Leader’s Perception of Corporate Social Responsibility and Team Members’ Psychological Well-Being: Mediating Effects of Value Congruence Climate and Pro-Social Behavior

Previous research, that showed that corporate social responsibility (CSR) had positive effects on the corporate image and performance, has attracted much attention and resulted in an increasing number of follow-up studies. However, CSR-related activities are focused on their effect on external stakeholders, although they are social service activities geared towards internal and external stakeholders, thus showing a research gap regarding the effects of internal stakeholders on organizational effectiveness. Therefore, this study investigated the mediating effects of the value congruence climate and prosocial behavior among the team members in the relationship between leader’s CSR perception and team members’ psychological well-being, using a multilevel analysis of the relationship between the team and individual level factors. For the empirical analysis, 69 teams (334 employees) were sampled from 23 Korean small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Analyses revealed a positive effect of a leader’s CSR perception on the team members’ psychological well-being. Furthermore, a leader’s CSR perception had a positive effect on his/her team’s value congruence environment and team members’ prosocial behavior. The team’s value congruence environment and team members’ prosocial behavior were found to mediate the relationship between the leader’s CSR perception and team members’ psychological well-being. The relationships among these variables were investigated using a multilevel analysis model capable of simultaneous validation of team- and individual-level factors associated with team members’ psychological well-being. Future research directions were then discussed based on the theoretical and practical implications and limitations of the study results.