Help Yourself Before Helping Others: When CSR Makes a Company Look Authentic

A growing body of research shows that an organization’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) increases its attractiveness as an employer. What remains less explored, however, are the conditions under which some job seekers may be less likely to respond positively to a potential employer’s CSR activities. We propose that job seekers will be less likely to view an organization that engages in CSR activities focused on external stakeholders (i.e., external CSR) as authentic when the organization does not first engage in CSR activities that benefit its own employees (i.e., internal CSR). Subsequently, job seekers will be less likely to be attracted to that organization. In other words, they will view an organization that is engaging in external CSR as authentic and attractive insofar as the organization is also engaging in internal CSR. The results from a combination of three studies—an archival study of Fortune 500 companies (Study 1), a field study of unemployed job seekers (Study 2, n = 465), and an experiment (Study 3, n = 400)—provide support for our hypotheses. We discuss our findings by highlighting their contributions to the literatures on corporate social responsibility, employee recruitment, and authenticity.