Research on the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities regarding on many types of stakeholders outside of the organizations is extensive. Yet, research regarding the effects of organizational CSR activities on employees is often overlooked. Scholars suggest that this area could be further more explored in future CSR research. In order to address this gap, this research develops a conceptual framework employing the concept of sensemaking, aiming to investigate the impact of organizational internal CSR (ICSR) activities on employee engagement (EE) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), through examining meaningfulness (ME) as a mediator. Demographic variables such as age, gender, religion and education were used as control variables. To investigate the hypotheses, a quantitative research method is employed utilizing self-completion survey questionnaires administered to 420 employees working in the Myanmar Food & Beverage industry (F&B). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is conducted using AMOS and SPSS software to analyze the collected data. The analysis indicates that organizational ICSR do not have a direct positive impact on EE and OCB; however, it has an indirect positive effect on the latter variables when mediated by ME. Additionally, the results show that, aside from gender, the control variables do not have a significant effect on any of the dependent variables. Interestingly, gender has a negative significant effect on ME. This indicates that gender differences play a role in reducing ME, with females experiencing lower ME levels than males. This research theoretically contributes with the idea that ME acts as a mediator between organization’s ICSR initiatives and favourable work-related behavioral outcomes. Additionally, this research practically contributes to managerial procedures to improve employees’ work-related behaviours associated with ICSR strategies in the organization.
| Date of Award | 10 Jun 2025 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Claudio De Mattos (Main Supervisor) & Morven McEachern (Co-Supervisor) |
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