IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/iburev/v30y2021i5s0969593120301219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Servant leadership, CSR perceptions, moral meaningfulness and organizational identification- evidence from the Middle East

Author

Listed:
  • Lythreatis, Sophie
  • Mostafa, Ahmed Mohammed Sayed
  • Pereira, Vijay
  • Wang, Xiaojun
  • Giudice, Manlio Del

Abstract

This article explores a novel process linking servant leadership (SL) to organizational identification (OI). In doing so, the study examines SL as an antecedent of internal corporate social responsibility (CSR) perceptions of employees and assesses moral meaningfulness as a moderator in the relationship between SL and OI through internal CSR perceptions. Utilizing a comparative institutional theoretical lens, it also explores how the SL-OI relationship varies across the UAE, Lebanon, and Tunisia. Two-wave and three-wave survey data are collected from employees working for international SMEs in the three countries. Findings show that the link between SL and OI can be explained by the proposed moderated mediation model and that the SL-OI relationship varies across the nations. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Lythreatis, Sophie & Mostafa, Ahmed Mohammed Sayed & Pereira, Vijay & Wang, Xiaojun & Giudice, Manlio Del, 2021. "Servant leadership, CSR perceptions, moral meaningfulness and organizational identification- evidence from the Middle East," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(5).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:30:y:2021:i:5:s0969593120301219
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101772
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969593120301219
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101772?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ralston, David A. & Russell, Craig J. & Egri, Carolyn P., 2018. "Business values dimensions: A cross-culturally developed measure of workforce values," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 1189-1199.
    2. Tyler, Tom R. & Blader, Steven L., 2002. "Autonomous vs. comparative status: Must we be better than others to feel good about ourselves?," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 813-838, September.
    3. Ioannis Ioannou & George Serafeim, 2012. "What drives corporate social performance? The role of nation-level institutions," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 43(9), pages 834-864, December.
    4. Yan, Hongmin & Hu, Xiaowen & Liu, Yulong, 2020. "The international market selection of Chinese SMEs: How institutional influence overrides psychic distance," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4).
    5. Zhao, Hongyan & Zhang, Fenghua & Kwon, Jongwook, 2018. "Corporate social responsibility research in international business journals: An author co-citation analysis," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 389-400.
    6. Al-Khatib, Jamal A. & Vitell, Scott J. & Rexeisen, Richard & Rawwas, Mohammed, 2005. "Inter-country differences of consumer ethics in Arab countries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 495-516, August.
    7. Xiaowen Huang & Joseph C Rode & Roger G Schroeder, 2011. "Organizational structure and continuous improvement and learning: Moderating effects of cultural endorsement of participative leadership," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(9), pages 1103-1120, December.
    8. Maignan, Isabelle & Ferrell, O. C., 2001. "Antecedents and benefits of corporate citizenship: an investigation of French businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 37-51, January.
    9. Russell S. Cropanzano & Sebastiano Massaro & William J. Becker, 2017. "Deontic Justice and Organizational Neuroscience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 144(4), pages 733-754, September.
    10. Demirbag, Mehmet & Wood, Geoffrey & Makhmadshoev, Dilshod & Rymkevich, Olga, 2017. "Varieties of CSR: Institutions and Socially Responsible Behaviour," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1064-1074.
    11. Mazboudi, Mohamad & Sidani, Yusuf M. & Al Ariss, Akram, 2020. "Harmonization of firm CSR policies across national contexts: Evidence from Brazil & Sweden," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(5).
    12. Mittal, Rakesh & Dorfman, Peter W., 2012. "Servant leadership across cultures," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 555-570.
    13. Zalesny, Mary D. & Ford, J. Kevin, 1990. "Extending the social information processing perspective: New links to attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 205-246, December.
    14. Fey, Carl F. & Adaeva, Margarita & Vitkovskaia, Anastasia, 2001. "Developing a model of leadership styles: what works best in Russia?," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 10(6), pages 615-643, December.
    15. Duygu Turker, 2009. "How Corporate Social Responsibility Influences Organizational Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(2), pages 189-204, October.
    16. Sophie Lythreatis & Ahmed Mohammed Sayed Mostafa & Xiaojun Wang, 2019. "Participative Leadership and Organizational Identification in SMEs in the MENA Region: Testing the Roles of CSR Perceptions and Pride in Membership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 635-650, May.
    17. Barmeyer, Christoph & Mayrhofer, Ulrike & Würfl, Konstantin, 2019. "Informal information flows in organizations: The role of the Italian coffee break," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 796-801.
    18. Peter Tashman & Valentina Marano & Tatiana Kostova, 2019. "Walking the walk or talking the talk? Corporate social responsibility decoupling in emerging market multinationals," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(2), pages 153-171, March.
    19. Belaid Rettab & Kamel Mellahi (ed.), 2019. "Practising CSR in the Middle East," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-02044-6, September.
    20. Long-Zeng Wu & Ho Kwan & Frederick Yim & Randy Chiu & Xiaogang He, 2015. "CEO Ethical Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Moderated Mediation Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(4), pages 819-831, September.
