30 / Journal of Marketing, May 2014 30 / Journal of Marketing, May 2014
30 / Journal of Marketing, May 2014 30 / Journal of Marketing, May 2014
we included a direct path between organizational identifica- positive as CSR importance to the employee increases. The
tion and job performance (Table 2, Model 3). Model fit sig- data support this prediction. The interaction between per-
nificantly improved (Satorra-Bentler scaled chi-square dif- ceived customer support for CSR and CSR importance to
ference test: Dc 2 SB (1) = 3.940, p < .05), and organizational the employee was positive and significant ( b = .172, p <
identification exhibited a positive and significant direct .05). Figure 3, Panel B, depicts this effect; perceived cus-
effect on job performance ( b = .041, p < .05). tomer support for CSR only enhances employee–customer
We compared the modified model (Model 3) with two identification when CSR importance to the employee is
alternative models to assess the extent to which organiza- high (vs. low). H 4 predicts that employee–customer identi-
tional identification and employee–customer identification fication is positively related to organizational identification.
mediate the effects of the CSR constructs on the key out- Consistent with this hypothesis, this effect was positive and
comes. The first alternative model includes the paths in
Model 3 but also frees the direct paths from the CSR con- customer identification affects job performance through its
significant ( b = .177, p < .05). H 5 predicts that employee–
structs (and their hypothesized interactions) to customer effect on customer orientation. The data support this predic-
orientation. This model did not provide a better fit than tion as well. Paths between employee–customer identifica-
Model 3 [ Dc 2 SB (5) = 4.756, p = .45], and none of the added tion and customer orientation ( b = .308, p < .01) and
effects achieved significance (ps > .10). A second alterna- between customer orientation and job performance were
tive model includes the paths in Model 3 but also frees the positive and significant ( b = .124, p < .01). Moreover, there
direct paths from the CSR constructs (and their hypothe- was no significant improvement in model fit when we
sized interactions) to job performance. This second alterna- added a direct path from employee–customer identification
tive model provided marginally better fit than Model 3 to job performance ( Dc 2 ( SB 2 (1) = 2.182, p = .140), in further Dc SB (5) = 10.64, p = .06) due to a significant direct effect
support of the mediation hypothesis. of CSR importance (p < .05). However, no other effects were significant, including the nonhypothesized paths
Control Variables
involving the interactions (ps > .10). In summary, the results of the model comparisons support the notion that
Effects of the control variables were consistent with prior organizational identification and employee–customer iden- research. Paths from both agreeability and instability to cus- tification are the central mechanisms linking CSR constru- tomer orientation were significant, and the signs of the als to the frontline employee outcomes of customer orienta- coefficients were consistent with Brown et al. (2002).
tion and job performance.
Agreeability, overall service experience, and tenure (consis- Overall, four of our five hypotheses are fully supported, tent with Ng and Feldman 2010) were related to job perfor- and one hypothesis (H ) is partially supported (for a sum- mance. Agreeability, creativity, instability, and pay satisfac-
mary of the findings, see Table 3). In addition, the data are tion (consistent with DeConinck and Stilwell 2004) were
most consistent with a slightly modified version of the pro- significantly related to organizational identification. Finally,
posed model (Model 3, which frees the direct path from conscientiousness and overall service experience were
organizational identification to job performance). In the related to employee–customer identification.
next section, we discuss the implications of these findings
Tests of Alternative Models
for both scholars and practitioners. Some research has suggested that organizational identifica-
tion can lead to greater work effort (e.g., Drumwright 1996)
Discussion
and that it can energize employees to adopt suggested work To our knowledge, this is the first study that documents behaviors more readily (Heckman et al. 2009). Therefore,
when and how CSR is related to the job performance of we aimed to test whether organizational identification
frontline employees (as rated by supervisors). We develop
TABLE 3 Summary of Hypotheses and Findings
H 1 : Management support for CSR and Positive and moderated by CSR importance to Supported organizational identification
the employee
H 2 : Organizational identification and job Positive and mediated by customer orientation Partially supported; performance
relationship not mediated H 3 : Customer support for CSR and employee–
Positive and moderated by CSR importance to Supported customer identification
the employee
H 4 : Employee–customer identification and
Supported organizational identification
Positive
H 5 : Employee–customer identification and job Positive and mediated by customer orientation Supported performance
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