Finding the Jigsaw Piece for Our Jigsaw Puzzle with Corporate Social Responsibility: The Impact of CSR on Prospective Applicants’ Responses

This study examines the influence of different corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions on prospective applicants’ responses, namely organizational attractiveness and intention to apply for a job vacancy. Using an experimental 2 x 3 crossed factorial design (n=195), the level of engagement of a hypothetical company in socially responsible practices (high vs. low) was manipulated concerning three dimensions of CSR (employees, community and environment, economic level). Participants were randomly assigned to one of the six conditions and, after reading the corresponding scenario, were asked to evaluate the extent to which the company was considered a good place to work and their intention to apply for a job vacancy in it. Finding reveal that the level of engagement in socially responsible practices had a positive effect both on the degree to which participants favorably perceived the organization as a place to work and on their intention to apply for a job vacancy. Furthermore, the level of engagement in practices towards employees and in the economic domain had a stronger effect on participants’ responses than the engagement in practices that benefit community and environment. Accordingly, this study supports the idea that CSR can be a source of competitive advantage in the recruitment of new employees. However, since not all CSR dimensions have the same effect upon applicants’ responses, companies should take into account the CSR dimensions in which they are engaged and communicate them to the public. As far as we know, this is the first study to examine the impact of different CSR dimensions both on organizational attractiveness and intention to apply for a job vacancy.