The Role of Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility in Workaholism

Based on social exchange theory, recent research emphasizes the positive impact of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) on employees. We argue that the current debate neglects the potential downsides of CSR which are based on reciprocal social exchange in the workplace. With our study, we investigate one of these negative effects by examining the risk of workaholism. In general, we hypothesize that perceived CSR is associated with positive outcomes for employees. However, we assume that there are underlying social exchange mechanisms that negatively influence this effect. Our research is based on a single-firm study. The online survey was conducted in the offices of our research partner in Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands in the first half of 2022 and resulted in a total of 193 responses. Our results uncover a negative effect caused by perceived CSR. It turns out that a high level of perceived CSR relates to a felt obligation among employees that is positively associated with the risk of workaholism. The hypothesized total effect that perceived CSR is negatively related to the risk of workaholism is attenuated by felt obligations, resulting in a nonsignificant correlation. Thus, our research offers an interesting contribution to the debate on the potential downsides of CSR.