Corporate social responsibility, organizational justice and positive employee attitudes: In the context of Korean employment relations

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in scholarly interest in corporate social responsibility and its impact on employee attitudes. We intend to add to this literature by introducing unique explanatory and contextual variables. The study explains the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on employee attitudes through justice within the context of cooperative employee relations. We argue that the concept of justice, which is implied in both socially responsible organizational policies and cooperative employee-employer relations, may be an important addition as a mediating variable. In essence, the study explores the mediating effects of the two primary types of justice, i.e., distributive and procedural, on the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility, and job satisfaction, and affective commitment. Additionally, we introduce ethics-based psychological foundations, i.e., heuristic and deontic fairness theories to explain the studied relationship. The study also examines the moderated mediation effects of the cooperative industrial relations climate on perceived corporate social responsibility and justice perceptions. Our analysis supports the mediating role of both distributive and procedural justice perceptions. However, a moderated mediation role of the industrial relations climate was only found in the relationship between perceived corporate social responsibility, procedural justice, and employee attitudes. Implications of the study are discussed.