding employees non-monetarily, since it allows employees
to experience the joy of making a difference to their communities and
8
International Journal of Hospitality Management 90 (2020) 102630
the planet as a whole. To summarize, CSR can help luxury hotels retain
employees by making them perceive their workplaces as more mean-
ingful, compassionate, and engaging. These benefits will consequently
bring in more revenue and repute to the hoteliers by sensitizing and
developing its employees who are the most crucial ambassadors of any
competitive business organization.
5.3. Limitations and future research
Despite significant contribution, this study has some limitations that
offer avenues for further research in this domain. First, a convenience
sample of luxury hotels and employees was deployed to collect our
data, thereby yielding findings of potentially limited generalizability
(e.g. reduced applicability to non-luxury hotel employees). Therefore,
further research may draw on probability sampling methods to ensure
more generalizable results. Second, instead of restricting CSR to specific
domain perspectives, we have considered CSR from a broader cognitive
and behavioral aspect (Gurlek and Tuna, 2019). Future studies may
replicate the proposed relationships incorporating Carroll’s (1991) four
CSR-dimensions to yield further or refine existing insight. Further, we
have focused on how CSR can engage employees. However, in the
hospitality sector, there is a lot of job stress and a demanding work-
load, CSR in certain cases may increase this stress if not executed
strategically and in consultation with employees. The dark side of CSR
is a hot debate among scholars and should, therefore, be explored. Fi-
nally, the proposed model is limited to the exploration of particular
mediating variables. Therefore, the addition of other relevant med-
iating/moderating variables (e.g. emotional intelligence, mindfulness)
variables can further advance the micro-CSR domain.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors confirm that there is no conflict of interest related to
this study.
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