TMT Commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility: How It Relates to Employee Engagement

As leaders of an organization, the top management team (TMT) can have a wide- ranging influence on the attitudes of employees. This study examines perceptions employees form of their top management team's (TMT) commitment to corporate social responsibility and how that is related to their engagement levels. It stems from the premise that when employees perceive that the TMT is committed to CSR initiatives, employees may be more likely to be engaged in their work. Also, we propose that psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety and psychological availability will mediate the relationship between perceived TMT commitment to CSR and employee engagement. Using a survey of business school graduates, we found a positive relationship between perceived TMT commitment to CSR and employee engagement. Furthermore, this relationship is partially mediated by psychological meaningfulness and psychological availability. Implications of our findings and directions for future research are discussed.