Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Engagement: Organizational Identification and Corporate Volunteering Climate

ABSTRACT Growing evidence indicates that organizations' corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives positively shape how employees think and behave in the workplace. Anchored in social identity theory, this study proposes a model connecting organizational CSR efforts to engagement at both job and organizational levels. The framework positions organizational identification (OI) as the explanatory pathway and treats the corporate volunteering (CV) climate as a boundary condition. Using data from 226 employees in Japan, we conduct hierarchical multiple regression and path analyses to explore the relationships among the study variables. Our findings reveal that perceiving stronger CSR efforts elevates both job‐related engagement and broader organizational involvement; this association operates partly through heightened identification with the employer and is contingent on the prevailing volunteering climate. Therefore, the study advances our understanding of how CSR and related volunteering initiatives foster employee engagement and offers managers practical guidance on leveraging CSR and generating positive workforce outcomes.