Public thesis defense of Corentin HERICHER

Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences

The Rector of UCLouvain and the Doctoral Commission in Economics and Management Sciences announce that Mr Corentin HERICHER will publicly support her dissertation, for the title of Doctor in Economics and Management Sciences of UCLouvain.

Title: 

“Employee emotions and reactions to corporate social responsibility”

Summary:

Employee reactions to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has gained interest amongst management scholars. This body of research, labelled micro-CSR research, has mainly focused on employee attitudes and behaviors, overlooking the role of employee emotions in the process. Yet, emotions that CSR elicits are crucial antecedents of organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), including those contributing to the company’s CSR, namely OCB toward CSR. This 3-essay doctoral dissertation addresses this research gap using quantitative methodologies to study how CSR translates into other-oriented and self-oriented emotions, and how these emotions can translate into OCB toward CSR.

The first essay provides evidence that employees’ perceptions of CSR translate into anticipated guilt amongst employees for not engaging themselves into behaviors supporting CSR efforts, and foster OCB toward CSR. The second essay highlights that employees’ perceptions of CSR trigger moral elevation - an other-praising moral emotion - and OCB toward CSR; CSR thus spurs a virtuous cycle by encouraging employees to contribute to it. The third essay offers causal evidence that employees experience higher levels of organizational pride when they attribute genuine motives to their company’s CSR compared to when they attribute self-serving motives.

Overall, this dissertation contributes to micro-CSR research by stressing the key role of employee emotions in explaining employees’ reactions to perceptions of CSR. It offers empirical evidence that employees judge CSR in terms of morality by experiencing moral elevation. It also gives empirical insights that CSR-induced moral judgements not only elicit emotions targeted at the company, but also emotions targeted at oneself, such as pride. These findings highlight that CSR fulfils employee’s needs for morality and for belonging.