Effect of Employee Engagement On Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility in IT Sector
Effect of Employee Engagement On Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility in IT Sector
Effect of Employee Engagement On Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility in IT Sector
ABSTRACT
Engagement refers to a state that is not focused on any particular object, event or individual. It is also not a momentary and specific
state. The characteristic features of engagement are vigour and a fulfilling state of mind. This study aimed to establish relationship
between employee engagement and perceived corporate social responsibility in IT sector. A sample size of 90 individuals was taken.
The study concluded a positive relationship between work engagement factors and perceived corporate social responsibility factors
in IT sector.Non probability sampling technique has been used. The study pointed out that there is statistically a significant
interrelationship between employees perceptions on Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility factors and Work Engagement
factors. So after analyzing the data, the study conclude that there is a positive relationship between Work Engagement factors and
Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility factors in IT sector or employee engagement effect positively on Perceived Corporate
Social Responsibility.
I. INTRODUCTION
Employee engagement is a complex concept with no single kit fitting all organizations. It comprises of many issues
influencing engagement levels. There are many definitions of employee engagement, but the key to effective engagement is
rooted in the flexibility of approach appropriate to the firm in question. In todays highly competitive market, employee
engagement is vital for any business to succeed. Organisations are now turning to HR to set agenda for employee
engagement and commitment. Work engagement is the opposite of burnout. Engaged employees have a sense of active and
effective connection with their work activities and they are confident enough to deal with the demands of their jobs.
Employee engagement can be defined as the extent of commitment of the employees to something in the organization and
their ability to stay as a result of the commitment.
Work engagement is characterized by vigour, commitment and incorporation and is a more constant cognitive state that is
not focused on any particular object, event, individual or behavior. Vigour is a quality of being energetic and resilient while
working with persistence even in the face of difficulties. Dedication refers to a strong involvement in ones work with
enthusiasm and inspiration. Absorption is being fully concentrated and engrossed in ones work where one finds it difficult
to detach him from work.
About UWES Scale
Vigor is assessed by the following six items that refer to high levels of power and flexibility, the readiness to invest effort,
not being easily fatigued, and persistence in the face of difficulties.
1) Handling work with energy.
2) Feeling a sense of strength and vigour
3) Feeling to go to work while getting up in the morning.
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II.REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Gupta, Manish, (2015), studied 60 employees who were employed in off shore financial service. The themes that were
identified were implicit benefits, organizational culture and organizational policies. The finding concluded that the factors
will encourage employers to make more employee friendly policies and the employers will be able to enhance the overall
efficiency of their work force by resolving the employee issue and improve the employee - employer relationship.
Hakeem, Iqbal Ahmed, (2015), found that, the level of engagement among the faculty at the university level and the
results indicated the level of engagement among them to be high. But there was no significant difference across their
gender and age. More experience exhibited a high level of engagement than their junior colleagues.
Michael, IbeChidi, (2015), explored that, the case of ExxonMobil with focus on their CSR activities and outcomes. The
revelation was that the focus of extant literature on corporate perspective in CSR implementation and the extensive
empirical focus on the direct relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility strategy and perceived Corporate Social
Responsibility led to a narrow view of Corporate Social Responsibility concept. An interactive process approach through
looking at the antecedents and outcomes was proposed,
Bedarkar, Madhura, (2014), explored that, the drives of employee engagement which were communication, work-life
balance and leadership. It was indicated that there was a scarcity of literature on these three drives. These drivers had an
impact on the performance of the employee and their well being at work place.
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Glavas, Ante, (2014), conducted a study among 827 employees in 18 organisations. The aim was to find the impact on
employee attitude of their perception of how others outside the organizations are treated. The results indicated that social
responsibility had an additional effect on employee attitudes beyond environmental responsibility.
Thakur, Preeti, (2014), found that, the effect of employee engagement on job satisfaction in IT sector. The findings
indicated that by increasing job authority and accountability, motivation could be improved. Rewards and sanctions were
associated with involvement. There was found to be a positive relationship between engagement and job satisfaction in IT
sector.
Khatri, Puja, (2013), reported that, the observations of employees pertaining to the level of empowerment and engagement.
