Corporate social entrepreneurship, employee engagement, organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction
Date
2020
Authors
Mlilo, Sifiso
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Abstract
Corporate social entrepreneurship (CSE) is a relatively new concept that provides a process for effective blended value creation for corporations and their stakeholders. In a world of finite natural resources, CSE represents a progressive step-change to the approach taken to corporate social responsibility (CSR) by organisations. The current study sought to contribute to the literature on CSE by focusing on two specific aims. The first was to develop a measure of CSE using the conceptual framework of CSE developed by Austin and Reficco (2009). In order to do so, the key CSE elements of enabling environment, corporate social intrapreneur and corporate purpose were used to generate scale items. Eight subject matter experts were engaged to test the face validity of the scale. Following scale refinement based on the feedback provided by the experts, 156 participants completed the CSE scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that a seven factor model had the best fit. Strong reliability values for each of the seven factors (i.e. subscales) as well as for the CSE scale in totality suggested that scale construction yielded an instrument with good internal consistency. The second aim was to provide an assessment of the impact of CSE on the organisational effectiveness variables employee engagement, organisational citizenship behaviour and job satisfaction. With a sample of 159 participants, the correlation results of the second phase of the study indicated that CSE has a significant and positive relationship with all the organisational effectiveness variables. The multiple regression analysis indicated that only job satisfaction was predicted by CSE leadership. A path analysis was conducted which yielded a viable model that demonstrated how CSE interacts with job satisfaction and employee engagement in order to promote organisational citizenship behaviours. Thus, while it is clear further testing is required to refine the CSE scale and to better understand how it interacts with key organisational effectiveness variables, these initial results suggest a viable scale for measuring CSE has been developed. The results also suggest that CSE relates positively and significantly with the organisational effectiveness variables focused on in the study. These results, taken in totality, suggest that in a world confronted by an ever increasing demand for finite resources and given the important role corporations play in ensuring resources are responsibly utilised and replenished where possible, CSE may provide an exciting way of helping organisations achieve blended value through meaningful work that ensures the workforce is engaged, motivated and committed to doing more
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 2020