How are service employees' perceptions of corporate social responsibility related to their performance? Prosocial motivation and emotional labor as underlying mechanisms

Although interest in employees' perceptions of and their responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has grown up, it has been suggested that further research is necessary on how employees' perceptions of CSR are related to their performance. This study aimed to address this call for research with a focus on service employees. We anticipated that service employees' perceptions of their organizations' social responsibility activities would encourage them to become prosocially motivated, which would lead them to engage more in deep acting and less in surface acting, eventually resulting in superior service performance. This study used a sample of hotel employees to test the sequential links between perceived CSR, prosocial motivation, deep/surface acting, and service performance. This study, which yields results largely consistent with our expectations, contributes to the microlevel CSR literature and offers practical guidelines for managers.