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oai:figshare.com:article/32633784 2026-10-01T17:00:26Z portal_1172 item_type_8 month_year_10_2026

Towards an understanding of employees’ perceptions of perceived corporate social responsibility and its impact on their work-related attitudes: a study on publicly listed companies in Saudi Arabia Abdulaziz Shalhoob (24165909) PUREID: 408921762 CSR perceived CSR internal CSR external CSR social Identity Theory organisational identification micro-level developing countries work-related attitudes Saudi Arabia Vision 2030 Our knowledge of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in developing countries remains limited, especially in Saudi Arabia. Whilst most research focuses on CSR in Saudi Arabia at the macro-level, this study focuses on the micro-level, concentrating on perceived CSR and its influence on employees’ work-related attitudes. This study provides a rich understanding of the range of CSR activities undertaken in Saudi Arabia among publicly listed companies. The study assesses the relationship between CSR and Vision 2030 and how CSR can contribute to Vision 2030. Furthermore, this study investigates the impacts of internal and external CSR (perceived CSR) on employees' work-related attitudes regarding organisational commitment, job satisfaction, work engagement, perceived external prestige, and organisational pride. The study uses social identity theory (SIT) as a theoretical lens and utilizes organisational identification as a mediation to assess the relationship between perceived CSR and work-related attitudes. As SIT considers how people construct their identities and perspectives based on their group memberships, this theory was essential for filling the gap in the existing literature on CSR regarding organisational identification and its influence on employees' work-related attitudes. To the best of the researcher's knowledge, the relationship between perceived CSR and its influence on employees' work-related attitudes as mediated by organisational identification has not yet been investigated in detail in Saudi Arabia. Thus, the current study expands on previous studies and contributes to both theory and practice. Using SIT as a lens, the researcher developed and tested a conceptual framework that assesses the influence of perceived CSR on employees’ work-related attitudes. The developed framework was validated with quantitative data collected in a survey completed by 310 employees of different job levels from publicly listed companies in Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the model adopted in this study. The findings demonstrate that perceived CSR directly influences employees' organisational commitment, work engagement, job satisfaction, organisational pride, and perceived external prestige. Furthermore, the results show that organisational identification as a mediation had a significant indirect effect on the relationship between perceived CSR and employees' organisational commitment and pride. However, organisational identification had no significant indirect effect on the relationship between perceived CSR and the other dependent variables measured in this study. Furthermore, evidence from the survey showed that CSR activities are context-sensitive among publicly listed companies in Saudi Arabia. Religious and cultural values played essential roles as publicly listed Saudi companies determined the types of CSR activities they should pursue and their extent of engagement with these activities, which accordingly influenced employees' work-related attitudes. Overall, this research offers a rich understanding of the psychological and social processes that underlie the relationship between perceived CSR and organisational identification and its influence on employees' work-related attitudes in Saudi Arabia by considering the importance of contextual factors that affect this relationship. Hence, the conclusions obtained in this study are expected to provide important practical and theoretical implications for researchers, practitioners, and managers seeking to improve employees' work-related attitudes and enhance organisational identification through perceived CSR activities. 2026-10-01T17:00:26Z Text Thesis 10.17034/32633784.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Towards_an_understanding_of_employees_perceptions_of_perceived_corporate_social_responsibility_and_its_impact_on_their_work-related_attitudes_a_study_on_publicly_listed_companies_in_Saudi_Arabia/32633784 All Rights Reserved