The variable considered were job security, work-life balance, concern from top management and performance review
system. Data was collected form 100 employees by way of self-constructed questionnaire. The study explored the
demographic differences and male and female employees being treated differently at BPOs and analysed the relationship
between the level of empowerment and engagement. The author sought to provide an insight to top management and
corporate practitioners of BPOs, who could use advanced techniques to develop an empowered culture to promote
engagement.
Mishra, Deepa, (2013), studied that, the factors influencing the employees among the banks in Kutch district of Gujarat.
The relevance of factors for employee engagement was confirmed and indicated the stimulus provided by these factors for
the public and private sector banks. The level of employee engagement in private sector banks was also measured.
Iqbal, Nadeem, (2012), mentioned that CSR had grown rapidly during the last decade. Though researchers investigated
the impact of CSR on employees, it has mostly focused only on the analysis of the external impact of CSR. Since CSR has a
significant effect on employees work attitudes and behaviors, corporations should attach importance to CSR practice to
benefit employees.
Swathi. S, (2012), reported that, know the employee engagement activities in Mysore IT sector. It was suggested that
companies need to focus on employment engagement activities because retention and engagement of generation Y was
difficult. The companies should take initiative for employee engagement in future and contribute more.
Desai, Malavika, (2010), concluded that, underlying reasons for high and low employee engagement in manufacturing and
IT organisations. The quantity of employee engagement was high in manufacturing organisations as compared to that in IT
firm. The causes for this were, caring by the firm for its employees, valuing them, free communication with immediate
supervisors, empathetic attitude of the supervisor, recognition of contribution towards the organisational goals and freedom
to participate in the decision making process.
Anbuoli, P. (2010), examined that, the factors that influenced employee engagement in insurance sector. About 80
executives working in this sector in Madurai were selected as a sample and data collected by way of structured questionnaire
and analysed using frequency distribution and chi-square. The study suggested powerful measures for employee
engagement in order to achieve organizational goals.
Valentine, Sean, (2010), researched that, 313 business professionals were involved for this study that perceived that
corporate social responsibility would arbitrate the positive relationships between ethic goals, training and job satisfaction.
The conclusion of this study was that corporate social responsibility mediated the positive associations between the 4 ethic
program variables and individual job satisfaction. It further suggested that with multiple policies, an approach endorsed in
the ethics literature, would help companies to manage employees ethical perceptions and work attitudes better.
Becker-Olsen, Karen L. (2009), studied that, the CSR initiatives to influence consumers and different product offerings
were common. Low-fit initiatives negatively impacted consumer viewpoint, attitudes and intensions and high-fit initiatives
also had the same impact. High-fit proactive initiatives resulted in improvement in consumer beliefs, attitudes and
intensions.
Teoh, Hai Yap, (2007), focused that, the questions relating to the attitudes of institutional investors towards social
responsibility involvements. The SRI that was disclosed in the annual reports of companies had no significant impact on
institutional investors decisions. The information would be perceived as important for investment decisions only if the SRI
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was presented in quantified and financial form, focusing on product improvement and fair business practices. It also
suggested that institutional investors were not totally opposed to company involvement in social activities.
IV.Research Methodology
Descriptive research design has been used in this research. Primary as well as secondary data has been used. Sample size of
90 individuals comprising of employees of IT sector have been taken. Non probability sampling technique has been used
because in this research each element of the population has not a fixed probabilistic chance of being selected. Standard
Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility (PCSR) scale was used to collect the primary data from the 90 respondents of the
study. Regression Analysis and Correlation Analysis has been used for data analysis.
For reliability Cronbachs alpha test has been applied. Cronbachs alpha test, a measure of internal consistency was applied
here. Though technically speaking this is not a statistical test, it is a coefficient of consistency. A high value of alpha is
used as evidence that the items measure an underlying construct. However this does not imply that the measure is unidimensional. One method of checking dimensionality is exploratory factor analysis. Cronbachs alpha can be written as a
function of the number of test items and the average inter-correlation among the items.
