Modeling Employee Social Responsibility as an Antecedent to Competitiveness Outcomes

Abstract

The study explained a model of employee social responsibility (ESR) as an antecedent to corporate competitiveness. It hypothesizes that ESR has significant effect on employee competitiveness (EC). Questionnaires were administered to a sample of 700 employees selected from a population of 5,595 from 20 classified hotels in the coastal region of Kenya using proportionate and systematic random sampling methods. Structural equation model was used for model specification and hypotheses testing. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed on six and four constructs representing ESR and EC, respectively. Overall, a negative effect of ESR on EC was found with un-standardized β estimates = −.516; SE = .071, p = .000. Accordingly, increase in employee corporate social responsibility (CSR) is associated with decline in EC. This was potentially paradoxical because employees demonstrated job and organization commitment and retention intention despite poor ESR practices.