Corporate social performance attracts top talent: the moderating role of work values

This study introduces and tests the role of work values in moderating the effects of corporate social performance (CSP) on prospective applicants’ job pursuit intentions. I integrate the literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and CSP with the advances in organizational behavior in understanding values and work values in particular. Building on the role of values in CSP (Swanson, 1995), theories of person-organization fit (Chatman, 1989), work values (Judge & Bretz, 1992), and competing values that link to behaviors (Schwartz, 1996), I hypothesize that an overall value for CSR and specific values linked to CSR moderate the effects of CSP on job pursuit intentions. More specifically job applicants with a value for CSR, a career goal to do good, low dominance and women who are socialized to be more other-regarding will be more likely to pursue a job with firms that are high in CSP. This study addresses common method basis by relying on two distinct data sources and uses real firm data for CSP measures. A sample of 2,000 US undergraduates, MBAs, and master’s non-MBA students captures individuals’ values. The second source provides CSP ratings for 144 public corporations that match with students’ employer job pursuit intentions. Companies are nested within individuals, as each respondent provides their ideal and company-related job preferences. Hypotheses were expected to hold generally for all student groups, but results differed by group. The findings provide support for an overall value for CSR only in the masters’ non-MBA students. Stronger support is found for the moderating role of specific values of a career goal to do good and low dominance in all groups. The strongest and most consistent finding is for women. Such results add to the growing literature on CSP by specifying for whom CSP is more relevant when pursuing a job based on identifying their work values. While CSP firms may at first attract top talent based on similar values, a person-organization fit is expected to continue playing a role in employees’ retention and their actual contribution to the execution of CSP.M.S.Includes bibliographical referencesby Anne-Laure P. Winkle