No. of
Items
Mean
Social
0.65
0.71
2.38
Environment
0.41
0.41
2.38
Job Satisfaction
0.71
0.71
2.50
Organizational Commitment
0.93
0.93
2.92
Meaningful Relationship
Perceived
Organizational
Support
0.46
0.40
2.44
0.86
0.87
2.62
Vigor
0.66
0.69
2.40
Dedication
0.74
0.72
2.86
Absorption
0.58
0.61
2.21
Factors
PCSR
UWES
Variables
The Table No 1 shows the alpha and mean values of PCSR and UWES by variable wise. Perceived Corporate Social
Responsibility categorized into 6 variables such as Social, Environment, Job Satisfaction, Organisational Commitment,
Meaningful relationship and Perceived Organisational Support. The mean values of the PCSR factors noticed from the table
no.1 such as Social (2.38), Environment (2.38), Job Satisfaction (2.50), Organizational Commitment (2.92), Meaningful
Relationship (2.44) and Perceived Organisational Support (2.62). The alpha reliability and the mean values of PCSR shows
the internal consistency was good and acceptable.
The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale was categorized into three factors such as Vigor, Dedication and Absorption. The
mean values of the UWES factors noticed from the table no.1 such as Vigor (2.40), Dedication (2.86) and Absorption
(2.21). The alpha reliability and the mean values of UWES shows the internal consistency was good and acceptable.
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0.390
51.915
0.000
Job Satisfaction
0.535
76.943
0.000
Organizational Commitment
0.311
1585.585
28
0.000
Meaningful Relationship
Perceived Organizational Support
0.298
56.969
0.000
0.505
418.742
15
0.000
Normally, 0 < KMO < 1, the sample is adequate. Here, KMO results range from 0.298 to 0.707 which indicates that the
sample is adequate and we may proceed with the Factor Analysis.
Interpretation
The Table No 2 shows taking a 95% level of Significance = 0.05. The p-value (Sig.) of .000 lesser than 0.05, therefore the
Factor Analysis is valid. As p value is lesser than 0.05, we therefore reject the null hypothesis (H0) and accept the alternate
hypothesis (H1) that there may be statistically significant interrelationship between variables. The alternative hypothesis
being There is statistically a significant interrelationship between employees perceptions on Perceived Corporate
Social Responsibility (PCSR) factors The Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Test measure of sampling adequacy
was used to examine the appropriateness of Factor Analysis. The hypothesis-2 KMO Test for PCSR factors is rejected.
Null
Hypothesis-2:
There
will
be
no
statistically
perceptions on Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) factors.
Factors
Vigor
significant
association
between
employees
Sig.
0.000
Dedication
0.531
462.332
10
0.000
Absorption
0.538
543.275
15
0.000
If KMO value is higher than 0.5, the sample is adequate. Here, KMO test results ranges from 0.531 to 0.543 which
indicates that the sample is adequate and we may proceed with the Factor Analysis.
Interpretation
The Table No 3 shows taking a 95% level of Significance = 0.05 The p-value (Sig.) of .000 lesser than 0.05, therefore the
Factor Analysis is valid. As p-value is lesser 0.05, we therefore reject the null hypothesis (H0) and accept the alternate
hypothesis (H1) that there may be statistically significant interrelationship between variable. The alternative hypothesis
being There is statistically a significant interrelationship between employees perceptions on Utrecht Work
Engagement Scale (UWES) factors. The hypothesis-3 KMO Test for UWES factorsis rejected.
The Kaiser-Meyer Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's Test measure of sampling adequacy was used to examine the appropriateness
of Factor Analysis. The approximate of Chi-square is ranges from 697.953 to 889.139 with 15 degrees of freedom, which
level of significance is 0.05. The KMO statistic value is also large. Hence Factor Analysis is considered as an appropriate
technique for further analysis of the data.
Hypothesis
3:
There
will
be
no
statistically
Work Engagement Scale and Social factors of PCSR.
significant
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
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Table No.4 Multivariate Test between UWES with Social Factors of PCSR
Effect
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Value
.946
.054
17.557
Hypothesis df
Error df
Sig.
1.089E2
5.000
31.000
.000
1.089E2
5.000
31.000
.000
1.089E2
5.000
31.000
.000
5.000
31.000
.000
Interpretation
The Table No.4 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) and Social factors of
PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.946 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly understood that there
is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Social factors of PCSR. The hypothesis-3
Multivariate Test between UWES with Social factors of PCSR is rejected.
Hypothesis-4:
There
will
be
no
statistically
Work Engagement Scale and Environment factors of PCSR.
significant
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
Table No.5 Multivariate Test between UWES with Environment Factors of PCSR
Effect
Value
F
Hypothesis df
Error df
Sig.
