The impact of perceived corporate social responsibility on employee engagement: The case of Qatar

Abstract

This work investigates the role of perceived corporate social responsibility (CSR) in enhancing employee engagement (EE) in the State of Qatar. We collected survey data from local and expatriate employees of government, semigovernment, and private sector Qatari firms on their perceptions of CSR activities undertaken by their employers. The scope of CSR included activities targeted at employees, customers, the government, and society at large (social and nonsocial stakeholders). We also measured two facets of EE: organizational engagement and job engagement. We examined how these dimensions of EE are associated with employees' perception of the firm's CSR activities, controlling for the type of firm (government, semigovernment, or private) and the type of employee (local or expatriate). Our results reveal that CSR to society and CSR to employees affect organizational engagement whereas CSR to customers affects job engagement. CSR to the government is not significantly related to either aspect of EE.