    21. Sen Sendjaya & James C. Sarros & Joseph C. Santora, 2008. "Defining and Measuring Servant Leadership Behaviour in Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(2), pages 402-424, March.
    22. Panagopoulos, Nikolaos G. & Rapp, Adam A. & Vlachos, Pavlos A., 2016. "I think they think we are good citizens: Meta-perceptions as antecedents of employees' reactions to corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2781-2790.
    23. Ralston, David A. & Egri, Carolyn P. & Riddle, Liesl & Butt, Arif & Dalgic, Tevfik & Brock, David M., 2012. "Managerial values in the greater Middle East: Similarities and differences across seven countries," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 480-492.
    24. Jean‐Franois Hennart, 1994. "The ‘Comparative Institutional’ Theory Of The Firm: Some Implications For Corporate Strategy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(2), pages 193-208, March.
    25. Peter W. Liesch & Lars Håkanson & Sara L. McGaughey & Stuart Middleton & Julia Cretchley, 2011. "The evolution of the international business field: a scientometric investigation of articles published in its premier journal," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 88(1), pages 17-42, July.
    26. Abraham Carmeli & Gershon Gilat & David A. Waldman, 2007. "The Role of Perceived Organizational Performance in Organizational Identification, Adjustment and Job Performance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 972-992, September.
    27. Prange, Christiane & Pinho, José Carlos, 2017. "How personal and organizational drivers impact on SME international performance: The mediating role of organizational innovation," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 1114-1123.
    28. Zeynep Aycan & Birgit Schyns & Jian-Min Sun & Jörg Felfe & Noreen Saher, 2013. "Convergence and divergence of paternalistic leadership: A cross-cultural investigation of prototypes," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 44(9), pages 962-969, December.
    29. Zhang, Xiao & Ma, Xufei & Wang, Yue & Li, Xin & Huo, Dong, 2016. "What drives the internationalization of Chinese SMEs? The joint effects of international entrepreneurship characteristics, network ties, and firm ownership," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 522-534.
    30. Ingmar Björkman & Carl F Fey & Hyeon Jeong Park, 2007. "Institutional theory and MNC subsidiary HRM practices: evidence from a three-country study," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 38(3), pages 430-446, May.
    31. Dirk Van Dierendonck & Milton Sousa & Sigrún Gunnarsdóttir & Andrea Bobbio & Jari Hakanen & Armin Pircher Verdorfer & Emin Cihan Duyan & Raquel Rodriguez-Carvajal, 2017. "The Cross-Cultural Invariance of the Servant Leadership Survey: A Comparative Study across Eight Countries," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-11, April.
    32. Jean-Pascal Gond & Assâad El Akremi & Valérie Swaen & Nishat Babu, 2017. "The psychological microfoundations of corporate social responsibility: A person-centric systematic review," Post-Print halshs-01698534, HAL.
    33. Lee, Eun Mi & Park, Seong-Yeon & Lee, Hyun Jung, 2013. "Employee perception of CSR activities: Its antecedents and consequences," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(10), pages 1716-1724.
    34. Yaprak, Attila & Yosun, Turkan & Cetindamar, Dilek, 2018. "The influence of firm-specific and country-specific advantages in the internationalization of emerging market firms: Evidence from Turkey," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 198-207.
    35. Tian, Qing & Liu, Yan & Fan, Jianhong, 2015. "The effects of external stakeholder pressure and ethical leadership on corporate social responsibility in China," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 21(4), pages 388-410, July.
    36. Logan L Watts & Logan M Steele & Deanne N Den Hartog, 2020. "Uncertainty avoidance moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and innovation: A meta-analysis," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 51(1), pages 138-145, February.
    37. Douglas May & Matthew Luth & Catherine Schwoerer, 2014. "The Influence of Business Ethics Education on Moral Efficacy, Moral Meaningfulness, and Moral Courage: A Quasi-experimental Study," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(1), pages 67-80, September.
    38. Christoph Barmeyer & Ulrike Mayrhofer & Konstantin Würfl, 2019. "Informal information flows in organizations: The role of the Italian coffee break," Post-Print halshs-02126482, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kazemi, Maha Zadeh & Elamer, Ahmed A. & Theodosopoulos, Grigorios & Khatib, Saleh F.A., 2023. "Reinvigorating research on sustainability reporting in the construction industry: A systematic review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    2. Afshin Omidi & Cinzia Dal Zotto, 2022. "Socially Responsible Human Resource Management: A Systematic Literature Review and Research Agenda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-20, February.
    3. Neuza Ribeiro & Daniel Roque Gomes & Eduardo Ortega & Gabriela Pedro Gomes & Ana Suzete Semedo, 2022. "The Impact of Green HRM on Employees’ Eco-Friendly Behavior: The Mediator Role of Organizational Identification," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-13, March.
    4. El-Kassar, Abdul-Nasser & Dagher, Grace K. & Lythreatis, Sophie & Azakir, Mohamad, 2022. "Antecedents and consequences of knowledge hiding: The roles of HR practices, organizational support for creativity, creativity, innovative work behavior, and task performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 1-10.