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
.905
58.855a
5.000
31.000
.000
.095
58.855
5.000
31.000
.000
58.855
5.000
31.000
.000
58.855
5.000
31.000
.000
9.493
Interpretation
The Table No.5 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Environment factors of
PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.905 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly understood that there
is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Environment factors of PCSR. The
hypothesis-5 Multivariate Test between UWES with Environment factors of PCSR is rejected.
Hypothesis-5:
There
will
be
no
statistically
Work Engagement Scale and Job Satisfaction factors of PCSR.
significant
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
Table No. 6 Multivariate Test between UWES and Job Satisfaction Factors of PCSR
Effect
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Value
Hypothesis df
Error df
Sig.
.956
1.125E2a
6.000
31.000
.000
.044
1.125E2
6.000
31.000
.000
1.125E2
6.000
31.000
.000
1.125E2
6.000
31.000
.000
21.782
21.782
Interpretation
The Table No.6 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Job satisfaction factors of
PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.956 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly understood that there
is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Job Satisfaction factors of PCSR. The
hypothesis-6 Multivariate Test between UWES and Job Satisfaction factors of PCSR is rejected.
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Hypothesis-6:
There
will
be
no
statistically
significant
Work Engagement Scale and Organisational Commitment factors of PCSR.
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
Table No. 7 Multivariate Test between UWES and Organisational Commitment Factors of PCSR
Effect
Value
F
Hypothesis df
Error df
Sig.
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
.945
5.354E2a
1.000
31.000
.000
.055
5.354E2
1.000
31.000
.000
1.000
31.000
.000
1.000
31.000
.000
Hotelling's Trace
17.270
5.354E2
17.270
5.354E2a
Design: Intercept + oc1 + oc2 + oc3 + oc4 + oc5 + oc6 + oc7+ oc8
Interpretation
The Table No.7 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Organizational
Commitment factors of PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.945 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly
understood that there is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Organisational
Commitment factors of PCSR. The hypothesis-7 Multivariate Test between UWES and Organisational Commitment factors
of PCSR is rejected.
Hypothesis-7:
There
will
be
no
statistically
Work Engagement Scale and Meaningful factors of PCSR.
significant
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
Table No. 8 Multivariate Test between UWES and Meaningful Relationship Factors of PCSR
Effect
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Value
.974
.026
37.749
Hypothesis df
Error df
Sig.
1.950E2
6.000
31.000
.000
1.950E2
6.000
31.000
.000
1.950E2
6.000
31.000
.000
1.950E2
6.000
31.000
.000
Interpretation
The Table No.8 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and meaningful factors of
PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.974 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly understood that there
is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and meaningful relationship factors of PCSR. The
hypothesis-8 Multivariate Test between UWES and Meaningful factors of PCSR is rejected.
Hypothesis-8:
There
will
be
no
statistically
significant
Work Engagement Scale and Perceived Organisational Support.
multivariate
test
between
Utrecht
Table No. 9 Multivariate Test between UWES and Perceived Organizational Support Factors of PCSR
Effect
Pillai's Trace
UWES
Wilks' Lambda
Hotelling's Trace
Value
.916
.084
10.954
Hypothesis df
Sig.
1.132E2
3.000
31.000
.000
1.132E2
3.000
31.000
.000
1.132E2
3.000
31.000
.000
3.000
31.000
.000
Error df
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Interpretation
The Table No.9 shows that, the MANOVA results between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Perceived Organisational
support factors of PCSR. The p-value Pillai's Trace was 0.916 and the significance level was zero. So it is clearly
understood that there is a significant relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Perceived
Organisational support factors of PCSR. The hypothesis-9 Multivariate Test between UWES and Perceived Organisational
Support is rejected.
VII. Conclusion
So after analysing the data, we can conclude that there is positive relationship between Utrecht Work Engagement factors
and Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility factors in IT sector or employee engagement effect positively on Perceived
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Corporate Social Responsibility. Especially, the meaningful relation between UWES and overall perceived CSR (Social
factors, Environment factors, Job Satisfaction factors, Organisational Commitment factors, meaningful relationship factors
and Perceived Organisational support factors). Because, UWES Scale is exactly suitable to Employee Engagement. Overall
this study was concluded that, corporate social responsibility is fully affected in employee engagement in IT sector.
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