Corporate social responsibility and the reciprocity between employee perception, perceived external prestige, and employees’ emotional labor

Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is emerging as a relevant subject in the business world and in the field of management research. Therefore, the current study incorporates classifications often used in organizational level CSR research that distinguish social responsibility relevant to its focus (internal and external), in proposing diverse routes that link various CSR practices (ie, internal and external) to employees’ choice of emotional labor strategy (ie, via perceived organizational support and perceived external prestige). Methods: Data were collected from front-line employees of banks operating in Pakistan. Due to the study’s focus on front-line employees, other personnel were excluded for data collection. We collected data through a self-administered questionnaire. The structural equation model (SEM) was employed on 376 valid responses using Smart-PLS3 to test the study hypotheses. Results: After the analysis, we found satisfactory results for the fitness of both measurement and satisfactory models. Moreover, the results strongly support our proposed theoretical framework, and all proposed hypotheses were accepted. Discussion: This study confirms that the perception of external prestige is a strong predictor of employees’ emotions and relevant behaviors. Moreover, this study discusses under the light of social exchange theory that perceived organizational support strongly predicts employees’ emotional labor, which diminishes the myth that prestige is the only factor to influence employ-ees’ emotions in the workplace. Moreover, this study negates the findings of Anwar et al that perceived external prestige does not have a significant negative effect on surface acting. It provides an insight not only for managers and researchers but also for society, especially in an Eastern workplace setting like Pakistan’s banking sector.