    5. Jiajing Shao & Jacob Cherian & Li Xu & Muhammad Zaheer & Sarminah Samad & Ubaldo Comite & Liana Mester & Daniel Badulescu, 2022. "A CSR Perspective to Drive Employee Creativity in the Hospitality Sector: A Moderated Mediation Mechanism of Inclusive Leadership and Polychronicity," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-22, May.
    6. Del Giudice, Manlio & Scuotto, Veronica & Papa, Armando & Singh, Sanjay Kumar, 2023. "The ‘bright’ side of innovation management for international new ventures," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Omer Farooq & Marielle Payaud & Dwight Merunka & Pierre Valette-Florence, 2014. "The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Organizational Commitment: Exploring Multiple Mediation Mechanisms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 125(4), pages 563-580, December.
    2. Paraskevi (Evi) Dekoulou & Anna Anastasopoulou & Panagiotis Trivellas, 2023. "Employee Performance Implications of CSR for Organizational Resilience in the Banking Industry: The Mediation Role of Psychological Empowerment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Sophie Lythreatis & Ahmed Mohammed Sayed Mostafa & Xiaojun Wang, 2019. "Participative Leadership and Organizational Identification in SMEs in the MENA Region: Testing the Roles of CSR Perceptions and Pride in Membership," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 156(3), pages 635-650, May.
    4. Lin, Yi-Ting & Liu, Nien-Chi & Lin, Ji-Wei, 2022. "Firms’ adoption of CSR initiatives and employees’ organizational commitment: Organizational CSR climate and employees’ CSR-induced attributions as mediators," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 626-637.
    5. Leemen Lee & Li‐Fei Chen, 2018. "Boosting employee retention through CSR: A configurational analysis," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 948-960, September.
    6. Pasricha, Palvi & Nivedhitha, K.S. & Raghuvanshi, Juhi, 2023. "The perceived CSR-innovative behavior conundrum: Towards unlocking the socio-emotional black box," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Kenneth De Roeck & Omer Farooq, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Leadership: Investigating Their Interactive Effect on Employees’ Socially Responsible Behaviors," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 923-939, September.
    8. Seda KIZIL & Atılhan NAKTİYOK, 2019. "Bu araştırmanın temel amacı, yöneticilerin göstermiş olduğu stratejik liderlik davranışlarının çalışanlarda oluşan kurumsal itibar algısı üzerindeki etkisinde kurumsal sosyal sorumluluğun (KSS) rolünü," Istanbul Business Research, Istanbul University Business School, vol. 48(1), pages 64-83, May.
    9. Saskia Crucke & Marie Servaes & Tom Kluijtmans & Shana Mertens & Eveline Schollaert, 2022. "Linking environmentally‐specific transformational leadership and employees' green advocacy: The influence of leadership integrity," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 29(2), pages 406-420, March.
    10. Seunghee Im & Yang Woon Chung & Ji Yeon Yang, 2016. "Employees’ Participation in Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Outcomes: The Moderating Role of Person–CSR Fit," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. Erhan Boğan & Bekir Bora Dedeoğlu, 2020. "Hotel employees' corporate social responsibility perception and organizational citizenship behavior: Perceived external prestige and pride in organization as serial mediators," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(5), pages 2342-2353, September.
    12. Salih Börteçine Avci & Adnan Karataş, 2022. "Public Service Motivation’s Mediating Role in the Effect Perceptions of Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Justice Have on Organizational Commitment in Higher Education Institutions," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 66(66), pages 29-54, December.
    13. Stankevičiūtė Živilė & Wereda Wioletta, 2020. "Universalism values and organisational citizenship behaviour referring to employee perception of corporate social responsibility," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 15(2), pages 302-325, June.
    14. Min-Jik Kim & Byung-Jik Kim, 2021. "The Performance Implication of Corporate Social Responsibility: The Moderating Role of Employee’s Prosocial Motivation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(6), pages 1-14, March.
    15. Huynh Thi Thuy Giang & Luu Tien Dung, 2022. "The effect of internal corporate social responsibility practices on firm performance: the mediating role of employee intrapreneurial behaviour," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 1035-1061, May.
    16. Byung‐Jik Kim & Youngkyun Chang & Tae‐Hyun Kim, 2023. "Translating corporate social responsibility into financial performance: Exploring roles of work engagement and strategic coherence," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2555-2573, September.
    17. Jongseok Cha & Young Chang & Tae-Yeol Kim, 2014. "Person–Organization Fit on Prosocial Identity: Implications on Employee Outcomes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(1), pages 57-69, August.
    18. Erifili-Christina Chatzopoulou & Dimitris Manolopoulos & Vasia Agapitou, 2022. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Employee Outcomes: Interrelations of External and Internal Orientations with Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(3), pages 795-817, September.
    19. Qing Miao & Jun Zhou, 2020. "Corporate Hypocrisy and Counterproductive Work Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model of Organizational Identification and Perceived Importance of CSR," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-20, March.
    20. Sandra Castro‐González & Belén Bande & Takuma Kimura, 2019. "How and when corporate social responsibility affects salespeople's organizational citizenship behaviors?: The moderating role of ethics and justice," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(3), pages 548-558, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:iburev:v:30:y:2021:i:5:s0969593120301219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/133/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.